University of Iowa alum Morgan Sackett returned to campus on Nov. 6 to give a lecture to current UI students and staff. As a Northern Iowan, Sackett moved to California after graduating with a political science degree. He began his career in the entertainment industry by starting as a production assistant on the set of “Seinfeld.”

From there, Sackett continued to work and move up the ladder, becoming an executive producer on shows like “Parks and Rec,” “The Good Place,” “Veep,” “Hacks,” and many more. He has also created and produced national ad campaigns through his company, Dunshire Productions.

The Daily Iowan: When you think back to being a kid and growing up in Northern Iowa, was there anything you were watching and consuming that got you interested in entertainment?

Sackett: I loved watching comedies, but I didn’t have any thought of going into entertainment even when I was at the UI. Senior year, I knew I wanted to go to California, and I met people in the industry. I got a job with Castle Rock, and I was working in the mailroom for a couple of months, the September after I left Iowa. By February, I was on a TV show as a production assistant, and it was the best with all these comedy people. We were working 14-16 hours a day, but it was just laughing and hard work.

As you moved through the industry, were there certain traits you saw in people or productions that added to or hindered their success?

I started on “Seinfeld,” so Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld had a unique voice, and they worked so hard on every word of that thing. They didn’t worry about what people were wearing or what the set looked like; instead, they really worried about the cast and the scripts. Since that’s what I worked on for the first few years, I assumed that everyone takes that much care and that much focus, but that turned out not to be the case at all. 

Some companies care and put in the time, and some don’t. The first thing is you have to get the right cast, and you have to make a good script.

What was your initial reaction to being approached to come back to the university, and what are you hoping current students take away from your lecture?

There is a woman named Jane Van Voorhis who works with the Writer’s Workshop, and she reached out to me to see if I would be interested in talking with the Iowa Writer’s Room and getting involved through that connection.

I am not a lecturer, I’m a behind-the-scenes person. One thing I want them to know is that I didn’t know this was a career. Some of these comedies are 20 years old, and they still bring people happiness. At the time, you don’t realize it, but few jobs have that type of lasting impact.

How do you approach running an ad campaign versus running a TV show or movie, and is that a similar creative process? 

It is very different. These companies are trying to get a lot of information into these commercials. In most comedies, when you are on the set, you can goof around and have a little bit of fun. But with commercials, they have a specific thing they are trying to sell, which is the most important thing. You can make it really fun, but you need to sell the product. 

As a writer and producer, what do you think makes something funny?

You have to know your audience. That is the first rule. You can’t just worry about your audience, though; you need to do something that makes you laugh. I think it’s surprising and specific. The more specific you can be in comedy, the more you bring to it.