“Truth Be Told” showrunner Nichelle Tramble Spellman describes Octavia Spencer as “the gold standard. I think that I’m spoiled from this point on.” The TV veteran spoke about working with Spencer both as a star and as an executive producer while appearing at Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts panel, conducted virtually by managing editor Chris Beachum. Watch our exclusive video interview with Tramble Spellman above.
Based on Kathleen Barber‘s book “Are You Sleeping,” the Apple TV+ series stars Spencer as true crime podcaster Poppy Parnell, who’s investigating the case of Warren Cave (Aaron Paul), who claims he’s been wrongfully convicted of murdering a father of identical twins. Although this might sound an awful lot like a clone of Sarah Koenig‘s highly influential “Serial” podcast, Tramble Spellman was interested in setting her show in “a pre-‘Serial’ world, where podcasts haven’t really taken over.” She wanted to “explore what podcasting is in relationship to journalism.”
The growing popularity of news and true crime podcasts have created an interesting quandary when it comes to journalistic integrity, and that was at the heart of “Truth Be Told.” “There are journalists that have podcasts and use the same standards” they would for any news story, Tramble Spellman explains. “But there are a lot of people who say that they’re a journalist just because they have a blog, or just because they post a news story once in a while on Instagram. So that wild, wild west of journalism combined with a podcast and the stakes of a murder” served as her inspiration.
SEE Apple TV+ awards categories for ‘The Morning Show,’ ‘SEE,’ ‘Truth Be Told’ and more [Exclusive]
Tramble Spellman has also been a producer for “The Good Wife” and a writer for “Justified.” She is a 2-time nominee with the WGA.
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