Movie and television credits are, by and large, self-explanatory. Actors act, directors direct, and designers design whatever it is they design (sets, costumes, sound, etc.). Some of these off-camera credits aren’t always fully representative of who was most responsible for a film/show’s artistic quality (the list of screenwriters denied credit via the Writers Guild of America’s murky arbitration process is long and distinguished), but at least in theory, the casual viewer knows what these people did.
The same cannot be said of producers.
To the film and television fan who’s never read a behind-the-scenes account of how these entertainments get made, the role of the producer can seem awfully nebulous. To people who’ve been covering the industry for decades, the role of each credited producer can at times seem equally unclear. What differentiates a producer from an executive producer? Doesn’t “co-producer” sound an awful lot like an “associate producer?” Are all of these producers needed on set, and can some of them really be that involved when they’re credited on several projects per year?
