script doctor

noun

1. one who revises or alters a script to improve it.

Example Sentences

If May’s willful invisibility seems out of character for someone in showbiz, it makes sense within the context of her career, which has toggled between big-budget features and behind-the-scenes work as a script doctor, for which she has consistently refused on-screen credit.

From Los Angeles Times

Ishtar was the brainchild of Elaine May, a legendary improvisational comedy performer who'd made a name for herself as a screenwriter, director, and script doctor throughout the 1970s and '80s.

From Salon

She also famously defied sexism and ageism to carve out a niche as a script doctor and parlay her character's legacy into a career that gave her, and us, many memorable roles including in "When Harry Met Sally" and her final TV credit on "Catastrophe."

From Salon

The protagonist and reader stand-in, Sandy, who privately refers to himself as Journeyman, is a former Hollywood script doctor who, after the technological apocalypse, finds work cleaning up after the town butcher—he could never kill the animals himself—and running deliveries.

From Slate

Mankiewicz, the first theater critic for the New Yorker, came to Hollywood as the silent-film era was ending, working for studios as a script doctor.

From Los Angeles Times