by Larry Brody
If you’ve been following the adventures of COMMUNITY, you know that the show’s creator/showrunner/head imagineer, Dan Harmon was recently fired (as in his option not being picked up) when the show was unexpectedly renewed. Which meant a lot of interweb speculation on whether Chevy Chase, with whom Harmon definitely did not get along, would or would not return.
Why the speculation existed is beyond me. The minute Harmon was out, it was inevitable that Chevy would be in. Because that’s what the whole brouhaha had to be about. “The star works for the producer the first season. After that, the producer works for the star.” TV words to live by, remember?
When you get down to it, there aren’t really any ensemble shows (with the possible exception of THE OFFICE), no matter what the network flacks say. If a major star is part of the group, or a member of the group becomes a major star, executive starfuckers immediately circle around him/her and start sucking. That’s what they went into showbiz for – to hang near the front of the entourage.
When you think of alternative careers or side jobs a wordsmith could do, freelance reporting, blogging, writing, consulting or editing copy for any variety of industries come immediately to mind. But, beyond the obvious career moves, there are a whole slew of other fields that journalists can dabble in as side jobs or as a full-fledged career transition. Here are a few suggestions, and some former and current journalists who are doing them, to get you thinking about a new career direction….