Month: September 2012

Alyssa @ThinkProgress.Org Calls Steven Moffat on His Sexism

…And no matter what her title says, she’s obviously not over it at all:

Steven Moffat, I’m Over Your Lady Issues – by S.E. Smith

So yes, ‘Asylum of the Daleks!’ I have many thoughts about this episode, some of which have already appeared. But what I keep coming back to again and again, my friends, is that Steven Moffat has serious lady issues. Are you tired of them? Because I am tired of them. He’s got this obnoxious tendency of reducing female characters to orbiting moons rather than their very own planets, and the man cannot seem to understand why women are rather riled up at their depiction; who can forget that line where he tried to turn a critique ’round on the critiquer by claiming it was ‘anti-woman’ to be concerned about reducing female characters to mothers as though there was nothing else for women to do and it was impossible to be a mother and something else at the same time? (How could little ladybrains possibly manage dual tasks like that?!) read article

‘Make Those Around You Better’ : Collaborating Effectively

As creators become ever more connected to the people responsible to bringing that work to light – from producers to fans – we must deal head on with the process of collaboration. Every software interface seems designed to put us in communication with our peers and our idols. Even celebrities are jumping on the crowdfunding bandwagon to fund passion projects. There has never been a better time to get a team of people working on your ideas.

Many of us writer-folk tend to shudder away from the idea of collaboration because we want to protect our ideas until the “right person” comes along to lift us from obscurity and place us on the Oscar podium where we belong. And yet there is little evidence to support the notion that great work is made a vacuum. Reading the autobiographies of those who have succeeded in the biz, it’s impossible not to notice the formula:

Meet Someone + Work Together = Meet More People + Work Together + (repeat until sickeningly wealthy and famous). read article

Thinking Man Reviews: Boss – Pilot

By Anthony Medina

**Be aware this review contains spoiler** 

Season 1 Episode 1

“Listen”

read article

Rural America Looks at TV

This article was written by a colleague of mine back in the day when I wrote a weekly column on the wonderfulness of being a city writer leading the country life. Live! From Paradise! was one of the most enjoyable gigs in my writing career, and I was crushed when Gannett Newspapers decided that Live! From Paradise Sound!, which would have been a continuation of the column about life in a small town in the Pacific Northwest didn’t float their boat.

Sonny Garrett, however, remains a highlight of newspaper writing and editing in the South. And even though he canned me, I’m a big fan, especially when he writes something like this, which proves to me with absolute certainty that he’s been reading my mind:

Sonny Garrett’s Odds & Ends: Must-see TV? Not in your wildest imagination read article

Recent Series Pilot Deals

We saved them up this time for a gangbang clusterfuck one Acme Mountain O’ Writerly Praise:

  • Adam F. Goldberg, creator of BREAKING IN, has a pilot production commitment from ABC for HOW THE F—am I NORMAL?, a sitcom set in the ’80s.
  • Ben Ripley, writer of SOURCE CODE, has a pilot script deal with NBC for VANISHING POINT, a legal drama starring Angela Bassett.Danny Jacobson, co-creator of MAD ABOUT YOU, has a pilot script order from Fox Network for LOVELAND, a sitcom about a Las Vegas wedding chapel.
  • Howard Gordon, co-developer of HOMELAND, is co-writing the pilot, LEGENDS, with Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Mark Bomback for TNT.
  • Shonda Rhimes, creator of GREY’S ANATOMY among others, is co-writing an FBI drama, UNDER THE GUN, with Peter Nowalk for NBC.