Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 5/31/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Michael Konyves (THE LAST KNIGHT) is writing PUMP, a Showtime drama about happenings at a Venice Beach gym in the early 1970s. (Because Ahnuld wants to do it and his stories – God, he’s good in the room – will be the basis for the fiction. Anybody out there think this has even the remotest chance of not succeeding – big?)
  • Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild (TED) have made an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV to develop, produce and all that good stuff. (Because they’re Seth MacFarlane’s right hand writers, and if you step back and look at the big picture that’s a damn good reason to be hot.)
  • Brian Gallivan (HAPPY ENDINGS) now has an overall deal with Sony TV. (Because his pilot THE McCARTHYS came thisclose to getting on CBS’s air for next season and Sony wants him to punch up the script and give it another go as well as develop other properties. Anybody out there think this has even the remotest chance of actually succeeding – big or otherwise? )
  • Vali Chandrasekaran (30 ROCK) has a new overall deal at ABC Studios. (Because he freaking deserves it and everyone over there knows it. End of discussion, dammit.)

Amazon Studios Gives Us Something to Flush

turdburger

Unfortunately for people with any kind of taste or love for the television medium, Amazon Studios (AKA The Least Talented Executives in Town) has announced that it’s picked up not one, not two, not even three, but a veritable slew of 5 turdburgers to turn into steaming streaming series for Amazon Prime Instant Video.

(Don’t believe our assessment? Check out LB’s review of all the Amazon Studios pilots.) read article

Mike Gold: Oh, Time-Lord! Abuse Me! Abuse Me!

Evil forces well-meaning meddlers people who just don’t get how the entertainment business works Some well-intentioned but probably all-too-naive folks have been accusing DOCTOR WHO of racial discrimination, and this has really upset a lot of, um, other folks. Here’s a good introduction to the current firestorm:

by Mike Gold

Gold Art 130529 Mike Gold: Oh, Time Lord! Abuse Me! Abuse Me!Yeah, I’m gonna get political on your ass. Pop culture and politics; gasoline and fire.

I do not know which is worse: the self-victimization that we call being “politically correct” or the rampant naval-snorting of the cloistered elite. I do know there’s a book coming out this August calledDoctor Who And Race, and it couldn’t be more full of shit if it had been printed on toilet paper. read article

Peggy Bechko: Where Do You Write?

Me at desk2 - goodby Peggy Bechko

Where do you write? I’ve had a lot of readers ask me that question and I think I can see the interest. Plainly if one is a doctor or a lawyer, a sales clerk or a waiter, where people work and how they go about their jobs is fairly evident. An office, a store, a restaurant.

Not so with writers. To readers, and many others who don’t read much, writers are a mysterious lot, a strange group, a baffling enigma.

Where a writer writes I think depends on a whole lot of factors such as what kind of writing that writer does, whether its fiction, non-fiction, copywriting, article writing, grant writing, etc. Now I’m going to be bold and assume a large interest might well be placed on fiction writer. After all they create worlds and fascinating environments. Sometimes other worldly, sometimes down the street. read article

ABC Family Renews MELISSA AND JOEY for Its 4th Season

melissaandjoeyoy

…To which we can only respond:

MELISSA AND JOEY? It’s a show? On the air? Watched by human people? read article