munchman: The Best Show on TV is…
by
And here’s why:
Month: August 2013
Donald Bellisario Talks About Donald Bellisario
Hey, c’mon, that’s what successful writers do.
And, man is Bellisario ever successful. We’re talking about the creator-writer-producer of NCIS, JAG, MAGNUM P.I., AIRWOLF, BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON, QUANTUM LEAP. All that good stuff.
This interview isn’t new. It was recorded several years ago as part of the TV Academy’s “Archive of American Television.” But everything Bellisario says about TV writing and the TV biz is as valid as it ever was.
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 8/12/13
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Dan Kopelman (RULES OF ENGAGEMENT) is writing the pilot for an untitled Nickelodeon comedy about a 12 year old Army brat. (Although the majority of sites that report on this kind of thing bury his name and concentrate on the fact that one of the producers is the star of another upcoming Nick series. Notice that we aren’t naming her. Take that, big stars!)
- Jack Moore (newb!) has landed a gig on Fox’s new sitcom US & THEM. (And he did it via his Twitter feed @seinfeldtoday, which features loglines for nonexistent contemporary episodes of the old SEINFELD series. Why didn’t you think of that? Huh?)
- Nahnatchka Khan & Corey Nickerson (DON’T TRUST THE B— IN APT 23) are writing the pilot for FATRICK, a Fox Network sitcom about, no, you’re wrong, not a fat guy but a former fat guy. Ha! (See how they did that? Pulled the big set-up switcheroo, we man? That’s the kind of thing that makes you rich even if your last series bombed.)
- Todd Holland (TWIN PEAKS) is writing an untitled science fiction project about an immortal bounty hunter to NBC. (Because THE HIGHLANDER feature film reboot is doing so well. Oh, wait, hasn’t it been abandoned? )
Peggy Bechko: Out Over the Blogisphere
by Peggy Bechko
Over time I’ve done a lot of blog posts, guesting at some sites, creating posts for my own blog. You know, trying to toss out little helps, hints, website links that are fun and helpful for writers and readers. It’s fun and believe it or not it actually adds to my own writing, bolstering it in a way I can’t really explain.
The flip side of writing blogs is reading them. And I follow quite a few. Some make me smile, others are informative, some give me heartburn and others inspire while still others manage a weird combination. I enjoy blogs, squeeze in reading them at lunch with my Kindle online, sometimes late in the evening before bed, sometimes on the move when traveling from one place to another (no, now while I’m actually driving!); on a train, plane (hanging out in an airport actually) or as a passenger.
Why am I telling you all this? Simple, really, I was reading a friend’s blog (a friend I met in cyberspace who’s become quite the blogger) Seumas Gallacher (his blog is over at http://seumasgallacher.com/ and he made the point of how valuable it is for bloggers to share with others which blogs out there are great to read. He even started up a hashtag over on twitter #TBSU for The Blog Scratchers Union as a way of bloggers promoting bloggers who have something real to say.
John Ostrander: The Essence
A week or so ago I was talking about how in the Man of Steel movie they had Superman kill someone. No spoiler alert: if you haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s your own damn fault. It did violate one of the traditional tenets that marked Superman as Superman – he doesn’t kill. Lots of innocent bystanders must have also died during his battle with Kryptonians in Smallville and Metropolis but hey – collateral damage.