EDITOR’S NOTE: Whoa! Two titans of creativity in the same place at the same time! Was reality able to hold them both? Wha– happened?
Check it out:
Month: September 2013
Herbie J Pilato: Classic TV’s “Twilight Zone” Comes To Crazy-Good-Life On Stage in “Unscripted”
by Herbie J Pilato
Upon viewing a few “live episodes” of “The Twilight Zone Unscripted,” the L.A. area theatre-goer not only gets the eerie feeling they’ve actually stepped into (and are seated in front of) The Twilight Zone but that they’re also in on the joke – and it’s funny. Make that “very funny!”
With its uniquely improvisational take on the genius classic TV series created by Rod Serling, “Unscripted,” presented by the renown Impro Theatre Acting Troup (at Garry Marshall’s beautiful Falcon Theatre in Burbank), delivers in all areas.
The audience actually becomes unhinged on the edge of their seats not so much because no one (including the theatre-goers and the actors) knows not what’s to happen next – but because no one is sure the performers on stage will be able to pull it off.
This Whole Copyright Thing is Driving Some People Crazy
The interwebs are filled with extremists. One of the most extreme sites is also one of our favorites. It’s called TorrentFreak, and its primary message is “Information and entertainment and every other damn thing creative (and non-creative) people create want to be free.”
Inasmuch as we’re all for sticking it to The Man, especially in his BigMedia guise, we’re presenting the following as a kind of public service. From one perspective, we agree with every word of it. From another, well, we still want to make sure we get paid for the films, videos, books, et al that we create. And this train of thought kind of, you know, screws us on the score.
What to do? What to do?
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/24/13
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
‘Tis the season for deals, deals, everywhere. But not a drop for…alack!…the poor minions slaving at TVWriter™:
- Janet Tamaro (RIZZOLI & ISLES) is stepping down as showrunner of the TNT hit in order to develop new projects. (Ain’t nobody here gonna argue against that. Wonder how much longer the show can last without her, though.)
- Becky Hartman Edwards (SWITCHED AT BIRTH) is writing the drama pilot FAR FROM THE TREE for Fox. (Yes, she’s noted for comedy, but even TV development execs can see that a show about the family of a terrorist – yes, that’s what this is about – won’t be funny. Well, not too funny anyway.)
- Damon Lindelof (LOST) has gotten a 10 episode series pickup from HBO for his drama series THE LEFTOVERS about what happens to the people who didn’t make the cut after, you know, the Rapture thing. (Leave it to TV to cash in on the Rapture long after it’s lost any value it may ever have had. We humbly submit our suggestion for the TV development model: “Forward to the past!”)
- Lauren Iungerich (AWKWARD), who seem to be talking about here all the time, has sold BITCH OFF THE OL’ BLOCK to NBC. It’s a comedy about a professional woman whose life is disrupted when her daughter, a younger version of herself, moves in with her and her roommates. (Didn’t we write about several other versions of this just yesterday? Oh, but they were at ABC, so this is all fine. Anybody know a smiley that means >shudder
- Joe Port & LB’s former student Joe Wiseman (JOE, JOE AND JANE) are writing an untitled NBC comedy pilot about a 16 year old prodigy chef. (Cuz you know how much the TV audience loves teenagers and chefs and comedy. Well, at least NBC loves ’em – we hope.)
Sorry but we aren’t writing about the Emmy Awards this year
Nope, nope, nuh-unh.
Cuz let’s get real – everybody else is.