Month: May 2015

JOHN OSTRANDER’S WRITING CLASS: OUR CHARACTERS, OUR SELVES

Penny-Dreadfulby John Ostrander

I’ve had a chance recently to catch some, not all, of Showtime’s series, Penny Dreadful, and I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. It takes the same concept of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen(combine genre characters from the Victorian Age into a single story) and uses it with mostly horror and supernatural characters and elements, again in Victorian London.

The “real” penny dreadfuls were the pulp fiction of their day, precursors to the pulp magazines and also comics. The TV series was created by John Logan (who, among other things, wrote Skyfalland will be writing the next two James Bond films as well) and is the co-executive producer along with James Bond director Sam Mendes (he also directed The Road to Perdition).

There are also other Bond connections, including Timothy Dalton as the African explorer Sir Malcolm Murray, who is the father of Mina Murray, who just happens to be a character in the novelDracula. Eva Green, who was the “Bond Girl” Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, plays Vanessa Ives, a medium and possibly a witch. Among interest to we pop culture geeks would also be Doctor Who’s companion Billie Piper as a prostitute with a possibly very dark future. read article

Where have all the TV critics gone?

The following query is about recent – and not so recent – events in Canada. But we think it applies here in the U.S. – and just about everywhere else – as well:

Puzzly_watching_TVby Diane Wild

It’s been eight years since Variety published an article about the diminished ranks of television critics in US newspapers, replaced by wire copy or nothing at all. I wrote a reactionwith the Canadian perspective, which at the time I said was even more dismal than our southern cousins.

Guess what? It’s worse now, and worsening. read article

Our Most Read Posts of the Week of May 23-May 29, 2015

Steve Mc Ray C

The posts visitors viewed most on TVWriter™ during the past week were:

How a Writing Contest Launched the Career of EXTANT’s Creator read article

5 Tips to Help You get a Job in the Video Game Biz

Yesterday we ran an article about game writing, and it turned out to be so popular with people who want to do just that and get paid as well that we’ve gone back to that bottomless well we call the interwebs so we can bring you this insightful look at the video game gig situation:

videogamesjobsby Guy DeRosa

[This article was written by Guy DeRosa, games and interactive manager at recruitment agency Skillsearch. www.skillsearch.com]

As a recruitment agent I often find myself discussing how different the games industry is to recruit for versus any other. That’s extremely fortunate as I don’t think the other industries would tolerate me, and perhaps vice-versa (potentially because when I typed the word ‘versus’ I experienced an uncontrollable urge to shout “FIGHT” in an American accent because it reminded me of Street Fighter 2). read article

Herbie J Pilato: The Legacy of DARK SHADOWS

Jonathan Frid, who plays Barnabas Collins, left, and David Selby, who plays Quentin Collins, in the Gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows", April 16, 1969. (AP Photo/Bob Wands)
Jonathan Frid, who plays Barnabas Collins, left, and David Selby, who plays Quentin Collins, in the Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows”, April 16, 1969. (AP Photo/Bob Wands)

Part 2
by Herbie J Pilato

EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t miss Part 1, conveniently located HERE

THE MAYHEM OF THE MACABRE

1969:  20,000,000 viewers are now obsessed with Quentin, Barnabas and DS in general. The show’s popularity reaches mammoth proportions. Followers from every nook and cranny come out of the woodwork…even the woodwork from the White House. For on October 31st, Halloween 1969, Tricia Nixon gives a Halloween Party for 250 underprivileged children, and Jonathan Frid is invited. read article