by Larry Brody
NOTE FROM LB: Just emailed the following to all those on the TVWriter™ eMail list. But the info really is for everybody:
Gang,
Because I know you’re all dying to see where we stand:
LB: The Latest on TVWriter™’s Online Workshops
Month: August 2015
John Ostrander Bids Adieu to Jon Stewart
by John Ostrander
It was a good show.
Jon Stewart ended his run on The Daily Show last week with an hour-plus long installment. It was a good episode and a good final episode. I’ve seen a few of these things – where a long time reporter or entertainer walks away, of their own volition, from their show. I saw Jack Paar (you kiddies go ahead and Google him or look him up on the Wikipedia) leave his weekly show, walking out through a series of spotlights cast on the floor. I saw beloved newscaster Walter Cronkite sign-off for the last time, telling us, “I’ll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night.” I saw Johnny Carson, the King of Late Night Television, leave The Tonight Show with his “very heartfelt good night.”
These kind of shows can be difficult to pull off. The episode can be too much, it can be too little, it can be awkward – as parodied brilliantly by Gary Shandling on The Larry Sanders Show. I thought Letterman’s exit from The Late Show was a little flat and Stephen Colbert’s exit from The Colbert Report somewhat over the top, even for him.
Not Your Usual Gang of Showrunners
Sorry, kids, but the best reason to hire minorities isn’t just to balance out the team and throw the downtrodden a bone. Not at all. The best reason is to bring new perspectives into the Industry and find new directions in which to go. Which is our TVWriter™ way of saying that female showrunners are taking their places at the heads of writers room tables and they’re kicking creative butt:
Jenji Kohan Leads Band of Female Showrunners
Breaking TV’s Old-School Rules
by Cynthis Littleton
In a dynamic marketplace, a rising tide lifts all boats. And the tidal wave of television series production in the past few years has led to an unprecedented number of women serving as captains of their ships — as showrunners and auteur writer-directors of shows.
WGAW August 2015 Calendar
Learn All About PLANET OF THE EGGS
It’s here! It’s here!
Peggy wants us all to know that she’s partnered with Charlene Brash-Sorenson to launch the new comic series Planet of the Eggs.