Month: October 2015

Almost Everything You Need to Know About Comedy Writer Bill Persky

…And in case you’re wondering why we think an awareness of this very funny and highly influential dood, it’s because as one of the most prominent voices behind THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, THE GIRL, WHO’S THE BOSS, THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW, and many more he has indeed been a very funny and highly influential, erm, writer.

Listen up:

With a little help from Bill Persky, Marlo Thomas became one of the Great Emancipators of The American Woman
With a little help from Bill Persky, Marlo Thomas became one of the Great Emancipators of The American Woman. For reals.

by Reed Bunzel

Like many early comedy writers, Bill Persky found himself working with some of the great classic comics of radio and TV. After a stint as a cabana boy at the famed Grossinger’s Hotel in the Catskills, he became an assistant program director at WNEW New York in the mid-1950s. His first TV sale came when he and writing partner Don Rosenblit invented a character known as “the Pigloo,” a combination of a pig and an igloo that was picked up by the Howdy Doody Show as a regular character. Savoring that first taste of success, he moved to California and wrote for a variety of innovative programs, including The Steve Allen Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Julie Andrews Show, McHale’s Navy, and The Joey Bishop Show. read article

How Twitter’s 140-Character Limit Made Me a Better Writer

The 140 Character limit on Twitter is still in place, and there’s no certainty it will be removed. Regardless of what happens on that front, the following remains something all writers need to think about…probably for more than 140 characters’ worth of time:

tweettweetby Patrick Allan

Twitter is planning to extend its typical 140-character limit, and a lot of people are welcoming the change. But as annoying as the 140-character limit can be, I’ve found that it actually helped me practice a few principles for better writing.

It Forced Me to Declutter My Writing

Writers love words, and they love to use as many as they can. This can lead to a lot of clutter, or what some might call “fluffing” or “padding.” When you fluff your writing, you’re adding words you don’t need to convey your message. It may make your paper longer, but as William Zinnser, the author of On Writing Well, adamantly conveys, it weakens your writing: read article

Archetypes are Like Rock n Roll. They’re here to stay.

archetypesby Diana Black

Archetypes are here to stay…

The practice of storytelling is a defining characteristic of Homo sapiens. Why? Let’s take time out for a quick history lesson. As a species, we’ve been around for about 1.5 million years. Going back just 300 000 years ago, we find concrete evidence of ritualized behavior (related to burials) and so there’s
every likelihood that alongside saying ‘Good bye’ to one’s significant others, stories were told. How better to entertain the fireside audience than having certain members of the tribe get on their feet – adorn themselves with make-up and costume and take on a ‘role’ – the hunter, the hunted etc.?

Conflict as a premise started early. If we do the math, that roughly equates to members of 12 000 generations (? 4 gen/100 years) ‘strutting the floorboards’. Equally peculiar, is the notion that by-and-large, we’re still enacting the same dramas; only now they’re ‘gussied-up’ with marginally more sophisticated plotlines and CGI. read article

THE HERO’S JOURNEY: A Primer

Premium Beat does us all a great service by taking a long-needed new look at how mythologist Joseph Campell and his #1 acolyte, a guy named George Lucas, changed the showbiz story template:

heros-journey-drawing

The Recurring Myth Behind Your Favorite Films
by Scott Porter

American thinker and writer Joseph Campbell spent considerable time exploring the facets of myth and religion. But he is perhaps best known for two concepts that have permeated modern culture. The first is the idea that you should “follow your bliss.” You’ve surely seen the phrase written on chalkboards in coffeeshops. In an interview with journalist Bill Moyers, Campbell (referring to Sinclair Lewis’s satiric novel, Babbitt) asks:

Remember the last line? ‘I have never done a thing that I wanted to do in all my life.’ That is a man who never followed his bliss. read article

Crowdfunding: STAR WARS/JAY-Z Parody

The ever-popular, just-waiting-to-become-immortal Matthew Schwartz
The ever-popular, just-waiting-to-become-immortal Matthew Schwartz

Yesterday we all were treated to Matt Schwartz’s awesome STRAIGHT OUTTA GOTHAM mashup, and today…lo and behold, we find that Matt’s at it again and needs our support.

Yep, dood’s on Kickstarter for the next 22 days, looking for funding for his latest music video. But why should we strain at finding the right words of explanation when Matt’s already got ’em:

In October 2014, I got laid off (thanks, Obama!) and was unsure what to do with myself. I had spent 20 years in the entertainment business working on indie films, developing animated TV, building websites, and producing games. (You can check out my online portfolio for the highlights.) Rather than look at my situation as a setback, I looked at it as an opportunity. What could I realistically do with my newfound creative freedom coupled with the added benefit of a decent severance package? read article