The most clicked-on posts by TVWriter™ visitors during the last week were:
Month: December 2015
What is Your Script Really About?
by Lew Ritter
When I first started writing, I decided to concentrate on writing spec scripts for existing TV shows over feature films. I was a big fan of shows of 80’s shows such as Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice. The shows tended to be detective shows or police procedurals. This was the type of show that I felt most comfortable writing. I knew that sit-coms or heavy dramatic series were not my forte.
I had been part of a writers group in NYC for several years. Back in the early 90’s, my writing partner and I developed a treatment for an existing show called MANCUSO FBI. It starred Robert Loggia, as the stalwart FBI agent, defending the constitution against the bad guys. It intrigued us because the show dealt with important social issues. We developed a lengthy treatment and actually pitched it to a writer from a Canadian cop show called NIGHT HEAT. He liked the story and gave us valuable notes for improving the treatment.
I managed to contact a Production Assistant from the show. I was able to send him the treatment. As fate would have it, the writers liked the treatment, but the show was not renewed by NBC for a second season.
The Writers Guild of America, East Wants to Unionize Huffington Post
We think it’s a great idea. Ms. Huffington, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to agree. But we give her props for what follows – the site has posted this letter of intent by WGAE Prez Michael Winship, and it certainly didn’t have to. In solidarity:
The Dark Side of Creativity
Creatives and their demons! Inseparable? Essential? A bullshit stereotype? Let’s see:
by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Few psychological traits are as desirable as creativity — the ability to come up with ideas that are both novel and useful. Yet it is also true that creativity has been associated with a wide range of counterproductive, rarely discussed qualities. Being aware of these tendencies is important for anyone trying to better understand their own creativity, or that of other people.
First, research has established a link between creativity and negative moods. You don’t have to be depressed to be creative — and it’s important to note that crippling depression is more destructive than generative — but it is true that there is some empirical backing for the stereotype that artists tend to be depressive or suffer from mood swings. As Nietzsche once noted: “One must have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” On average, people who are very emotionally stable may be too happy to feel the need to create. After all, if the status quo is fine, why change it?
HOUSE Creator David Shore Explains Why TV Writing Is a “Magic Trick”
And you thought it was hard work, right? Silly humans!
by Etan Vlessing
House‘s David Shore has gone from a medical to a crime drama with his upcoming Fox supernatural series Houdini & Doyle.
That keeps the Emmy Award-winning showrunner on familiar ground with House, about the curmudgeonly Dr. Gregory House, a brilliant doctor solving medical mysteries. Houdini & Doyle, to debut on Fox in the U.S. and ITV Encore in the U.K. in spring 2016, features crusty Brit Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, played by Episodes star Stephen Mangan, grudgingly partnering with American and master escape artist Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) and New Scotland Yard to solve crimes with an unexplained supernatural slant.