Month: September 2018

LB sees the new ‘Magnum, P.I.’

Uh-oh…

by Larry Brody

Sorry, kids, but there’s no other way to put it: CBS’s new version of Magnum, P.I. isn’t your father’s Magnum…and it shouldn’t be yours either.

THE GOOD:

  • Hawaii’s a very good looking place. (At least it was pre the last hurricane to come close to the islands.) Just like in the original.
  • There’s a guy named Thomas Magnum in most of the scenes of the show and he lives on some other guy’s big estate and drives that other guy’s Ferrari. Just like in the original.
  • There’s a character named Higgins running the estate and keeping track of Magnum. Just like in the original.
  • Magnum’s old friends hang out with him and provide the kind of help he needs whenever he needs it. Just like in the original.
  • Lots of repartee. Just like in the original.

THE NOT SO GOOD: read article

The Ultimate Short Course in Pitching

Two minutes and 10 seconds of what they don’t teach you in your Media Arts college course of study, but they definitely should. (Preferably with producer Tiegen Kosiak at the rostrum.

Tiegen Kosiak is an independent film, TV, and digital producer as well as the co-founder aka “Crime Boss” of The Young Hollywood Mafia, an entertainment networking group with 150+ members.

Tiegen is currently producing the $3MM thriller BORREGO, which she discovered in a Stage 32 pitch session in 2016. The project is incubating at a major studio with a high-level cast attachment. read article

Here’s Something for All You ‘Here’s Lucy’ Fans

TVWriter™ Contributing Editor Emeritus (that means he’s too big to be on the job 24-7 like he used to be but still contributes his share) Herbie J Pilato, has an  interweb bonanza for those of us who love Here’s Lucy – and who doesn’t?

From Herbie J’s email to your eyes: read article

John Ostrander: Art vs the Artist

by John Ostrander

Last column I talked about James Gunn and how he was fired by Disney from the third Guardians installment for some really stupid tweets he published about a decade ago. They were appalling, no questions about it, but I wondered if Disney really needed to fire him for it. Gunn himself has renounced them and apologized. I was further aggravated by the fact that it was a right wing troll who engineered the whole reveal basically to punish Gunn for being anti-Trump.

However, lurking beneath that question is a bigger problem – can you separate the art from the artist? SHOULD you?  read article

Download 50 of the Best TV Scripts

It’s hard to argue with the thinking behind this collection of fine TV writing assembled by the hard-working folk at Script Reader Pro.Com.

In fact, the best response we can have is, indeed, the one reserved for articles of the highest value to TVWriter™ visitors. In other words, our recommendation is that you download all 50 of the teleplays listed.

And then read them, dammit. Read ’em like a motherfucker! read article