Month: January 2020

Herbie J Pilato On the REAL Story of ‘The Brady Bunch’

EDITOR’S NOTE: Looking to expand your ability to write reviews as well as your appreciation of classic TV? Contributing Editor Emiritus Herbie J Pilato has you covered. Right here.

by Herbie J Pilato

Here’s the REAL story…of The Brady Bunch, the unstoppable television show that has charmed millions of viewers for what seems like millions of years.

Author Kimberly Potts exquisitely chronicles the TV phenom in her new book, The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch: How The Canceled Sitcom Became The Beloved Pop Culture Icon We Are Still Talking About Today (Grand Central Publishing, 2019). read article

Why ‘Mr. Robot’ is the Most Thought-Provoking TV Series in History

You thought The Good Place was profound?

Pshaw!

Emma Fraser knows the Truth. (And so does Mr. Robot. Bwahh!) read article

Cartoon: Funky Winkerbean Sums Up Hollywood

Truer Pictures Were Never Drawn Department:

See the original wherever Tom Batiuk’s Funky Winkerbean is up and running!

Oh, and here’s a value added extra. Commentary from the Comics Curmudgeon himself, Josh Fruhlinger. 

There can be absolutely no more appropriate ceremony to begin the process of sinking millions of dollars into a prestige Lisa’s Story movie than to ritually set some money on fire. read article

Why is Everybody Hating on Doctor Dolittle?

Marketers control the world these days…at least that’s how it often seems. Here’s a marketer’s perception of the failure of the latest version of Dr. Dolittle to grace our local cinema’s. And not just any marketer, Seth Godin, whose wisdom in the eyes of this TVWriter™ minion knoweth no bounds.

The Dolittle effect

by Seth Godin

Why is the new Dolittle movie so bad? Savaged by critics and viewers, it had:

  • One of the most bankable movie stars in the world
  • A story that had previously been the basis of two hit movies
  • The best CGI houses in the world
  • Unlimited time and money

I think the best way to understand why it failed is to look at the reasons above. Ironically, it’s these assets and lack of constraints that created the circumstances that allowed the movie to become a turkey. read article

Cartoon: Mental Space

TVWriter™’s all-time favorite artist/philosopher, Grant Snider, tells us every creator really, really, really wants, and, perhaps more importantly, what we/they really need.

We love the fact that this is a cartoon containing words that genuinely deserve to be remembered.

read article