Category: By Larry Brody

LB: R.I.P. Lew Weitzman

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That’s Lew on the right, with another client, mystery writer extraordinaire Bob Levinson

Lew Weitzman, a man I greatly admired and respected, died last June. He was 75, and during his 40+ year career as an agent at the William Morris Agency, the Lew Weitzman Agency, and Preferred Artists Agency he represented writers such as Len Katzman, James Lee Barrett, John McGreevey, and dozens more.

Including me.

In my own 40+ year career, Lew was my agent not once, not twice, not three, but at least half a dozen times, for a total period of, probably twenty years. His death hit me so hard that it’s taken months for me to be able to digest and address it. And I’m usually pretty good about facing things. read article

LB: What I Learned From the 2013 People’s Pilot & Spec Scriptacular Competitions

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by Larry Brody

How About Some More General Remarks for a Start?

About 10 days ago, I wrote about what I thought all writer-entrants in the 2013 People’s Pilot and Spec Scriptacular Competitions could learn. Unsurprisingly, the lessons were mostly about writing. As in what worked and didn’t work in the entries. If you need me to wait while you refresh your memories, fine, I’m doing that right now.

Just not, you know, in real time.

Okay. With that out of the way, I’d like to move on in the direction I promised in that article and talk about: read article

LB: What Everyone Can Learn From the 2013 People’s Pilot & Spec Scriptacular Competitions

ppsslogosby Larry Brody

How About Some Quick General Remarks for a Start?

Now that the Winners of the People’s Pilot and Spec Scriptacular Competitions have been announced, I’ve had a little time to reflect on both contests. Not a lot of time (because I’m working like mad to deliver all that Feedback I promised ASAP), but enough to notice a few things that made me – and I think will make you – smile.

  • The People’s Pilot had the largest number of entries in its 15 year history.
  • The Spec Scriptacular had the largest number of entries in its 13 year history.
  • Taken as a totality, the entries in both contests were better than ever. In all categories, the judges considered at least 2/3 of what they read to be of professional caliber. (And considering that none of the entrants was a professional TV or film writer that strikes me as, well, amazing.)
  • I’ve had good experiences with every entrant with whom I’ve corresponded this year. Everyone’s been upbeat and positive, expressing the kind of joy in the very act of writing that those already in the biz want to work with, and which fills me with an equal amount of delight.

Thanks, everyone, for all this good stuff. You make everything I try to do more than worthwhile.

What TVWriter™ Contest Entrants (and other writers) Should Know About These Contests

My purpose in holding the PP and SS all these years has always been to give new writers a chance to get their work out into the world and become better writers by seeing how other people – professionals, in the biz – react to it. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/17/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Ron Shelton (BULL DURHAM) is developing a new Showtime drama series focused on the L.A. Lakers basketball team. (Cuz Ron also is the genius – for reals – behind WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, proving he knows all anybody needs to about basketball drama.)
  • Stefan Jaworski (THOSE WHO KILL) ) is writing the pilot for FX’s AMERICAN PSYCHO drama series, a sequel to, right, that’s it – the AMERICAN PSYCHO film. (Cuz there aren’t enough TV series about serial killers on the air, and this one’s already got a following.)
  • Kerry Ehrin (BATES MOTEL) has written the pilot for an untitled NBC comedy about two women who are partners in the Boston PD. (Serial killers? BATES MOTEL writer? The city that’s home to the Boston Strangler? Guess there aren’t enough serial killer shows on TV after all.)
  • Dan Bucatinsky (GREY’S ANATOMY) is adapting his book Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight into a drama for ABC. (Um, this doesn’t sound much like a drama, does it? But then, its first season GREY’S ANATOMY was called a comedy. Soo…)
  • Scott King (THE NEIGHBORS) is developing the comedy THE AFTER PARTY for ABC…and, simultaneously, another comedy  called CLOTHING OPTIONAL, for Fox. (They’re both about families, but the family for Fox is, um, naked. Works for us.)

LB Sees HBO’s TRUE BELIEVER Trailer

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Being a “true believer” in the talent of both Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey or, if there’s a credit problem between them, of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, I’ve been looking forward to the arrival of this new series in January of 2014.

Well, actually, let’s make that “I had been looking forward to it. read article