A kindly WGAW member we know has leaked this excellent – and dismaying – article from the “If You’re a Member” section of the WGAW’s website:
NPR TV critic Eric Deggans addresses the dilemma of people of color in television. Bigger numbers aren’t enough if the portrayals are stereotypes, he says.
The Cosby Show, which premiered in 1984 and ran for eight seasons, not only revived the beleaguered sitcom genre but in its genius showed America an image that had not been seen for the most part before on network television: the upper-middle class Huxtables, an African American family in which the mother was a lawyer and dad was a doctor. Until then, portrayals of African Americans on TV tended to lean towards characters that were gang members, drug addicts and poor inner city people.
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 2/2/14
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman
- Ann Peacock (THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA) is adapting The Dovekeepers historical novel about the Siege of Masada for CBS. (And don’t let anybody tell you there’s a happy ending. The Masada story is the original, “everybody dies, feel bad but try to keep on breathing tale from way back when. I don’t care how well it gets down, I’m definitely passing on viewing.)
- Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh (MODERN FAMILY) have a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV and will keep on keeping on as exec producers of the show. (Why report on overall deals? Um…cuz I really wish I had one? Yeah, that’s right, I really, really do.)
- Nic Pizzolatto (TRUE DETECTIVE) has a new overall deal at HBO which is really a way of keeping him around for another season of TRUE DETECTIVE even though nobody’s seen the damn show yet. (Yeah, I’d take Nic’s deal, but, hell, I’d rather have his name. What a great damn name!)
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 1/29/14
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=&The Formerly Funny Hack Comedian Known as Bill Cosby is looking for a writer for a new NBC comedy series he’s going to star in and which is going to resemble his old NBC comedy series as much as possible. (Usually, this is where I tell you to talk to your agent and get a meeting but Bill Cosby? Word is that he’s the toughest/worst boss in TV since Jack Webb. Who was Jack Webb? Holy crap, do I have to tell you everything? Google him, gang, just google him.) David O. Russell (Yeah, that David O. Russell) & Susannah Grant are developing an ABC series described as “upstairs/downstairs at a private country club,” and no, it isn’t a comedy, it’s said to be an out and out soap. (David O. Russell running a soap. I’d pay to see that. Well, maybe not, but I’ll tune in the first episode…if I remember to set my DVR, that is.) Mike Sikowitz (RULES OF ENGAGEMENT) is now the showrunner of CBS’s upcoming comedy series THE McCARTHYS, about “a sports-crazed Irish Catholic clan in Boston and the gay son…whose greatest sin is…his desire to spend less time with his family.” (We’re saying “new series” even though they’re only just now shooting the pilot cuz…why call a guy a showrunner unless you have a show for him to run?)Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 1/23/14
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=&Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas (DOLLHOUSE) are creating/writing/producing AGENT CARTER, a spinoff of the CAPTAIN AMERICA character for, natch ABC. (And it better be better than AGENTS OF SHIELD, you hear me? Do ya? I mean it! Cuz there’s just so much disappointment a Marvel Maniac can take, you know?) Thomas Kelly (COPPER) has signed a new overall deal with AMC to write/produce/develop/you know the drill TV stuff. (Kelly’s an amazing prose writer as well as a TV and film guy. In fact, he’s kind of my hero, so this is muy exciting.) Amy Poehler (PARKS AND RECREATION) has a new overall deal with NBC. Her first project is as co-creator of the tentatively titled OLD SOUL, a comedy about a woman trying to find herself by working with “a group of elderly people.” (Hoo, boy! More funny old folks! My grandparents can hardly wait! Although maybe that’ll be an inducement for them to stay alive. No, not to watch but so they can complain? Geema, whatcha think?) Jon Robin Baitz (BROTHERS & SISTERS) is writing THE SLAP, an NBC miniseries about “what happens when a man slaps another couple’s misbehaving child at a family BBQ.” (Am I wrong in thinking that this will either be intentionally hilarious as hell…or unintentionally hilarious as hell? See how I did that? Got this thing totally covered now.)Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 1/17/14
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=&Tom Schnauz (BREAKING BAD) has a new writer-producer gig on BETTER CALL SAUL, the BREAKING BAD “prequel” and a 2-year overal deal with Sony Pictures TV. (Cuz, like BREAKING BAD! Maybe it’s time for true believers like us to relax. Looks like BB is never really going away.) Mike Sikowitz (RULES OF ENGAGEMENT) has signed a new overall deal with Sony Pictures TV guaranteeing him seven figures worth of dinero. (Love and kisses to Mike. Our people will be calling your people…soon.) ABC is set to develop a comedy series about the life of rapper Eve and is looking for a writer. (So if you have whatever qualifications it takes to write about a beautiful African-American rap star – whom we’ve never heard of, but then let’s face it, rap is sooo old now – and her “interracial relationships” it’s time to reach for the phone.)