It’s the week before Christmas, and the gang here at TVWriter™ is going to be taking some time off, just like the rest of showbiz.
No, we aren’t going to Hawaii, like all the execs and retirees, but we definitely are going to chill (yeppers, pun intended) with our families and friends and rejuvenate so we can return more powerful than ever (like, you know, all those not-really-defeated-after-all superheroes we see everyplace now).
This week’s collection of recent articles from other websites about TV, TV writing, TV biz, etc., etc. is as diverse as its disparate origins can make it.
As usual, the plan here is for you to click on the headlines over the excerpts below and visit the site to read the posts in full…and if anybody asks, tell ’em TVWriter™ sentcha, okay?
I don’t believe that jumping genres should be avoided simply because someone out there in cyberspace said you shouldn’t do it. I converted novels into screenplays, and screenplays into stage plays, with pretty good contest results and, if nothing else, it was a lesson and … fun.
I say, if you have the passion to write, then write. If it’s a screenplay I would opt for simplicity and consistency over complexity and inconsistency. In a novel, stick with plot and structure and do whatever the hell you want. In either case, Picasso had good advice: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
For me, I try to follow a couple of rules. First, it’s paramount for me to elicit emotion from the reader or viewer. I’ll try my best to make the reader fall in love with a character. In novel writing I can take my time. I’m not restricted to a page length. In a screenplay I am.
And, second, I try to create a tangible goal for the hero and set him or her on an edge-of-your-seat journey where we can measure the success or failure of that goal at the climax point.
We know these pics from Herbie J’s upcoming Decades Network series Then Again with Herbie J Pilato are the real deal cuz they come to TVWriter™ courtesy of the most trustworthy leaker in the biz when it comes to All Things Herbie J…non other than Herbie J Pilato himself.
Enjoy, nostalgia fans!
As if we didn’t already have plenty of reasons (how many ‘r’s in “brr?”) for wishing for summer, now comes the news that Duck Tales will be back on the air in “Summer, 2017.”
Based on Carl Barks’ classic Uncle Scrooge Comics of the ’50s, the original version of this show, which ran from 1987 through 1990, was itself an instant classic, and, to this TVWriter™ minion, one of the absolute best ever animated series in TV history, which is why we’re so knocked out to hear this, from Marc Buhaj, Senior VP of Programming and General Manager of Disney XD: