Here they are, the most viewed TVWriter™ posts during the past week:
Category: By TVWriter.Com
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 1/24/15
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=& (Dallas Buyers Club) is writing the pilot for Syfy’s 51st State, a drama series about a future in which “the United States, confronting a prison population stretched to the limit, purchases Greenland and converts it into a frontier prison colony with male and female convicts incarcerated together.” Except, of course, that things don’t work out as planned. (Notice the not-so-subtle satire here, the whole “we’re all living in prison now” thing? Thanks to the harmless outlet that this show provides, we real prisoners won’t have to revolt after all. Whew.)
Matt Tarses (The Goldbergs) is writing the pilot for a CBS comedy series called Coverband about “members of a rock band left to scramble after their lead singer dumps them for a solo career.” (LB informs yer sweet munchman that his first paid-for script was for a similarly themed feature film at MGM, but his protagonist was the lead singer. The more things change….)
Exciting new unknown David E. Kelley is adapting Mr. Mercedes, a novel by another new unknown named Stephen King into a mini-series detective drama for a company called Sonar Entertainment. (Cuz in this youth-oriented market two of the most successful writers still breathing can’t get broadcast or cable network deals on their own? What gives?)
That’s it for now, munchaladas. Don’t forget to write in and tell yers truly what you’ve sold when you sell it. Cuz TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)
TVWriter™ Top Posts for the Week Ending 1/23/15
Here they are, the most viewed TVWriter™ posts during the past week:
TV Writing & Social Responsibility – Can They Ever Live Together? Part 2
Inclusive Writing
by Diana Black
Inclusive television is not a new concept with television programs over the years attempting to address the ‘inclusive’ issue through ensemble casting; as mentioned in ‘Part One’ of this article. So how successful and how serious has that effort been? Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times (2007), maintains that to a large extent the big networks have done poorly when it comes to ensuring television programming is inclusive beyond that of tokenism.
The question for us as writers seems to be, can artistic expression happily flourish and coexist with commercial viability beyond the ‘honeymoon period of the successful pilot?’
A review of the casting for long running sitcoms such as Friends (David Krane and Marta Kauffman, 1994 – 2004) and more recently Lost (Jeffry Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, 2004 – 10) seems to have addressed gender balance, but have they substantially addressed ethnicity? Both television series seem to have been tokenistic in that regard with the overwhelming majority of cast members ‘white’, ostensibly middle-class.
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 1/22/15
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman
- Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) is writing the pilot for Park Row, a drama series about “the newspaper circulation wars between publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst” in the late 1800s. The announcement makes no mention of what network or cable entity this will appear on. (Cuz “newspaper circulation wars?” “Late 1800s? What idiot executive – excuse the tautology – is going to commit to something like that? Oh wait – all of them probably. Meh.)
- David DiGilio (Crossbones) is developing a martial arts series called Warrior for NBC. (They call it a “drama,” but yer cute little munchikins has to admit that I’ve never seen any show or movie in martial arts that even remotely resembled a genuine drama. But maybe that’s just me?)
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who old-timers might recall as some kind of basketball hero and modern TV viewers may recognize from appearances on New Girl, is co-writing a novel about Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s bro, with Anna Waterhouse (On the Shoulders of Giants). (I have absolutely no idea what Kareem is bringing to the table here except his obsolete name but am certain that one way or another he’ll make a – wait for it – slam dunk. No? Not worth waiting for? Sorreeee!)
That’s it for now, munchaladas. Don’t forget to write in and tell yers truly what you’ve sold when you sell it. Cuz TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)