Category: By TVWriter.Com

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 1/13/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Shawn Ryan (THE SHIELD) has re-upped at Sony Pictures TV for another 3 years. (Remember when Shawn was relevant? In the days before LAST RESORT and the never-to-be-seen BEVERLY HILLS COP pilot? Sigh…)
  • Jeff Lowell (TWO AND A HALF MEN) is writing an untitled ABC comedy pilot that “exposes the unfiltered internal monologues of a young couple embarking on a new relationship. (Which sounds pretty cool until you realize that TV networks think that the only way to “expose…internal monologues” is to do those stultifying “interview” scenes ala THE OFFICE and MODERN FAMILY and a zillion others shows. Sigh…)
  • DENIS LEARY (RESCUE ME) is writing and ultimately starring in SEX&DRUGS&ROCK&ROLL, a comedy pilot for FX. (And I’m grinning from ear to ear here kids, just from the title – and, yeppers, Mr. Leary. Nothing to sigh about with this one!)
  • LaKendra Tookes (newbie) has joined the writing staff of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. (She’s black, she’s a woman, she’s a writer…oh, Lord, it’s a Whole New World at last! And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I think this is great.)
  • Leslie Jones (newbie) has also joined the SNL writing team and is also an African-American woman. (And I’m lovin’ on this as well. Big thanks to old pal Lorne Michaels. Yeah, that’s right, I’m tight with the Lornester. You didn’t know your friendly neighborhood munchman was so well-connected, didja?)

WGAW Picks Garry Marshall for 2014 Paddy Chayevsky Laurel Award for TV

garry-marshallby Team TVWRITER™ Press Service

Veteran writer-producer-director Garry Marshall, who is, you know, kind of a big deal for being responsible for some of the most popular series in television, including Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Mork & Mindy, is set to receive the Writers Guild of America, West’s 2014 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, honoring lifetime achievement in outstanding television writing. Marshall’s contributions to entertainment will be recognized at the upcoming 2014 Writers Guild Awards’ West Coast ceremony to be held on Saturday, February 1, 2014, at the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE.

“Garry Marshall’s filmography – from The Joey Bishop Show to Happy Days – is a virtual history of American television comedy. Both of-their-time and timeless, his shows are a gentle, generous, comic mirror held up to late mid-century America. And no one is a finer or funnier chronicler of friendship – male or female (or alien) – than Garry Marshall. Beloved both for his iconic work and the warmth of his spirit, today we rightly place him on the short list of the best of our best,” said WGAW President Christopher Keyser.

Over the course of his prolific career, Marshall has created or co-created and executive produced numerous hit television series that have helped define pop culture for a generation of viewers, including ’50s-era sitcom Happy Days, which ran from 1974-84, Happy Days spin-offs Laverne & Shirley (Created by Marshall, Lowell Ganz, Mark Rothman), which ran from 1976-83, and Joanie Loves Chachi (Created by Marshall, Lowell Ganz, Developed by Thomas L. Miller, Robert L. Boyett), sci-fi sitcom Mork & Mindy (Created by Marshall and Dale McRaven and Joe Glauberg), which ran from 1978-82 and made actor-comic Robin Williams a household name, Angie (Created by Marshall, Dale McRaven, Developed by Alan Eisenstock & Larry Mintz, 1979), the disco-era comedy Makin’ It (Created by Mark Rothman & Lowell Ganz and Garry K. Marshall), The Brian Keith Show (1972-74), and Hey, Landlord! (Created by Jerry Belson and Marshall). read article

The International Academy of Web Television 2013 Awards

IAWTV Awards Finalby Team TVWRITER™ Press Service

For the, you know, best, brightest, funnest shows made especially for, and appearing on, our beloved interwebs:

Best Writing (Comedy) – Squaresville – Matt Enlow
Best Writing (Drama) – The Booth at the End, Season 2 – Christopher Kubasik
Best Writing (Non-Fiction) – The Flog – Felicia Day

Best Animated Series – Red vs. Blue
Best Cinematography – H+ The Digital Series – Brett Pawlak
Best Comedy Series – Squaresville
Best Costume Design – The League of S.T.E.A.M. – The League of S.T.E.A.M.
Best Design (Art Direction/Production) – Continuum – Eric Whitney
Best Directing (Comedy) – My Gimpy Life – Sean Becker
Best Directing (Drama) – Anyone But Me – Tina Cesa Ward
Best Directing (Non-Fiction) – The Flog – Sean Becker
Best Documentary Series – PRODIGIES
Best Drama Series – Leap Year
Best Editing – Continuum – Blake Calhoun
Best Educational Series – Engineer Your Space
Best Ensemble Performance – Squaresville
Best Female Performance (Comedy) – My Gimpy Life – Teal Sherer Teal
Best Female Performance (Drama) – Blue – Julia Stiles – Blue
Best Host (Live) – What’s Trending – Shira Lazar
Best Host (Taped) – Daily Grace – Grace Helbig
Best Hosted (Live) Series – What’s Trending
Best Hosted (Taped) Series – Daily Grace
Best Interactive/Social Media Experience – The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Best Live Event – Bill Maher: CrazyStupidPolitics
Best Makeup/Special Effects – The League of S.T.E.A.M. – The League of S.T.E.A.M.
Best Male Performance (Comedy) – The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour – Jeff Lewis
Best Male Performance (Drama) – The Booth at the End, Season 2 – Xander Berkeley – Leed
Best News Series – The Philip DeFranco Show
Best Online Channel – Nerdist Channel
Best Original Music – Cost of Capital – Rob Gokee
Best Supplemental Content – Red vs. Blue
Best Variety Series – Rhett & Link
Best Visual Effects (Digital) – H+ The Digital Series – Faction Creative and The Sequence Group: VFX Supervisor Ian Kirby; Digital Effects Supervisor Chris van Dyck; VFX Producer Caleb Bouchard read article

TVWriter™ Top Posts for the Week Ending 1/10/14

Here they are, the most viewed TVWriter™ posts for the past week:

Cara Winter: Downton Abbey Season 4 Premiere “review”

Kathy Sees Iron Man 3 read article

Crazy Fan Creates ‘Star Trek’ Enterprise Replica in Basement

flat3

…Cuz, you know, she could.

In the words of TVWRITER™ contributor Herbie J Pilato, who discovered this particular almost-news item, “Ok, THIS is crazy – and yet…pretty dang cool.” read article