Category: News

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/17/14

TOSHIBA Exif JPEG

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

  • Mark Perez (THE COUNTRY BEARS) is writing the pilot for NBC’s cruise ship comedy, PORT OF MIAMI. (Now there’s a title that pretty much says everything that has to be said about the project. Thanks for the respite from thought, NBC P.R. whizzes.)
  • Jeremy Carver (SUPERNATURAL) is writing the pilot for a TV version of the not so thrilling 2000 “sci-fi thriller” FREQUENCY. (Nothing to see there, folks. Move on, move on.)
  • Mike Daniels (SONS OF ANARCHY) has a new overall deal with Universal TV. (And his first act of contrition for making so much moolah is to join the studio’s new FBI drama, SHADES OF BLUE, starring Jennifer Lopez. Yeah, that’ll be fun. Woohoo!)
  • Jim Mickle & Nick Damici (COLD IN JULY) are writing the pilot for HAP AND LEONARD, a miniseries based on a series of books by Joe Lonsdale about “a pair of best friends and martial arts experts who struggle through misadventure in a bid to stay on the right side of the law in 1980 East Texas. (About which yer munchy buddy can only ask, “Why?” Why try to stay on the right side of the law in a place like East Texas where, plainly, the law ain’t ‘agonna reflect what anybody in the audience with a brain thinks it should? Oh, wait, I said “with a brain.” Sorry, my mistake, amigos.)

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/16/14

TOSHIBA Exif JPEG

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

SPECIAL EDITION, OOH!

Somehow, yer friendly neighborhood munchcadero has managed to fall behind on this season’s development deals. That’s right, brothers and sisters, even with having gone daily on this subject I still haven’t been keeping up with all the richness of creativity exchanging itself for buckets full of bucks. Oh, those crazy, zany development execs, turning out all those deals so they can justify their jobs.

So today, in an attempt to catch up a bit, I’m going to reel out all the remakes and reboots and re-examinations I haven’t yet reported on. Brace yerselves: read article

LB: Glen A. Larson Prolific TV Series Creator RIP

glen a larsonI learned this morning from members of his family that my old frenemy Glen Larson, creator of dozens of classic television series, bon vivant, and, in the words of one of my agents, “evil genius,” died yesterday.

Glen was a complex and, to those of us who spent a lot of time with him, fascinating man. Multi-talented in the true sense of the word, he was a member of the Big Deal early ’60s pop singing group The Four Preps who turned from singing to writing and became the creator (or co-creator), writer-producer of more long-running hit shows than anyone else in the world, before, during or since. We’re talking Alias Smith and Jones, Switch, Quincy, M.E., The Hardy Boys Mysteries, Battlestar Galactica, B. J. and the Bear, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, Magnum, P.I., The Fall Guy, Knight Rider, Manimal, Automan, and a passel of others.

I worked with Glen on many of those shows, and the experience was colorful, to say the least. In fact, often it was truly mind-gobbling. Glen was a very controversial figure in his prime, punched by James Garner, sued by several others, richer than Croesus and possibly the unhappiest man I’ve ever known. read article

The Real World of Reality TV: Worker Exploitation?

Forewarned is, you know, forearmed. And it isn’t only writers who feel victimized:

Writers_raise_signs_at_wga_rallyby David Dayen

On September 10, 16 editors on the Bravo reality show Shahs of Sunset walked off the job in Hollywood after informing their employer, Ryan Seacrest Productions, of their intentions to unionize. The next day, Bravo announced they would delay the premiere of the fourth season.

“We thought it was about time, in the fourth season of a popular show, to get health care and pension benefits,” says Vanessa Hughes, one of the editors seeking representation through the Motion Picture Editors Guild, a division of the International Association of Stage and Theatrical Employees (IATSE). “We thought it’d take a day or so of picketing.” read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/14/14

TOSHIBA Exif JPEG

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=& (former Obama speechwriter) is writing the pilot for Showtime’s ANTHEM, a drama that “chronicles…what happens when our political system collapses under the weight of mistrust and partisan division.” (I dunno, gang. Sounds like a reality series to me. I sincerely apologize for making such an easy joke. But I think it’s our current crop of pols who should apologize to all of us for making it possible.) Nick Stoller & Jerrod Carmichael (two hot properties in CAA’s collection of such) are developing an NBC comedy based on Jerrod’s “irreverent stand up comedy.” (Lovin’ the use of the word “irreverent,” NBC, but in an era when every single new standup comic is described as “irreverent” shouldn’t that whole category simply be “irrelevant” instead?)

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)