Category: News

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 12/23/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • David Spade (?!) & Dean Lorey (THE CRAZY ONES) are developing a comedy series about a rock and roll music manager struggling to stay at the top for HBO. (There are any number of ways this kind of premise can go south, but the first one says it all: It’s going to star David Spade.)
  • Brian Stelter‘s book Top of the Morning,  a behind-the-scenes about TV morning news shows, is being developed into a movie for Lifetime. (Which means that we don’t need to say anything further about this project except: It’s being developed into a movie for Lifetime.)
  • Scott Gold (UNDER THE DOME) is developing a drama series about the NRA called COLD DEAD HANDS for the Sundance Channel. (Even our new puppy knows all the ways this premise could tank, so let’s just go with the primary one: It’s about the NRA.)
  • Nick Bilton’s book about the development of Twitter, cleverly called Hatching Twitter is being turned into a TV series by Lionsgate, whose press release makes no mention of that crazy little necessity called a buyer for said show. (You may be asking yourself how this idea could possibly go wrong. To which we reply: It’s about Twitter! And the only people in the galaxy who care about Twitter are those who spend all their time tweeting, not watching, you know, TV. Sheesh.)
  • David Koechner (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) is writing a sketch comedy pilot for NBC. (All together now, kids: The reason this one will go wrong, wrong, wrong is…yeppers, you got it – NBC! Anybody out there miss this answer? We didn’t think so.)

You Too Can Binge-Watch the Complete BULLET IN THE FACE

Bullet-in-the-Face…Cuz Alan Spencer’s cult classic cable series is now available for all sorts of legal home viewing uses thanks to those Masters of Taste, the good folks at Shout! Video.

We’re talking about the series that was so out that, so cutting edge, so dystopian, ultra-noir, violent, dangerous, threating, and just plain funny that the very network it was made for tried to suppress it. (No, we wont mention the names of those cowards. Screw  ’em.)

TVWriter™ buddy Alan Spencer, the creator of another classic series, SLEDGE HAMMER, went all out with this one, gathering a cast that included Max Williams (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD), Neil Napier (RIDDICK), Jessica Steen (NCIS, old-timers, so watch this), Kate Kelton (HAVEN), Eddie Izzard (OCEAN’S THIRTEEN among others), Eric Roberts (THE DARK KNIGHT and police blotters in some very interesting places), and multitudes of other great talents. And Alan himself gets to sit in the big arm chair and do the kind of audio commentary that rips our culture a new one. read article

Cartoon Network New ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Special On the Air Tonight!

At last! What we’ve all been waiting for. (Yeah, well, erm, we have anyway. And “we” means, you know, “we.” Right?

powerpuff-ringo-starrby Al Marechal

Cartoon Network is adding a little sugar, spice and everything nice back to its lineup — for one night, at least.

The cabler has slated a new “Powerpuff Girls” special for January 20th, one that will reunite the original voice cast Catherine Cavadini, Tara Strong, E.G. Daily, Roger L. Jackson, Tom Kane and Tom Kenny. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 12/19/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Wayne Beach (MURDER AT 1600) is writing the pilot for WGN America’s suspense drama, AMERICAN DREAM about a homicide cop trying to nail a mega-zillionaire CEO. (Sounds like a cool series…if only we knew who/what WGN America was. Anybody wanna google it and tell us?)
  • Kurt Sutter (a little thing called BREAKING BAD) is developing THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER as a series for Netflix. (Cuz he’s Kurt Sutter and he can damn well develop anything he wants to – and get paid. Yes, okay, we’re definitely eating our heart out here.)
  • Patrick Macmanus (MARCO POLO) is writing THE INN, a supernatural drama pilot for NBC. (A classic ghost story complete with a group of strangers gathered together in a weird hotel? Execution will be everything. Wait. Did we say “execution?” Maybe Kurt Sutter will join the process with his bastard?)
  • Matthew Perry (Yeah, that guy) is writing a new version of Neil Simon’s THE ODD COUPLE with Danny Jacobson (MAD ABOUT YOU). (Cuz God forbid Neil Simon should be allowed to put his stamp on his own creation. His style has been the basis for TV comedy for almost 50 years, but, you know, enough is enough.)
  • Chas Smith is adapting his book, Welcome to Paradise, Now To to Hell into a Fox 21 Productions cable series about crime/murder/adrenalin and – did you guess it? – surfing. (This one might be a little iffy, cuz you know what happened to the last big surfing series on cable. No? Google JOHN FROM CINCINATTI and you’ll sadly see.)

Yet Another Way Christmas is a Depressing Time of Year

…At least it is for us at TVWriter™ when we learn facts like these:

the originals
Wait! They named a spinoff THE ORIGINALS? WTF?

CW’s ‘Originals’ Most Popular New Show on Social Media
by Aaron Couch

The CW’s The Originals is proving it doesn’t suck to be a vampire — at least not on social media.

The Vampire Diaries spinoff tops fall’s freshmen TV shows when it comes to its social media fanbase. The drama boasts more than 1.9 million fans across Facebook and Twitter, according to a new ranking from ListenFirst, which aggregates and analyzes data streams across social, digital and traditional channels. read article