Category: News

AXE COP is coming to TV

For those who are so damn out of it you inspire nothing but contempt – not any of our TVWriter™ regulars, we’re sure, but those, erm, other guys who sometimes come around – AXE COP is a wild, woolly, fun, in, hip, and trendy online comic strip series, possibly the best one there is, “written,” as the site says, “by a 5 year old and illustrated by his 29 year old brother.” Family dynamics aside, it’s awesome.

AXE COP is also a new cartoon series scheduled to appear on Fox next summer.  Which is why we’re so happy about presenting this first clip we just found. (See, we’re smiling cuz there’s gonna be more. So much MORE!!!) read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/31/12

“Every hugely successful writer I know simply writes what he or she loves…and has been lucky enough to love the same things the audience does.” (LB)
  • Zach Braff (yeah, that Zach Braff) is writing the pilot for the ABC sitcom GARAGE BAR, about a group of friends dealing with the celebrity of one of them, who has become a pop star. (Zach will also direct and serve as E.P. for the series because, hell, he is a pop star of sorts thanks to SCRUBS and GARDEN STATE.))
  • Gideon Yago (THE NEWSROOM) is writing CITY HALL, an ABC drama about a city’s youthful mayor and her staff. (Gideon will also be an E.P. because he may not be a pop star but nevertheless his credentials are impressive: He wrote for CBA and MTV News and was fired from THE NEWSROOM by pop star Aaron Sorkin.)
  • Steve Agee (THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM) & Rob Schrab (CHILDEN’S HOSPITAL) are writing an “untitled coming-of-age comedy for FX based on Agee’s military school experiences. (No, we don’t usually think of military schools as funny, but the pitch calls this “tonally similar to FREAKS & GEEKS, and a good pitch trumps reality every time.)
  • David Marshall Grant (BROTHERS & SISTERS) & Michael Lannan (REMEMBER ME) are writing an HBO comedy pilot about being gay in San Francisco. (Sorry, folks, no high concept or pop stars here. Move along, move along.)
  • Marco Pennette (ANIMAL PRACTICE) has written the TV Land Pilot GIANT BABY. (Kirstie Alley and Rhea Perlman supply the pop power in this baby. Yeah.)

Even Bigshot Writers Get Rejected Dept

Man, this bugs us!

In a recent article in the U.K.-based Telegraph, Russell T. Davies, the man who brought us the 21st Century DOCTOR WHO, creating not just a fan fave but the biggest cash cow in BBC telly history, explains why he moved to the U.S. and then returned recently to the U.K. and also fills us in on his part in upcoming DOCTOR WHO 50th anniversary festivities: read article

New York Television Festival Winners

This thing gets bigger/better/more important each year. Talk about a way to jump start your TV career!

NYTVF winner ‘Shrink,’ created by Ted Tremper

The 2012 New York Television Festival Announces Its Winners, Including ‘Galaxy Comics,’ ‘Shrink’ and More – by Alison Willmore

The eighth annual New York Television Festival wrapped last night ( Saturday) by announcing the winners of its main Independent Pilot Competition, as well as the final selections for various scripted and unscripted contests that come with development deals at networks like Fox, A&E, Lifetime and others.

The festival, which ran from October 22 to 27 in New York, included panels, workshops, industry pitch sessions and screenings of all 51 selections in the IPC, broken up into the categories of animation, comedy, drama and unscripted. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/28/12

“Write to tell a story, not to sell a story” (Gerald Sanford of BARNABY JONES, KNIGHTRIDER, etc. writing fame)
  • Margaret Nagle (SENSE & SENSIBILITY) is writing the pilot for the Fox sitcom PARADISE FALLS, about a documentary maker investigating a “Memphis Three” type story. (Everyplace else on the web talks about the producer of this project like he’s kind of a big deal. So we’ll leave him nameless here.)
  • David Hubbard (something called NOEL) is writing THE RETURN OF DANIEL SHEPHERD for HBO. (Everyplace else on the web neglects to tell what this project actually is – a pilot or a TV movie or what. We aren’t telling either. Not our fault, honest – the inept press release doesn’t say.)
  • Terry George (HOTEL RWANDA) is writing THE CLAN for ABC. (Um, nope we don’t have info on whether this is a pilot because the same inept P.R. team as above hasn’t said. But to atone for that, this time around we’ll tell you who the featured player in this deal talked about on all the other sites is: Charlize Theron, who’s producing. No comment on her value in that, erm, position.)
  • Thomas Bradshaw (playwright whose work includes THE BEREAVED) is writing a drama pilot for HBO about a black college president. (The Big Gun here is Oprah Winfrey, who’s company is producing. Ask not why her own network isn’t presenting this. The answer, we’re sure, would be, “$$$$,” as in “too much.”)