Category: News

An Insider’s Shocking Look at this year’s Oscar Winners

John Lewis presenting clip of “Green Book” on last Sunday’s Oscarcast

“Shocking” because it appears to this TVWriter™ minion to be not only rational but also pretty positive. Don’t get me wrong. I love snarking about the show, the award, and the Hollywood film industry in general, but this time around Roger Friedman is saying some very insightful things:

Oscars Wouldn’t Have Brought John Lewis to LA for Nothing– They Knew “Green Book” Would Win
by Roger Friedman

Donna Gigliotti did a kick ass job producing the Academy Awards. The show moved fast, the performances were all memorable, and no one noticed the absence of a host.

But they could easily have asked Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph to host the show. They were phenomenal. read article

Amazon Prime Could Be the Best Way to Release Your Indie Film

Did you know that Amazon has opened up a new distribution path? It’s called Prime Video Direct and, strangely, its existence has been an unintentional secret – even from TVWriter™. Here’s the scoop:

by Noam Kroll

It wasn’t long ago that self-distribution was an extremely difficult avenue to pursue, and was simply a last resort for filmmakers who couldn’t secure traditional distribution… But in the last few years, that’s all changed. read article

Most Viewed TVWriter™ Posts of the Week – Feb 25, 2019

Happy Monday everybody!

Hope you’ve had a great weekend. It’s time now for TVWriter™’s latest look at our most popular blog posts of the week ending yesterday. They are: read article

This Just In: 2019 Writers Guild Awards

Don’t you just love how the mainstream pubs show pix of actors even though writers are the actual recipients of awards? Neither do we.

The Writers Guild of America picks its winners!

Eighth Grade
Bo Burnham
Best Original Screenplay
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty
Best Adapted Screenplay
Barry
Bill Hader, Sarah Solemani, Emily Heller, …
Best New Series
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Amy Sherman-Palladino, Jen Kirkman, Daniel Palladino, …
Best Comedy Series
The Americans
Joe Weisberg, Joshua Brand, Stephen Schiff, …
Best Drama Series
Lowell Ganz
Laurel for Screenwriting
Babaloo Mandel
Laurel for Screenwriting
Paean to the People
Alex Gansa
Best Episodic TV Drama
Jenji Kohan
TV Writing Achievement
Chapter One: Make Your Mark
Bill Hader, Alec Berg
Best Episodic TV Comedy
Bathtubs Over Broadway
Dava Whisenant, Ozzy Inguanzo
Documentary Screenplay
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Tom Rob Smith, Maggie Cohn
Best Adapted Long Form
God of War
Cory Barlog, Richard Zangrande Gaubert, Orion Walker, …
Best Video Game Writing
Castle Rock
Sam Shaw, Dustin Thomason, Mark Lafferty, …
Best Original Long Form
The Fake News with Ted Nelms
Ed Helms, Sara Schaefer, Joe Randazzo, …
Comedy/Variety – Specials
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
John Oliver, Daniel O’Brien, Josh Gondelman, …
Comedy/Variety Talk Series
General Hospital
Chris Van Etten, Lloyd Gold, Shelly Altman, …
Best Daytime Drama
Adam McKay
Vice
Paul Selvin Award
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Steve Melcher, Ann Slichter, James Rowley, …
Best Quiz and Audience Participation
Class of Lies
Tessa Williams
Original Short Form New Media

Congrats to everyone from TVWriter™!

Question for the source of the above list, our good friends at Wikipedia: Shouldn’t these categories all be labeled “best writing?”

Herbie J Pilato Presents the Man Wonder – Burt Ward

Everything you need to know about the “Legendary Pop-Icon and Humanitarian,” by our legendary Contributing Editor Emeritus.” (That title means that Herbie, erm, outgrew us…and his professional growth spurt makes us proud.) Anyway:

by Herbie J Pilato

Burt Ward, pop-culture icon and world-renown humanitarian, was about three seconds late for our phone interview, and he apologized.

But the apology, of course, was not necessary, certainly because his delay was only a minuscule of a moment, and secondly because he was detained due to his non-stop efforts to rescues dogs. read article