Category: The TV Biz

Bill Bixby Remembered by Friends & Co-Workers – including Our Own LB

Back in the dim, dark 1970s, before most TVWriter™ visitors were even imagined, let alone born, our founder, Larry Brody, got his first TV writing staff job on a little-remembered series called The Magician.

At the beginning of the 2018 holiday season while Team TVWriter™ was beginning its vacation, LB was contacted by entertainment journalist Ed Gross and interviewed for a piece Ed was writing for Closer Weekly on the late Bill Bixby, star of The Incredible Hulk (where he shared the titular role with Lou Ferrigno), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, My Favorite Martian, and several more series including, yep, that self-same The Magician.

Now completed, Ed’s perceptive view of Bixby’s life and work is available for your reading pleasure on the Closer Weekly site, and, thanks to Ed’s generosity, you can also read LB’s bit right here: read article

WGAW January 2019 Calendar

Knowing what’s going on in the Writers Guild of America can be helpful to TV and film writers in many ways, even if you aren’t a member. So, for your edification:

Events listed are current at time of publication. Dates and details are subject to change during the month. To see the live calendar, click here. (Member Login required for that, sorry.)

5 Ways to Break In as a TV Writer

It’s True Origin Story time! A solid guide to getting started writing for TV that we believe is worth taking to heart:

by Rebecca Norris

Dreaming of writing for TV? Via interviews with five working TV writers in Hollywood, this guide will take you through different ways that writers have broken into the television business. Even though their paths are different, there are three things the writers all have in common: hard work, love of the craft, and perseverance. You’ll want to set aside at least an hour to get the most out of this guide and these exclusive classes and interviews. This guide is created specifically for TSL 360 members. Get ready for a big dose of inspiration! read article

“The Industry Can Always Find a Way to Break Your Heart”

The words above were spoken to our Beloved Leader, Larry Brody many years ago, when he first entered the showbiz jousting lists, by producer Jack Chertok, best known in TV history for the 182 episodes of The Lone Ranger he produced in the 1950s.

They were true then, and they’re true now, especially if you’re a newbie…and, in spite of recent changes, a woman. For example:

read article

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Star on What It Was Like Not Finding Success Until Her Fifties

Actress Ann Dowd tells the 2018 Glamour Women of the Year Summit how it felt to find success later in life, which when you get down to it is a thing we all need to consider, even – gasp! – writers:

by Ann Dowd

I want to tell you a brief story, if I may. When I was a young actress, 30 or so, I was on the way to my waitress job in my black pants and my white shirt and my black tie—glamour is not the word that would come to mind at all. Feminine? No. Nothing. I looked across the street, and there were several limousines parked outside the theater. And I looked at the marquee and it said, “About Last Nightstarring Elizabeth Perkins,” who was my classmate. I was going to wait on tables, and she was going to a premiere of her film that would launch her into stardom.

I got through the shift, and I went home on my porch, and I wept and screamed into the night, “When?! When is my turn?” And it was one of those dark nights of the soul—we’re all familiar, I’m sure. And a voice—I’m not kidding—quiet, probably from the inside, said, “It will all be fine. It will all be all right. You will be in your fifties. You will be 56.” And I said, “Oh no! No, no!”—missing the whole point of the voice—I said, “I’m not waiting until my fifties. I have no intention, so you can take that message and…” read article