Stephen Colbert strikes gold, thanks to a cast of brilliant 8-year-olds:
This TVWriter™ minion is thinking that it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all for these kids to be in charge.
Category: The TV Biz
How to Cope with Grief Over Your Canceled Fave Show
Given all the recent and often unexpected series cancellations, we consider this article to be a true Public Service Announcement. Oh, and for you, erm, oldsters, this way of looking at things also works if you’re grieving about getting old:
by Laverne McKinnon
Let’s talk about grief. After all, it is the end of pilot season. I’m intimately familiar with the subject having worked at CBS and Epix and made countless pass phone calls. And as a producer, I’ll admit that I’ve been on the receiving end of more passes then I’ve given out. And if I’m really honest, there have been several times in my career where I’ve thought, “There must be something wrong with me because I can’t move on.” The grief got me stuck.
Larry Brody: Of Course TV is Childish. Here’s Why.
by Larry Brody
NOTE FROM LB: Another heartwarming tale, both personal and otherwise, from Turning Points in Television, the little history book that could’ve but didn’t. Enjoy!
Chicago. A blustery December day in 1948.
One year to the month after a People-and-Puppet Show that was renamed The Howdy Doody Show after its first week on the air, a four year old boy sat on the floor of his living room, looked up at the tiny (but oh, it seemed sooo big screen of his family’s TV set), and watched Clarabell the Clown sneak up on Bob Smith (who hadn’t yet become the legendary “Buffalo Bob”), and get ready to blast him–and anything or anyone else within range–with seltzer water.
Larry Brody: Showbiz, Adrenaline, and Testosterone Too
by Larry Brody
NOTE FROM LB: Once upon a time, I wrote a book called Turning Points in Television. It was supposed to be a legit history book, but I soon realized that the only things I felt comfortable writing about were those I could be absolutely sure were true – because they’d happened to me.
Fortunately, I had a wonderful editor who went along with my need to take a more or less phenomenological approach (great word, “phenomenological,” no?), and he gave me the green light to take that road.
It’s Apu Screenwriting Test Time!
Adi Shankar showrunner of The Simpsons is so eager to find a new direction in which to take the Apu character after all the hooting and hollering about, well, about racism and everything that ugly topic brings to mind, that he has started a writing contest to help find a new approach to an old and now much-maligned fave…and maybe give some lucky so-far unknown writer a big boost along the way.
Pretty darn good idea, yeah? Here’s the scoop:
