A few words from one of television’s – and the interweb’s – best writers.
Ken Levine of Cheers, M*A*S*H, Frasier, Ken Levine’s Blog, etc., etc.,etc. had the War Between The Writers Guild of America & The Association of Talent Agents on his mind over the weekend, especially in terms of how it impacts the current WGA Board of Directors election campaign.
And vice versa.
The Writers Guild of America vs. Association of Talent Agents have been at war for months, and we’ve written about it many times, but more than a few people are still unclear on what it’s all about.
We think the co-creator and executive producer of The Fosters and Good Trouble, Peter Paige, has a damn good handle on it.
We get quite a few queries about TV series bibles here at TVWriter™, especially during PEOPLE’S PILOT season. (Right now we’re in the middle of the entry period for our signature TV pilot writing contest, PEOPLE’S PILOT 2019.)
Our Beloved Leader Larry Brody covers the topic, and a whole lot more, in his mucho-respected (he likes to think of it as “adored”) book Television Writing from the Inside Out), and the bible thing also figures in the Basics of TV Writing section of this very site.
Recently, however, longtime TVWriter™ friend Chuck Fox found a marvelous treasure trove of bibles for recent shows including Stranger Things, The Wire, True Detective, Freaks and Geeks (this TVWriter™ minion’s all-time fave sitcom), Fargo, Adventure Time, and more at screencraft.org, and calling this collection a must-see is no exaggeration.
And we at TVWriter™ think that’s a pretty good idea. (Although this TVWriter™ minion’s a little concerned about the fact that she is and a major corporate profiteer are on the same side of his particular issue and…)
Ah well, nevermind. That’s a thought for another, more paranoid day.
The times are a’changin’. In case you’ve been wondering what the currently agentless (because WGA-ATA conflagration!) super writer-producers are doing to keep themselves in the style to which we all wish we were accustomed, here ’tis!
How much work is too much for a top showrunner? In a Peak TV era overflowing with choice, content creators big and small are leveraging the demand for their services with deals for exclusivity on different platforms.
On Aug. 7, Jeff Davis (Criminal Minds) inked a “broadcast-only” overall deal with the newly independent Fox Entertainment. While the pact was designed to be beneficial to the network — which says it also could sell Davis’ fare to outside platforms — the showrunner is still free to sign another TV overall deal elsewhere. That practice, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, has been growing quietly for the past few years as new platforms have emerged.