Category: TV Writing Deals

Peer Production: SHE GOT PROBLEMS Heading from YouTube to ABC

Alison McDonald!

We said a little about this deal earlier today here, but this is your chance to see what a web video that goes big time looks like. Hint: It doesn’t appear all that expensive. Hit up your parents and let talent and fate do the rest:

And, yeah, we admit that Ms McDonald’s no noob. She was a writer-story editor on NURSE JACKIE. More importantly, though, she took a shot…and, honest, you can too. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 12/5/12

Latest News About Writers Doing Better Than We Are

  • Diane Farr (NUMB3RS) will write a “semi-autobiographical comedy” for NBC based on her memoir, Kissing Outside the Lines. (Yes, she’s known as an actress, not a writer, but, hey, she’s cute, you know?)
  • Alison McDonald (NURSE JACKIE) is adapting her short video SHE GOT PROBLEMS in a pilot script for ABC. (Strangely, she also acts and does stand-up as well. Infer what ye may.)
  • David Goodman (THE FAMILY GUY) and Jason Ruiz (newby!) are teaming up to write MURDER POLICE, an animated comedy about a bumbling detective for Fox. (Neither of these guys is an actress, but Newby Ruiz is a top animator, which in our minds is much better prep for the rigors/horrors of writing a new series.)
  • Andy Bobrow (COMMUNITY) is writing the pilot for a sitcom, ROOKIE, about a young woman “reinventing” herself as a cop. (What? She was a robber before?)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 12/2/12

Latest News About Writers Doing Better Than We Are

  • Chad St. John (RONIN) is writing the pilot for Cinemax’s KINGPIN, a drama about a drug dealer being manipulated by a dirty DEA agent who’s really a dirty CIA agent who…but you get the idea.
  • Lisa Loomer (GIRL, INTERRUPTED) is writing the English language pilot adaptation of the telenovela RUBI for Fox. It’s about a beautiful but poor woman who will do anything to become rich, even give up the man she loves…but you get that idea too, right?
  • Dave Holstein (WEEDS) is writing the pilot SLATY FORK for 20th TV, a comedy about a young woman cop and her father the former police chief plus other police and firefighters and…yeah, right, you’ve got that idea too now, eh?
  • Neal Baer (A GIFTED MAN) is developing/writing/producing UNDER THE DOME, based on a book by some dood named Stephen King for CBS, which already has ordered 13 episodes produced. The book is about a small New England town that’s suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome and how its inhabitants survive without the internets…or something like that.

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/30/12

Latest News About Writers Doing Better Than We Are

  • Rumors abound that Kevin Costner’s 1995 feature film fiasco, WATERWORLD, is headed for Syfy as a series. No writers have been mentioned, so, hey, now’s the time to put your hat in the ring. (In other words, how long will it take you to write a complete spec science fiction script to prove your genius expertise adequacy?)
  • Chris Cantwell & Chris Rodgers (SHADOW RUNNERS, feature film) are writing HALT & CATCH FIRE, a drama about the PC boom in the early ’80s intended as a series on AMC. (In other words, nerds are in, for which we at TVWriter™ give heartfelt thanks.)
  • Alexander Rose’s book, Washington’s Spies) is the basis for Craig Silverstein’s (NIKITA) AMC pilot, TURN. (In other words, why let a good, descriptive name get in the way of confusing TV viewers, right?)
  • It’s official. DOWNTON ABBEY creator Julian Fellowes will write and produce NBC’s THE GILDED AGE, described by the network as “a sweeping epic in the style of DOWNTON ABBEY. (In other words, the U.S. finally gets its own overly-manipulative soap opera about rich people nobody in the audience will be able to stand. Awesome.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/27/12

Latest News About Writers Doing Better Than We Are (Why Do There Have To Be So Many?)

  • Rob Weiss & Jay Leggett & Blake Leibel (ENTOURAGE) are writing a sitcom about legalized pot for Fox. (Well, not really about pot. More about pot heads because a plant can’t be the star of a series unless it’s on Adult Swim, right?)
  • Spencer Hudnut (newbie!) has joined CBS’ UNFORGETTABLE as a staff writer. (And to think, we knew him when he was just, um, a lawyer. Movin’ up in the world, dood.)
  • Larry Stuckey (LITTLE FOCKERS) has sold a comedy project to ABC, based on his relationship with his brother. (Hey, isn’t everything we write based on some part of our lives? And don’t many of us have brothers? So why is Larry the one getting all the big bucks here?)
  • Talk about making it big. Over 20 years ago a newb writer named Judd Apatow (you name it, Judd wrote/directed/produced it) wrote a spec episode of THE SIMPSONS, and at last the show has bought it. (As Executive Producer Al Jean puts it: “For people who want to know how to write a freelance ‘Simpsons’ episode: Just do it, then have a megamilliondollar movie career and we’ll buy the spec.”)