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.”)

STAR TREK Trio Demonstrates Domestic Bliss

This is all kinds of awesome:

Three guys you may know clean up after helping Patrick Stewart’s son celebrate his birthday. Yep, this is Brent Spiner, Scott Bakula, and Michael Dorn in Stewart’s kitchen. Just like we always wanted them to be. read article

Peer Production: Neil Patrick Harris Reveals His Soul

Well, his dreams, really. His deep, dark,  chill you to the bone PUPPET DREAMS.

Are you ready for a pseudo reality series collaboration between Neil Patrick Harris and Brian Henson? read article

DEXTER & BURN NOTICE: Fun in the Sun? Or Something Much Darker?

And now, a little overthink for those of you who prefer it when your cortexes go ka-blam!

Miami Justice: Two Sides of the Same Coin – by Ben Adams

Why do we punish? And why is it so much fun to see punishment doled out? From crime procedurals like Law and Order to superheroes dominating the box office inThe Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers, we seem to have a collective fascination with the punishment of wrong-doers. But where does the urge to punish come from? Why are we so insistent that the wicked suffer? Because that’s the key question – punishment, but it’s very nature, is generally backwards looking. Punishing the murderer doesn’t bring back the dead. What good does it do anyone to inflict further suffering, even if it seems like someone “deserves” it? My colleague Matthew Belinkie has explored the legal side of punishment at length, so I’m going to turn my attention towards the extra-legal side of punishment – the vigilante. read article

The Best Websites and Software for Brainstorming and Mind Mapping

Because thinking is easier than writing:

from How-To-Geek

FreeMind

FreeMind is a free mind-mapping program written in Java. It supports folding and unfolding with one click and the ability to follow HTML links stored in the nodes to websites or local files. You can drag and drop nodes to copy one or more nodes and to copy text or a list of files from outside the program. read article