Use Your Ideas While They’re Hot

…Which means before you get tired of them. Cuz according to Steve Corona, if you wait too long your precious creative babies are, well, they’re toast:

Ideas have a 2 week shelf life – by Steve Corona

I have a new rule that I’m making for myself and holding others to. read article

munchman: HAPPY DAYS Writer-Producer Bob Brunner Has Really Jumped the Shark Now

The headline of this post is our typically sensitive TVWriter™ way of reporting the death of very funny writer Bob Brunner, the dood who gave Fonzie his name and even came up with the idea for the HAPPY DAYS scene where a water-skiing Fonzie does in fact “jump the shark.”

Bob died of a heart attack October 28th at the age of 78. A long-time buddy of HAPPY DAYS honcho Garry Marshall, he wrote LAVERNE & SHIRLEY and BLANSKY’S BEAUTIES as well as HAPPY DAYS. read article

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

“A word written is a penny earned – except when it isn’t.” (Anon.)

  • Olaf Olafsson (VALENTINES, the novel) is adapting his book into a pilot of the same name for the Sundance Channel. The story focuses on a high-powered NY attorney and his 3 daughters (and is produced by some guy named Robert Redford).
  • Dylan Gary (TELL ME YOU LOVE ME) is writing another Sundance Channel pilot, BEHIND THE SUN, about a Malibu family whose lives come unraveled after they learn that their teenage son has a rare allergy to the sun (because, you know, what’s Malibu without sun? Huh? Huh?)
  • Aaron Guzikowski (CONTRABAND) is writing the pilot for a 3rd Sundance Channel hopeful, THE DESCENDANTS, about a small town sheriff struggling to do his job and also keep his family together (in the time-honored tradition of – and we’re just guessing here – BEHIND THE SUN).
  • Anya Epstein & Dan Futterman (IN TREATMENT) are writing T, about a post-op transgendered male learning to live publicly as a man, yet one more Sundance Channel pilot (guaranteed to appeal…hmm, to whom, exactly? We wonder…)
  • Josh Shaffer & Eli Kooris (no major credits so we like them already) are writing DEATH IN THE MODERN AGE, about a suburban guy who plots his own death so he can start a new life for – wow, would you believe it? – the Sundance Channel (intent, it would seem on reinventing itself much like the character here).

We find ourselves fascinated by the total disregard for orthodoxy all the projects above show and hope all of them succeed. Not because we have a thing for Sundance, but because wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the other cable (and broadcast) channels had a good reason to take their own plunges into unexplored fictional terrain?

Yahoo Interviews the Doctor Puppet’s Companion

…Who turns out to be the most charming of all the Companions we’ve seen the Doctor himself, um, have.

The Doctor Puppet, looking pretty cocky. Hmm…

Hey, we just figured out that his mouth is drawn on with a marker. That’s how he changes expressions. (How long has it taken for us to get this? Ouch.)

Oh…we almost forgot. The Yahoo interview awaits. read article

Top TVWriter™ Posts for the Week Ending 11/9

Here they are, the most viewed TVWriter™ posts for the week ending Friday, November 9th:

Job Opportunity of the Day read article