Happy 4th of July

by Larry Brody

Traditionally, today’s a day for relaxing with family, and while I usually suck at that kind of thing, a good portion of the L.A. contingent of the Brody Family is here in town so I’ll be doing my best to be a regular guy:

Fabulous Farmers Market, just 2 blocks from the house!
Barbecue on our rooftop deck, looking out at the Sound!
Fireworks at the old Fort!
Kids!
Grandkids!
Terrified dogs!

TVWriter™ and our Usual Gang of Not Idiots will be back opining, snarking, reporting, and maybe even educating and entertaining tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy the day off and try to keep all your fingers. Writers need them, you know. (No, not just to type. To flip off authority. Because flipping off authority is what good writers do.)

Viva La Revolución and LYMI,

Bill Cosby & Other Famous Monsters of TV Land

by Larry Brody

My hero who doesn’t know I’m alive strikes again:

Bill Cosby: mentor?
by Ken Levine

I’ve always been a big fan of Bill Cosby. Loved his comedy albums as a kid, took my wife to Las Vegas to see his stand-up act…and admired THE COSBY SHOW (at least when it started). He was a true original and his comedy came out of reality. You laughed because you related. He was also a damn good spokesman for Jello. So I respect his work. We’re clear on that, right? read article

Nothing Shines Like Good COPPER

There’s something about this upcoming BBC America series. Oh, yeah – Tom Fontana & Barry Levinson. To us, that means it’s going to both sound and look GOOD.

(Note to BBC America: We know you have the official billing as Barry Levinson & Tom Fontana, but this site is writercentric…which we think you should be too.)

read article

munchman: Real 64 Year Old Women Do Not Look Like This

Older than my Gramma

Barbara Hershey to Star in Lifetime TV Movie ‘Left to Die’
by Lesley Goldberg

Barbara Hershey is heading to Lifetime.

The Oscar nominee has been tapped to star in the female-skewing cabler’s original telepicLeft to Die, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Based on a true story, Hershey will play Sandra Chase, a woman who takes an innocent vacation in Ecuador but ends up being wrongly imprisoned for drug trafficking. read article

Best Basis for a Ridley Scott Film Today

Scientist Finds Hidden Portals in Earth’s Magnetic Field
by Jesus Diaz

According to NASA, Jack Scudder—a researcher at the University of Iowa—has found “hidden portals on Earth’s magnetic field [that] open and close dozens of times each day.” Some of them are open for long periods of time.

Scudder says that these portals “create an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun’s atmosphere 93 million miles away.” read article