TVWriter™ Contributing Editor Emeritus (because he’s so busy with other great things these days) Herbie J Pilato tells us how he got his new hit talk show, Then Again, off the lunching pad and streaming on Amazon Prime (and Shout Factory TV too).
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This article on the effect of fandom on the Good Omens miniseries brings out the quantum theorist in this TVWriter™ minion. As in – Do the acts of reading and commenting on a creative work actually change the work itself?
At the very least, it would see that they can’t keep from having an effect on the writers/ What do you think?
I’m just going to say it: I liked the Good Omens miniseries more than the novel. It’s sacrilege among Book Folks, my people, to admit this, but sometimes recasting an old story into a new medium improves the experience. (Remember Legally Blonde, the Amanda Brown novel? Of course you don’t.) There are several reasons why I preferred the show, but mostly it’s because the novel didn’t have Aziraphale and Crowley’s queer-as-hell relationship — unarguably the best part — as the main focus.
So when I say Good Omens the show is “better” than Good Omens the book, what I mean is, it’s gayer.
Good Omens isn’t unique in its having fans who read queerness into the text. Fandoms have been doing this for years: Supernatural immediately comes to mind, as does The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. What does make Good Omens unique is that this fan-created queer love story — a fairy tale for the end of the world — pretty much came true when the story was adapted from the page to the screen.
Consider the standard one-sentence summary of the miniseries, which goes like this: In the final days leading up to the final battle between Heaven and Hell, the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley work together to thwart the apocalypse. Reviews may continue from there to praise the show’s casting, humor, or Emmy-nominated music — but then, inevitably, every article says something like “at its heart, this is a love story,” in reference to the obvious Crowley-and-Aziraphale-Making-Heart-Eyes-At-Each-Other moments throughout.
Here’s the thing, though: I don’t think it actually is a love story. Or rather, I don’t think the book was.
A more accurate novel summary is this: Shortly after his 11th birthday, Adam Young starts displaying mysterious powers. As various supernatural forces gather around him, he and his friends (the Them) decide if their world is worth saving….
We admit it. We here at TVWriter™ aren’t sure why these cartoons made us smile so widely (hey, we never laugh. We’re professionals, don’tcha know?), but we hope they do the same for y’all.
Last week – on November 5th, to be precise – I posted my preliminary thoughts about this year’s PEOPLE’S PILOT entries.
I still can’t go too far beyond that because I’ll need to have read all the entries to make valid comparisons and judgments about PEOPLE’S PILOT 2019 in relation to previous runnings of the competition, but I do have a couple of things to add in response to some questions that have come up.
So:
Note:
The PP doesn’t ask for gender and probably would be breaking the law if it did, which means that the above figures have to be regarded with caution because they are only estimates based on pretty darn flimsy data – the writers’ names and my probably naive interpretation of the gender they usually are used for.
Similarly, I have no idea of how many of the entrants have eschewed binary gender identification and regard themselves in another way altogether.
In other words, my apologies for what seems to me to be a most inadequate response.
While we’re on the subject, I have to say that the percentage of women entrants has surprised me. I always assumed it was much higher because over the 5+ years I’ve been holding Larry Brody’s Master Class a full 64% of the students have been women.
Why do women account for almost 2/3 of my students yet less than 1/3 of the contest entrants? Anyone out there want to venture a guess? You can get in touch with me via the comments or email me at larrybrody@tvwriter.com .
I think this low turnout sucks and take full responsibility for it. I’m open to any and all suggestions for how to improve the “intended-for-emedia-response in next year’s PP.
Well, that’s not quite accurate. I’m open to more than suggestions. I’m ready and willing to accept genuine help in getting more of those involved in what I think of as next-gen TV into PEOPLE’S PILOT 2020.
If you’re interested in getting involved in this aspect of the competition – or any other aspect of it for that matter – by all means leave a comment below or email me at larrybrody@tvwriter.com .
Thanks to everyone who has been interested and excited enough to get in touch with me about the contest and, of course, to all those who entered.
LYMI
LB
Cord Cutters News’ Luke Bouma gives us the latest on the cord cutting front. One thing we can count on whether we watch it or not: The battle for our entertainment $$$ is getting bigger everyday.
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