Tag: dan o’shannon

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 2/18/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Neil Gaiman‘s novel Anansi Boys is being made into a BBC miniseries. Although Neil wrote a screenplay for a movie version that fell through a few years ago, no writer has been set yet for the TV version. (Me! Me! See my hand up in the air? See it? Look closer, dammit! Look!)
  • Dan O’Shannon (MODERN FAMILY) is leaving his Exec Prod gig on that series to start slaving away in a 3 year overall deal with CBS TV Studios. munchman and TVWriter™ will be looking forward to everything that this very funny guy comes up with during his CBS stint. (And you should be calling your representative to see about replacing him on MF cuz you know in your heart you’re just as funny, right? Or almost, anyway.)
  • Daniel Brocklehurst (UK version of SHAMELESS) is developing Hannah Fidell‘s feature, A TEACHER, into a drama series at HBO. (And munchie’s absolutely positive he’s gonna live this one cuz “The series centers on a high school teacher in her late 20?s in the midst of a torrid affair with one of her students.” Tastelessness and political incorrectness rule!)

munchman reads “What Are You Laughing At?”

Ken Levine says this is the best comedy writing book evah…and who are we to disagree?

by Ken Levine

If anybody ever had great credentials for a book about comedy – what it is, what it ain’t – Dan O’Shannon, Emmy winning showrunner of MODERN FAMILY, former showrunner of FRASIER, former executive producer of CHEERS is the guy. His approach – analyzing the “comedic event” as opposed to examining joke structure, makes you wonder why anybody ever even thought of looking at what’s funny another way. To O’Shannon, context is everything…and he’s convinced me of it too.

With that in mind: read article

MODERN FAMILY Exec Prod Writes a Book About Writing Comedy

We’re hoping that it’s at least, you know, funny.

Everything you ever needed to know about comedy
by Ken Levine

Dan O’Shannon is one of the executive producers of MODERN FAMILY.  He was a showrunner of FRASIER and an executive producer of CHEERS.  The man knows funny.  Recently he wrote a terrific book called WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?  A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE COMEDIC EVENT.   Somehow he managed to explain comedy, which to me is harder than trying to describe the color red over the radio.   As insane as it is to plug someone else’s book when I’m still shamelessly hawking mine (available here — go buy it), I really recommend Dan’s book (which you can order here).  Recently, I had the chance to talk to him about it. read article