Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/25/14

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

  • Lauren Iungerich (AWKWARD) is writing the pilot for COUCH DETECTIVE, an ABC series about a young woman detective who solves crimes “based on her encyclopedic knowledge of every true-crime TV special, police procedural and made-for-TV movie. (At last, a potential show for LB to work on! Time to hit the phones, boss. And yer friendly neighborhood munchman thinks it’s a pretty good idea too!)
  • James Ellroy (some crazy novelist) is developing an untitled noir series for HBO. (Which also could be right up LB’s alley. Are you reading this, man? Agent convo time, no?)
  • Larry Kaplow (HOUSE) has sold an untitled medical show with an eccentric protagonist to CBS. (With, methinks, a little help from his friends and producing partners on the project, Katie Jacobs and some babe name of Halle Berry. You guys got room for LB on this one? Huh?)
  • Seth Grahame-Smith (ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER) is writing the pilot for THE THINGS THEY LEFT BEHIND, based on a Stephen King short story of the same name. (Uh-oh, just got a text from LB. “Stop looking at gigs for me, muncher!!! I’m too old, too rich, and way too full of my own self to work for anybody anymore, let alone the geniuses you’re trying to set me up with.” Gotcha, boss man, sorry. Too bad Stephen King doesn’t feel the same way. Every time he joins a project, even a Stephen King adaptation – well, you all know how it comes out. Not saying that you wouldn’t be brilliant if you were back in TV, LB, but–

(EDITED BY LB TO ADD: Muncher, I told you to SHUT UP!!!)

So, um, that’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/23/14

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

  • Kevin Costello (UP IN THE AIR) is writing a Fox drama pilot about an airline flight crew who pull big heists in various layover cities as a sideline.  (Here’s hoping there’s a bit more to this than the description. Although yer munchero finds it fascinating that the usually ultra-conservative TV nets are into such heavy, Bonnie and Clyde style anti-dis-establishmentarianism. Hey, did I spell that word right? I know I probably used it wrong.)
  • Betsy Thomas (WHITNEY) is the new showrunner of NBC’s BAD JUDGE. (Give her a call! Take her to lunch! Promise a kickback from your salary. Maybe – if she doesn’t call the cops on you – you’ll end up with a gig. Stranger things have happened, right?)
  • David G.B. Brown (THE SCARECROW AND MRS. KING) died September 6th at 67. (No snark or jokes here, just TVWriter™’s condolences to his family and friends. Good writer!
  • Lee Maddux (NIGHT COURT) died September 9th at 84. (No snark here either, although funny man that he was, Mr. Maddux might appreciate a few jokes. If only the munchy dude was funny enough to do him justice. Condolences to Mr. M’s family and friends.

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/21/14

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

  • Kevin Nealon (WEEDS) & Susan Yeagley (PARKS & RECREATION) have sold a to be titled comedy to NBC about “a recently divorced couple still tied to…each other…through their jointly owned business.” (To which munchadillio can say only, “Congrats to one of the coolest couples in Hollywood!” I’d be trying to hook them up with each other personally as well as professionally, but the good news is that I don’t have to. They’re already married – to each other. Lookin’ forward to this show, kids!)
  • Brad Copeland (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) is writing the pilot ABC’s new comedy set to star Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo. (Who aren’t a married couple and about whom I’m not all that excited cuz let’s face it, Chevy’s onstage antics are legend, and not in the most positive way. And Mz D’Angelo? Well, hasn’t she basically been a kind of a cipher in every role she’s ever played? Good luck, Brad!)
  • Angela Kinsey (THE OFFICE) has joined forces with Rachel Spector & Audrey Wauchope (COUGAR TOWN) to create another untitled series, this one a “female buddy comedy” for ABC. (Sorry, gang, but munchero isn’t much interested in this one. Best female buddy comedy of all time has already been on the air for over 60 years – I LOVE LUCY, yessir. What? You thought that show was about Lucy and Ricky? Watch it again – it’s a Lucy-Ethel vehicle all the way. And the only show in the world that’s ever even come close to it is BBC’s miraculous MIRANDA, which only lasted 3 series. Sigh.)
  • Jeff Astrof (GROUND FLOOR) is writing the pilot for our last untitled comedy series of this post, a “restaurant comedy” for CBS based on some guys who own the Meatball Shop restaurants in New York City. (My suggestion is that you simply insert your own snark here cuz when it comes to meatball jokes, hey, everybody knows they write themselves.

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/16/14

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

  • Mike Lisbe & Nate Reger (HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN) have sold THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, a comedy in the tradition of FRIENDS, to NBC. (So if you always wanted to write for FRIENDS, it’s time now to dust off your old specs and your kneepads to prostrate yourself before the NBC powers that be. I know that I am cuz it’s about time el munchero sold out, don’tcha think?)
  • John Glenn (EAGLE EYE) is developing an NBC drama series called THE POSSESSION OF MAGGIE GILL about, you know, weird shit involving a teenage girl not unlike the one we all remember so fondly from THE EXORCIST. (Hands in the air now. Who thinks this will go to a shot pilot? Who thinks this will make the schedule? Who thinks it’ll last longer than 6 episodes? If you raised your hand for any of the above, I’ve got a bet to make with you cuz gambling is better, ethically, than selling out, don’tcha know?)
  • Greg Mottola (who may or may not be related to Tommy cuz how many Mottolas do you think there are running around LA?) is adapting Conn & Hal Iggulden‘s comic guidebook THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS for a comedy series at, yet again, NBC. (I’d love to have a snark or two about this project, but since I’ve never heard of anybody involved, nor the source material, all I can do is put my head in my hands and mumble, “Why? Why? Why?” Which means that I’d love to hear from anybody who knows more about this project than yer friendly neighborhood, oh, you know.
  • Ted Gold is the new dude in charge of scripted series programming over at Spike. (And although I don’t know him, I’m going to google up on the guy and then give his office and say I do. A little creative mutual history can go a long way in this town. Who else is up for playing this game?

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/14/14

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

  • Malcolm Gladwell (numerous New Yorker pieces) & Glenn Gordon Caron (MEDIUM) are writing the pilot for the Fox medical drama, THE CURE, about “a young, impulsive, African-American neurologist who takes the law into her own hands in the cause of tackling a deadly disease.” (Here’s hoping the series is better written than the blurb. A genuine munchprize awaits the first reader to name all the problems in that silly partial sentence. For reals. I’ll send ya something. Promise.)
  • Alex Sulkin & Julius Sharpe (DADS) are also writing a Fox pilot. This one’s a comedy called ALL TOGETHER NOW about a group of friends in their late 20s who vow to hang together as real people, sans their mobile electronics. (To which yer munchie one scoffs, “It’ll never work.” And by “it” I mean both the premise and the show. Cuz let’s face it, the only people who want to see a series that craps on our current interweb culture are folks so out of it that they don’t watch TV anyway…and certainly don’t buy the products that the sponsors are trying to sell.)
  • DJ Nash (GROWING UP FISHER) is developing the NBC sitcom THE CATCH, about a single dood who “for the first time in his life…[is]…sharing an apartment with a woman he’s not sleeping with. (What’s that? You caught me yawning at this? Um, erm, oh hell – damn straight you did. Funny how little interest I can muster for, like, the ’80s sensibility. How ’bout y’all?)
  • Speaking of ancient sensibilities, Claudia Lonow (HOW TO LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE is adapting Bob Morris’s book of the same name about “two half siblings who take care of their father.” (Cuz anybody over 40 is obviously an incontinent idiot no longer capable of running his/her own life. Just ask the development apes who commissioned this out of their needs to avenge themselves on parents who, yer muncho supposes, just didn’t wuv their babies enough.

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)