Tag: Lena Dunham

Kelly Jo Brick: The Write Path With SCANDAL’s Raamla Mohamed – Part Two

A series of interviews with hard-working writers
– by another hard-working writer!

by Kelly Jo Brick

Aspiring writers often wonder how the pros got where they are. The truth is, everyone’s story is different, but there are some common elements: dedication, persistence, hard work and not giving up.

Writer Raamla Mohamed’s career is a prime example of what can happen when a person puts in the hard work to make the most of every opportunity. After attending grad school at USC, Raamla landed a job as a writers’ PA on GREY’S ANATOMY. She went on to become a researcher on OFF THE MAP and SCANDAL. Selection to the Disney-ABC Writing Program got her a writing position on SCANDAL where she has risen from staff writer to producer. She was also a writer on the upcoming ShondaLand show STILL STAR-CROSSED. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 3/11/14

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

  • Chrissy Pietrosh & Jessica Goldstein (COUGAR TOWN) have signed a 2 year deal to develop new projects for Universal TV. (So if you’re a big fan of COUGAR TOWN, MY NAME IS EARL, and something called BIG DAY, rejoice cuz with this kind of money changing hands something these two ladies write will definitely show up on your screen. OTOH, if you aren’t a fan….)
  • Lena Dunham (GIRLS) is writing a 4 part comic book series about everybody’s least hip, trendy, edgy, or even interesting teenager – Archie! Yep, she’s going to give the world her take on Archie and his gang. (And to make matters worse, Archie Comics is actually paying her to completely destroy their franchise. Oh, has the munchie one gone too far in showing his displeasure? Nah…I haven’t even come close to adequately expressing my disgust.)
  • Dylan Morgan & Josh Siegal (30 ROCK) have joined the uber talented Chrissy and Jessica with a 2 year deal of their own at Universal. (Except on this one el muncho is looking forward to the results of their labors.)
  • Leesa Dean (CHILLTOWN TV) has won the Focal Press “Bound to Create” contest, and TVWriter™ couldn’t be happier. (Cuz not only is she a genius animation writer-creator-producer, she just happens to be one of our featured columnists. Congrats, Leesa. Just one question…who’s Focal Press? Please spill cuz let’s be honest here, your friendly neighborhood munchman is way too lazy to google)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 2/13/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
  •  Roseanne Barr (don’t try to pretend you don’t know who she is) has signed a development deal with NBC, although we don’t know if she’ll put on her writing hat.  (Hey, don’t be sad. The network wanted her to play a part on THE OFFICE and this is just part of her payment. Oh, wait, maybe we should be very sad.)
  • Lena Dunham & Jenni Konner (both of ROBOTS GIRLS) are writing an HBO pilot based on Betty Halbreich’s upcoming memoir All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go,  about the trials and tribulations of a Bergdorf Goodman personal shopper. (Yeppers, it’s a fact of life that all HBO subscribers know all about that particular store and even what personal shoppers are. Maybe they even all have them. America, we love you.)
  • Speaking of books, Nathan Bransford’s new book, Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp is coming out this week, and we’re going way out on a limb to recommend that everybody read this latest installment in his Jacob Wonderbar series.  (Who knows? Maybe he’ll get a TV deal out of it, and we can move into the limelight and claim it’s all because of us. Yeah, we’re adorable that way, hmm?)
  • And, speaking of people who don’t write TV,  MTV has named Mina Lefevre, formerly of ABC Family, head of scripted  programming. If you know Mina, you should give her a call and start pitching. If you don’t know her, you should find a way to wangle a meeting and start pitching. (And if you’re Mina herself, you should start writing your own stuff cuz then you’ll get TVWriter™’s ultimate honor: We’ll put your name in bold the next time we mention it here.

Aha, we knew there was something else. In honor of the fact that we think Nathan Bransford and Jacob Wonderbar are both way cool, here’s the trailer for the new book:

Why We Totally Hate HBO’s GIRLS

RobotGirlsCapture
Click the pic & see what happens (it’s so incredible the way clicking just kinda takes you somewhere…)

Yes, it’s true, everybody here at TVWriter™ despises the series GIRLS. We think it’s puerile, stereotypical, and, as Gwen the Beautiful, totally sweet, calm, and secure wife of Our Feckless Leader, LB, puts it:

Nope, sorry, but I can’t watch another episode. The first two have already made me hate myself for being the parent of a 20-something daughter and at the same time totally mistrust her. Is that what television shows are supposed to do?

It’s with that mindset that we went crusing around FUNNY OR DIE.COM and found its GIRLS soulmate – ROBOTS. Many, many thanks, FODC, for making it possible for us to totally hate bots now too! read article

Today’s TV Writing Deals Dept: 10/7/12

Old TV writing joke: “Know why TV writers brag about their deals? Cuz that’s all they have.” Think about it:

  • Tyler Perry (TYLER PERRY’s HOUSE OF PAYNE, MEET THE BROWNS) is writing and producing 2 new shows for OWN, in return for which he now has a very large ownership stake in the net. (Jeeze, nobody ever told us we had to buy our way into TV…and yet it definitely makes sense. Depressing sense, but sense.)
  • Douglas Segal (THREE KINGS) is writing a supernatural drama about a devil trying to save “compromised souls” for the CW. (Let that be a lesson to us all: No compromise! No surrender! Oh, that isn’t what it means?)
  • M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE) & John Glenn (EAGLE EYE) are writing the pilot for LOST HORIZON for NBC. (Strangely, LOST HORIZON isn’t based on the book of the same name but on MOBY DICK. We figure somebody misread their high school reading list and still hasn’t been corrected.)
  • Ryan Murphy (GLEE, AMERICAN HORROR STORY, THE NEW NORMAL) is writing the pilot for MONTAUK, a conspiracy thriller, for Fox and an unnamed sitcom for NBC. (Yes, it’s true. We don’t even know this guy and we hate him. We really do. And if that isn’t the essence of showbiz, what is?)
  • Charley and Vlas Parlapanides (IMMORTALS) are writing THE CENTURIAN, about a Marine working with the angel of his best friend for CBS. (The way we hear it, the original pitch was about a Marine working with “the agent” of his best friend, but something got lost in the translation and who’s going to argue with a “Yes?”)
  • GIRLS creator Lena Dunham will be getting over $3,500,000 for her book of essays, Not That Kind of Girl, (because she’s got herself a very hot, in, and trendy series and why should she settle for less?)