Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 3/8/14

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

  • David O. Russell (you know who he is) has left ABC’s THE CLUB, a series his presence helped sell, but co-writer Susannah Grant will remain. (You gotta ask yourself: If a guy like Russell can get dumped from a TV series, how rough must the politics of the medium really be? If yours truly had a mind, it’d be boggling!)
  • Rick Eid (DARK BLUE) is showrunning the new Lifetime drama series, THE LOTTERY, about stuff that happens in, you know, a “dystopian future.” (Sorry, Lifetime, but there’s a show the muncher won’t be watching cuz let’s face it, those of us living in the dystopian present really could use a change.)
  • Hallmark Channel has picked up THE GOOD WITCH, a series based on its TV movies  of the same name. No writer or showrunner has been listed, so excuse me while yrs truly calls his agent. (Not that muncho expect her to answer, but that’s another (sad!)story.)
  • Marco Pennette (KIRSTIE) is out as showrunner of TV Land’s comedy of that selfsame name and is working as a consulting producer on MOM instead. (Cuz the talented writer/creator/sonofabitch is so goddamn rich already why work full-time?)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/31/12

“Every hugely successful writer I know simply writes what he or she loves…and has been lucky enough to love the same things the audience does.” (LB)
  • Zach Braff (yeah, that Zach Braff) is writing the pilot for the ABC sitcom GARAGE BAR, about a group of friends dealing with the celebrity of one of them, who has become a pop star. (Zach will also direct and serve as E.P. for the series because, hell, he is a pop star of sorts thanks to SCRUBS and GARDEN STATE.))
  • Gideon Yago (THE NEWSROOM) is writing CITY HALL, an ABC drama about a city’s youthful mayor and her staff. (Gideon will also be an E.P. because he may not be a pop star but nevertheless his credentials are impressive: He wrote for CBA and MTV News and was fired from THE NEWSROOM by pop star Aaron Sorkin.)
  • Steve Agee (THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM) & Rob Schrab (CHILDEN’S HOSPITAL) are writing an “untitled coming-of-age comedy for FX based on Agee’s military school experiences. (No, we don’t usually think of military schools as funny, but the pitch calls this “tonally similar to FREAKS & GEEKS, and a good pitch trumps reality every time.)
  • David Marshall Grant (BROTHERS & SISTERS) & Michael Lannan (REMEMBER ME) are writing an HBO comedy pilot about being gay in San Francisco. (Sorry, folks, no high concept or pop stars here. Move along, move along.)
  • Marco Pennette (ANIMAL PRACTICE) has written the TV Land Pilot GIANT BABY. (Kirstie Alley and Rhea Perlman supply the pop power in this baby. Yeah.)