Tag: Spec Scriptacular Contest

Sitcoms are Hard

Ken Levine strikes again – and brilliantly so:

Miranda
The daring duo in TVWriter™’s current favorite TV sitcom, MIRANDA, on BBC

by Ken Levine

There seems to be a new trend in sitcoms – the knockoff Romy & Michele’s. Two single ditzy twentysomethings who sort of blunder through life. The difference is that the characters of Romy & Michele were carefully developed, well crafted, and there was a definite story.

BROAD CITY on Comedy Central, GARFUNKEL & OATS on IFC, and PLAYING HOUSE on USA are all very similar. Two comediennes who have worked together either as an act or a musical comedy team write and perform their own sitcoms. They’re all single-camera with a very loose format. Most of the dialogue sounds improvised, and occasionally they say some very funny things. But for the most part it’s just vamping. You’re listening to two people grope around in search of something genuinely funny. read article

How Our Obsession With Closure Is Ruining Television

Do we really have to wrap up every series that gets cancelled? Why can’t the characters we love just go on and on in our minds, doing the things we loved watching them do? Or to put it another way: What viewer of MAGNUM P.I. would have wanted to know that Tom Selleck’s future had him solving crimes in the Old Folks Home while waiting for somebody to tell him his name?

Or to put it another way:

whattheby Nathan Reese

Earlier this week, The Sopranos was back in the headlines when showrunner David Chasekinda, sorta revealed Tony’s fate in the final episode. “David Chase finally answers the question he wants fans to stop asking,” claimed the Vox.com article. Now we could finally have closure! Or could we? read article

Call for Entries for Writers Guild of America Video Game Writing Awards

This proves that video game writing is a major league operation. (As if we didn’t know.)

Oh, unfortunately, there are a couple of caveats. You must be a member of the WGA, either East or West, and the game must have been written for a company covered by the current WGA Minimum Basic Agreement.

WGA VIdeoGame Writing AwardsCapture

Have You Visited “Cartoon Hangover” Recently?

You should.

Visit, we mean. read article

Are You Ready for Jeffrey Tambor as a TRANSPARENT?

by Team TVWriter™

We, um, thought we were, until we saw this trailer for Amazon Studios new comedy series, TRANSPARENT .

That doesn’t sound very kind, and it certainly doesn’t seem very smart to attempt to review a show by the trailer, so let’s say that the taste of TRANSPARENT we got here gives us both hope and concern. The writing is bright, funny, fast, probably the most professional writing we’ve seen on an Amazon show, and the acting by Jeffrey Tambor, Judith Light, Gaby Hoffman, and Jay Duplass is equally excellent. These guys rise well above the challenge. read article