Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
Mark Friedman (BELIEVE) has left the upcoming NBC show, which he co-created with Alfonso Cuaron. (We’d tell you to get our agents hustling for you to take over Mark’s showrunner gig, but we have a feeling it isn’t a job anybody should want. No, we can’t say anything more, but it’ll come out soon enough. Sorry.)
Jon Bokenkamp THE BLACKLIST creator) has signed an overall deal with Sony TV. He’ll be writing, producing, all those wonderful things you/we want to do. (Damn you, Jon Bokenkamp! We’re sooo jealous.)
Manny Coto (DEXTER) will be sequeing over to a showrunner gig 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY as part of a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television (Inasmuch as Manny wrote some of the best episodes of the original 24, this is great news for fans…as well as writers who’ve already made friends with him. Hehehe.)
Stephen Falk (WEEDS) has sold YOU’RE THE WORST, a sitcom pilot, to FX. The show is about what happens when two self-destructive people fall in love. (Just between us, this sounds like every relationship ever between people in showbiz, so if it isn’t the most realistic, brilliantly written comedy ever, something will have gone terribly wrong.)
This is more about love than money, we thinks, making it big writing news indeed. Humanitas Prize Finalists have been announced, and the TV writing nominees are: 90 Minute Category Abducted: The Carlina White Story Written by Elizabeth Hunter Betty & Coretta Written by Shem Bitterman and Ron Hutchinson Firelight Written by Ligiah Villalobos 60 Minute Bones, “The Patriot in Purgatory” Written by Stephen Nathan House, “Everybody Dies” Written by David Shore, Eli Attie & Peter Blake Monday Mornings, “Truth or Consequences” Written by Karen Struck & David E. Kelley 30 Minute Modern Family, “Party Crasher” Written by Danny Zuker & Christopher Lloyd Nurse Jackie, “Disneyland Sucks” Written by Liz Brixius The New Normal, “The Godparent Trap” Written by Mike Scully
Three Humanitas Winners have also been made public: Children’s Live Action Let It Shine Written by Eric Daniel & Don D. Scott The David & Lynn Angell Fellowship in Comedy Writing
Jason Romaine Fellowship in Dramatic Writing
Taylor MartinCongrats from TVWriter™!
Um, probably none, right? Writer Stephen Falk wishes he could say the same thing. But instead we’ll just have to appreciate his insight and learn from his experience:
Stephen Falk is executive producer of WEEDS & showrunner of REVOLUTION. Are either of those still on the air?
Hey, you aspiring TV writers. It’s a hard job to crack into, but if you’re good enough and driven enough, it will happen for you. Don’t give up!
For if you work hard enough, someday you too may work on your own show for a year — from pitch to outline to script to pilot to the triumph of being picked up to series: the Golden Ticket. Then you might move across the country to actually make the show, hire a hundred actors and writers and crew members, and then in the middle of editing the 4th episode, get your show abruptly cancelled via late-night Friday phone call from Los Angeles. Then the fun part: you get to walk in shock back to your office — abandoning the confused editor waiting to lock the episode — and personally call all the actors and writers and crew and inform them the proverbial plug has been pulled and they no longer have a job, sorry. You will talk them through the tears and confusion — attempt to ameliorate the soon-to-be full-blown PTSD taking root already in them, all the while pre-knowing yours will go untreated and indeed sneak up on you weeks later. Do you clean out your office now? Do you wait — ? Shit! But first you better go see about that one prop for episode 5 you had to approve — oh, yeah. None of that matters. Everything has stopped. This is the moment after the 10.0 earthquake. Suddenly, nothing is the same. You don’t have a show anymore. Twenty minutes ago it was what took up 17 hours of your day. 24 hours of your mental real estate. It literally doesn’t exist anymore. The frozen people of Vesuvius had more warning than you did.read article
