Tag: TV writing deals

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/21/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Cathy Yuspa & Josh Goldsmith (THE KING OF QUEENS) are writing MORE TIME WITH FAMILY, a CBS comedy pilot that sounds, well, it sounds remarkably like the old Danny Thomas show MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY. (Attention, Tony Thomas, it’s time to tell your lawyers to sharpen their knives.)
  • Josh Friedman (THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) is writing the pilot for NBC’s LIGHTHOUSE, a drama about a mysterious hotel for time travelers. (We’ll watch it if the Doctor checks in, okay, NBC?)
  • Deborah Pratt (QUANTUM LEAP) is also writing a time travel pilot. Hers is called TIMELESS, and is about a woman time traveler in love with two different men from two different times. (We can promise you that neither of those men will be Josh Friedman cuz you can bet NBC has no intention of putting both series on the air, which doesn’t exactly make for close friendship between the two writers.)
  • Sheila Callaghan (SHAMELESS) is adapting the best-selling Bright Young Things books by Anna Godberson into a drama series for ABC. (We have no idea what the books are about but would absolutely watch the hell out of any show in which the hero’s name was Godberson. Or, better yet, God Person. But maybe that’s just us.)
  • Marc Lawrence (FAMILY TIES) is writing the pilot for an unnamed series about a sweet former big-deal editor who goes back to work – for her former intern. (Yeah, it doesn’t sound like much to us either, but it has Meg Ryan attached so…wait, Meg Ryan?)
  • Jason Fuchs (ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT) is writing the pilot for EXCALIBUR, an ABC series about a modern reincarnation of, aw,  you guessed it, King Arthur. (Which is really weird cuz it’s common knowledge that contemporary variations of the Arthurian legend comprise the single most frequently pitched ideas in the history of television – and they almost never get made. Good luck, Jason! We really hope you crack it.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/16/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Jason Gunn (WILFRED) is adapting the Peruvian comedy MY PROBLEM WITH WOMEN for ABC…in English even! (Cuz it’s new! Different! Exciting! What? It isn’t? Then here’s an even better reason: It’s already a hit somewhere!)
  • Robin French & Kieron Quirke (CUCKOO) are adapting their UK comedy series (CUCKOO, yep) about a family’s reaction when their daughter returns from vacation married to a charming “hippie moron” for NBC. (Cuz the NBC suits couldn’t find anything not already written in English that was nearly so killer.)
  • Emily Kapnek (SUBPURGATORY) is writing the pilot for the ABC comedy SELFIE, rumored to be a variation of MY FAIR LADY about a young woman who makes it big on Facebook for all the wrong reasons. (If you’re familiar with MY FAIR LADY you’ll see the resemblance right away. What? You are and you don’t? Son of a bitch, would you believe those development fuckers are lying to us yet again?)
  • Joel Stein (we don’t know who he is, but he sounds like the kind of nice, Jewish boy our mom always wanted us to bring home) is writing MY EX LIFE, a comedy about a divorced dad who is totally jealous of his wife’s new boyfriend, for Fox. (Cuz we’re all jealous of our ex’s new mates and will identify all the way, right? Well maybe not all of us. We, for one, have absolutely nothing but pity for whomever is currently shacking up with our sonuvabitch cheating heart ex!)
  • Andrew Cosby (EUREKA) has sold his spec drama, STRANGE FICTION, to NBC. (And we’re hoping that, drama or not, it has the same wit and humor our dearly departed old Syfy fave brought to the screen for so many years.)
  • Sue Chung (Newbie! Yay!) has sold her spec pilot, ALLEGIANCE, about a young woman FBI agent chasing the deadliest domestic terrorist in history – her mother – to ABC. (Cuz it’s new! Different! Exciting! Yes, we know we’ve said that before, but this time it might actually be true!)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/11/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Richard Kramer (THIRTYSOMETHING) is writing the pilot for THESE THINGS HAPPEN, based on his comic novel of the same name, for HBO. (We’d tell you more, but the description we saw was so convoluted that we couldn’t make heads r tails of it. Which probably says enough all by itself.)
  • Dan Fogelman (THE NEIGHBORS) is developing ABC’s musical comedy series GALAVANT. (Which is basically INTO THE WOODS without being INTO THE WOODS. Oh, ABC, you’re so darn clever that way!)
  • Will Forte (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) is writing a Fox comedy pilot about the last couple left on earth having to learn to put aside their differences and, you know, repopulate the place. (Cuz the survival of the human race has become quite a joke, right? Who’d a thunk?)
  • Josh Siegal & Dylan Morgan (30 ROCK) are developing an untitled CBS comedy about a dysfunctional investigative team. (And we double dog dares ya to come up with how in hell it’ll be different from all the CBS dramas about the same thing.)

  • Michael Lisbe & Nate Reger ($#*! MY DAD SAYS) have sold an untitled spec comedy-mystery pilot about five, um, young people to CBS. (Which is bigger news than you might think at first cuz “young people?” At CBS?)

  • Time for one more comedy. Pete Huyck & Alex Gregory (THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW) are developing THE PRO, about a former tennis great now reduced to teaching and hustling as a tennis and golf club pro. (Rob Lowe is attached to star which means, hey, we believe in this premise cuz we definitely believe him as anything that, you know, hustles.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/9/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Reed Agnew & Eli Jorne (WILFRED) are writing MAN/CHILD, a comedy about two single dads trying to balance their lives, for Fox. (It’s a Damon Wayans, Jr. vehicle, so who knows? It might turn out really good.
  • Pending a last-minute disaster in the deal, Carlton Cuse (BATES MOTEL) will be adapting the French zombie drama, THE RETURNED for A&E. (Whoa, two in a row that we find ourselves looking forward to. We must be in way too good a mood.)
  • Blake McCormick (COUGAR TOWN) is also writing the pilot for CHASING SKIPS, an “adventure comedy,” for Fox. Oops, there goes our good mood. Another series about bounty hunters? We can hardly wait…to stop yawning.)
  • Don Todd (SAMANTHA WHO?) writing the pilot for the ABC drama, BEVERLY KILLS, about – wait for it – a hit woman who tries to clean up the corruption et al in Beverly Hills. (And, yeppers, we find this a very attractive idea cuz we aint’ never seen an unattractive hit woman on TV yet. Starting to feel a little better about TV life again.)
  • Chris Romano (BLUE MOUNTAIN STATE) has sold TORCHED, a comedy project, to Fox. (With Johnny Depp as one of the producers. We love Depp’s overall creative sensibility although not his recent specific choices. But, now that we’re being all positive again, we’re allowing ourselves to have high hopes for this one.)
  • Matthew Sand (NINJA ASSASSIN) is writing the pilot for CLANDESTINE, a female CIA agent series,  for ABC. (The good news is female CIA agent series, a concept right up there with hit women. The bad news is that does a network that has MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD have room for another kickass lady spy. You’re watching Ming Na on SHIELD, right? Of course you are.)
  • Rina Mimoun (DAWSON’S CREEK) is writing the ABC pilot, SISTERLAND, based on Curtis Sittenfeld‘s novel about twin sister with psychic powers. (Hey, it’s better than twin sister bounty hunters, no? Way better. Look, Ma, we’re beaming!)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/7/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Sanjay Shah (ENLISTED) has sold an untitled autobiographical comedy about an immigrant family running a fast-food franchise together to NBC. (Where they keep on commissioning family comedies regardless of how indifferent their viewers seem to be to that particular arena.)
  • Chris Case (RETIRED AT 35) has an NBC pilot deal for MAYBE IT’S ME, an autobiographical comedy about a father juggling three strong women in his life. (Hmm, not only is this another family comedy, it’s also another autobiographical comedy. And you thought writers’ lives were boring!)
  • Stefan Jaworski (“hot Danish writer” is all we could get) is writing the pilot for WHITE EYE, a procedural thriller, for ABC. (Curse you, PERSON OF INTEREST! You’re so popular that everybody’s trying to duplicate your success. And we all know where that’s going to lead.)
  • Jeff Addiss & Will Matthews are writing a HOUDINI miniseries for ABC that seems to be about the famed escape artist solving contemporary crime. (But maybe it isn’t. The art of clearly stating a premise seems to have escaped the net’s PR.)
  • Chris Keyser (PARTY OF FIVE) is writing WARRIORS, a drama about a “national military hospital,” also for ABC. (Cuz that’s the one twist on a medical show that’s never been done as far as we know. Huzzah! for creativity.)
  • David Grae (CASTLE) is writing the pilot for ABC’s LIFE IS MURDER, a mother-daughter crime drama. (Oh, God, more family. But at least it’s not a comedy…we hope.)