You Too Can Figure Out If a New Series is Going to be Worth Watching

…All you have to do is follow the easy steps below:

How to Tell from a Pilot if a TV Show is Going to be Any Good – by Charlie Jane Anders read article

Everything You Need to Know About (Not) Inspector Spacetime

…Which isn’t the same as everything you need to know about the other guy who’s kind of like him, by whom we mean, yes, COMMUNITY’s Inspector Spacetime. Not that there’s anything you need to know about that dood either, come to think of it.

But if you’re interested in the latest homage-within-a-homage wisdom:

read article

“The Fien Print” on CBS’s Upcoming PARTNERS

Take Me To The Pilots ’12: CBS’ ‘Partners’ – by Daniel Fienberg

The Pitch: You know that show that aired on FOX in the ’90s about the two friends who are architects and co-dependents? That show that was created by the guy who used to work on “Will & Grace”? That show that was also called “Partners”? Well, this show is nothing like that. Except for the ways it is. Which you won’t recognize anyway. Because nobody watched that “Partners.” read article

Ryan Reynolds is a Producer Now

No, we don’t know what he is otherwise. Some kind of actor? Anyway:

ABC is developing a dramedy called BETWEEN PARK AND LEX, written by Maria Maggenti and produced by Ryan Reynolds and Allan Loeb’s company (which we mention because it has a cool name), DarkFire TV, and another company (which we mention because it illustrates the incestuousness of the Biz), ABC Productions. read article

Dan Harmon’s Still Yakking About Grudges He Says He Doesn’t Hold

We’re too bored with Dan’s life to go into everything he told Adam Chitwood in an interview on Collider.Com yesterday, but here’s the part we think is important to those of us who write or want to write TV:

The rumour mill says that Chevy Chase walked off set at the end of filming for Season 3 because he refused to do something. What did he refuse to do?

danharmon:
He refused to do the “tag” for the Digital Estate Planning episode (the 8 bit video game episode). In the scripted tag, Abed comes to Pierce with the thumb drive he took, and says “Pierce, I’ve been able to adjust some of the code for your Dad’s video game and I’ve made a version I think you might like better.” He puts the thumb drive into a laptop in front of Pierce. We cut to the laptop screen, where we see Pierce’s avatar on a front lawn with the giant floating head of Cornelius. Every time Pierce presses the space bar, his avatar throws a baseball to his father’s head, which gives him a thousand points and a “great job, son!” Pierce presses the space bar a few times, pauses, then leans over and embraces Abed and we fade to black. When Adam Countee pitched that tag, tears instantly rolled down my cheeks, and in point of fact, my eyes are getting watery describing it to you. It was the most important part of the episode and possibly one of the most important moments of the season. I was very upset to hear that it wasn’t shot because someone didn’t feel like shooting it, especially since it was literally the last day of shooting, which meant we’d never be able to pick it up. I regret nothing about how upset I got. My job was to care about my show. read article