Tag: TVWriter™

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/2/12

“Love is never making your partner get a day job.” (Anon.)
  • Dan Harmon (COMMUNITY) has a pick-up from Adult Swim for his animated series RICK AND MARTY, about an inventor and his grandson/sidekick. (Proving you can’t go wrong with Mr. Peabody & the Wayback Machine)
  • David DiGilo (Disney Writer Program – awesome) is adapting Debra Driza’s soon-to-be-published novel Mila 2.0 into a sci-fi thriller series for ABC. (Proving that new writers should all make friends as possible with extra-hot writer-producers like Shonda Rhimes, whose company is producing this baby. )
  • Jason Jones (THE DAILY SHOW) is writing the pilot for a Fox sitcom about a single guy acting as guardian for his sister’s kids. (Proving that the concept doesn’t have to be all that high when a hot actor like Steve Carell is producing, as he is here.)
  • Robert Padnick (THE OFFICE) has written a sitcom pilot about four people trying to deal with their relationship problems and sold it to NBC. (Proving that if you partner up with somebody like Greg Daniels, producer of the soon to be late, lamented THE OFFICE, as Robert has, not only do you not need a high concept, no concept will work just fine too.)
  • Lew Morton (FUTURAMA, ROB) has partnered with Jake Kasdan (NEW GIRL, FREAKS & GEEKS, THE ZERO EFFECT) on WENTWORTH HALL, an animated comedy for Fox. (Proving that go-to guys help cinch deals even for writers who don’t really need go-to guys.)

We trust that you’ve all learned today’s important lesson.

Peggy Bechko: It’s the Story

Peggy Bechko nails it. Again:

As a writer I’m fascinated by the way the brain works, aren’t you? read article

munchman: Whoa, I am Lovin’ on Ernie Kovacs

…No matter how dead he is.

Which is my sweet, munchy, little way of saying that the very nice people at Shout! Factory have sent us a review copy of The Ernie Kovacs Collection: Volume 2, and I’m very glad I managed to, um, talk LB into giving it to me to review.

Kovacs was one of television’s founding fathers of comedy, goosing TV with his weirdness in the ’50s. To say he was offbeat is to barely scratch the surface. A true original, Ernie Kovacs was Bizarro without the white face, and you can spot his influence in the Monty Phython gang, the Muppets, and just about everything on Adult Swim. read article

Another Monty Pythoner Shows His Utmost Respect for Graham Chapman

Awhile ago, John Cleese talked about his former MONTY PYTHON mate. Now Terry Jones has a few words on the same subject. These dudes are so @#$!ing sweet, you know?

Monty Python’s Terry Jones on Graham Chapman’s Biopic – by Steve Marsh

When the five surviving members of Monty Python are photographed nowadays, there’s always a witty allusion to the dead one: an upturned urn or a disembodied pipe. So it’s no surprise that when an old recording of Graham Chapman reading his 1986 memoir A Liar’s Autobiography was discovered, a project came together nearly as quickly as it takes to ask “What’s all this, then? Are they going to make a 2Pac hologram of Police Constable Pan Am?” Chapman’s recording became the basis for A Liar’s Autobiography, a surreal new animated movie (in select theaters and on EPIX on November 2), to which the surviving Pythons (except for Eric Idle) contributed their voices. We talked to original Python Terry Jones about Chapman’s drinking, his mum’s influence, and Terry Gilliam’s bossiness. read article

Peer Production: Update on ODDS OF WINNING

The other day we ran Josh Hudson’s piece about his new web series, ODDS OF WINNING. Now it’s time to include the all-important info about how you can be part of this production.