By Christiana Miller
(EDITED BY LB TO ADD: Christiana Miller is the only human being, living or otherwise, who has placed first in both the PEOPLE’S PILOT and the SPEC SCRIPTACULAR contests – in the same year. I’m so proud of her I’m not even jealous of her current success. Well, hardly jealous anyway.)
Because everything in life is a mixed blessing, right? Except girlfriends. Girlfriends are awesome. (Really, sweetie, you are.)
Are the Networks About to Completely Screw Up Hulu? – by Kyle Wagner
We have a new hero. His name is Daniel Fienberg, and he writes like an angel over on HitFix.Com. Over the summer, Mr. Fienberg has been discussing his take (“This is *not* a review. Pilots change….”) on the pilots he’s seen for this Fall’s new shows. We’re going to try and play catch-up with his work. Hope you like what DF says and how he says it as much as we do.
Take Me To The Pilots ’12: NBC’S REVOLUTION – by Daniel Fienberg
The Economic Wars continue even though BigMedia doesn’t want to phrase it that way. (You didn’t know TVWriter™ was so wonderfully radical, did you?)
Disney And Marvel Do Damage Control After Media Scrutiny Of Big Boss Ike Perlmutter – by Nikki Finke
EXCLUSIVE… UPDATE: Sources now tell me that all three female executives in employments disputes with the Walt Disney Co have settled – including one today. This is many months after the women lost their jobs in a Department Of Consumer Products reorganization set in motion nearly a year ago by Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter who is Disney’s 2nd largest shareholder. Former DCP head of fashion and home products Pam Lifford, former chief financial officer Anne Gates, and former DCP HR exec Susan Cole Hill were all represented by the same attorney with the Pasadena law firm Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson and Rennick which has sued Disney in other employee rights cases. According to my sources, the three women, who are all African Americans, referred to themselves as “The Help” – a reference to last summer’s hit DreamWorks movie distributed by Disney and set during the civil rights movement about black maids in Mississippi.
This comedy buying spree is getting funny. Probably funnier than NBC’s sitcom lineup for next season will ever be. Wonder where all that development $$ is coming from. Did they save it during the Jeff Zucker days?
NBC Buys Single-Camera Comedy From Jerry Bruckheimer Television – by Nellie Andreeva (Deadline.Com)
NBC has put in development The B-Side, a single-camera comedy from Jerry Bruckheimer Television and writer Sheri Elwood, creator of the Canadian comedy series Call Me Fitz. The project, which has received a script commitment, centers on a thirty-something woman in a divorce-triggered life meltdown who reunites with her best friends from high school. Elwood is writing the script and will executive produce with Jerry Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman for Jerry Bruckheimer TV and Warner Bros. TV. KristieAnne Reed will co-executive produce.