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Posts tagged as “Books”

The 2016 Paper Team Holiday Special (PT25)

Alex and Nick celebrate the holiday season and the end of 2016 by taking a look at their favorite TV holiday episodes, the best media of the past year, and some stats about the first six months of Paper Team.

What makes a TV Christmas special? What are some of the best holiday specials? What was the best thing of 2016? What gifts did Nick and Alex give each other?

The Paper Team settles down in front of the fire and grabs a cup of eggnog…

SHOWNOTES

Content

1 – What makes a TV Christmas special? (00:30)
2 – The best holiday TV episodes (11:12)
3 – Best of 2016 (27:10)
4 – A look back at Paper Team’s first year (47:45)
Gift Exchange and Outro (52:45)

Links

Jingle All the Way
It’s a Wonderful Life
Christmas Episode (TV Tropes)
List of U.S. Christmas television episodes
EastEnders
Downton Abbey
Doctor Who Christmas specials
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)
Home Alone
Die Hard
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” (1×01 – The Simpsons)
“Marge Be Not Proud” (7×11 – The Simpsons)
“Xmas Story” (2×08 – Futurama)
“Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo” (1×09 – South Park)
“Amends” (3×10 – Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
A Christmas Carol
“Merry Mayhem” (6×10 – Dawson’s Creek)
“The Best Chrismukkah Ever” (1×13 – The O.C.)
The OC Insider Shop
Yamaclaus
“The Strike” (9×10 – Seinfeld)
The Get Down
The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story
BrainDead
Atlanta
The Good Place
“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” (1×06 – American Crime Story)
“San Junipero” (3×04 – Black Mirror)
“Fish Out Of Water” (3×04 – Bojack Horseman)
“Category 55 Doomsday Crisis” (1×05 – The Good Place)
Travelers
We Bare Bears
The Hamilton Mixtape
Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)
“Conscious” – BROODS
“Sprained Ankle” – Julien Baker
Moonlight
Arrival
Eric Heisserer
Lights Out
La La Land
“Bitch Planet” – Kelly Sue DeConnick
“Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days” – Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz
The Influence of TV: Scratching the Surface (PT11)
Diversity in TV and the Writers’ Room ft. Francesca Butler & Kelly Lynne D’Angelo (PT14)
The Writers Guild Foundation Podcast
Time Timer
Pomodoro Technique
Aaron Sorkin’s Trump Letter
YearCompass
Home Alone: The Authorized Coloring Book
Die Hard: The Authorized Coloring and Activity Book
Aqua Notes Water-Proof Notepad

Special thanks to Jason J. Cohn for helping us edit this episode.

If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :)

You can find Paper Team on Twitter:
Alex@TVCalling
Nick@_njwatson
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]

Joke-Writing, Stand-Up and Late-Night TV ft. Simon Taylor (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno) (PT22)

Alex and Nick welcome Simon Taylor to hear his experience being a comedian, writing jokes for late-night television, and the hard work it takes to be consistently funny.

How does the stand-up circuit work? What was it like writing for the Tonight Show with Jay Leno? Why is performing comedy different than writing comedy? How is the process of writing comedy in a room compared to doing it alone? What can a writer do to be noticed and find a following?

The Paper Team performs their in-depth set…

SHOWNOTES

Content

1 – How Simon Taylor got his start (00:33)
2 – Being funny, creating your product, and performing stand-up (08:25)
3 – Putting yourself out there, selling yourself, and pitching (24:15)
4 – Writing for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (34:22)
5 – Generating good content regularly and working your creative skills (38:53)
6 – What a successful joke is and tailoring it to your online (Twitter/Snapchat/YouTube) or real-life audience (43:35)
7 – Working on a TV pilot with Justin Willman, and writing alone for someone else versus a writers’ room for a common project (49:05)
8 – Working in the US, what Simon Taylor is doing now, and what is next for him (53:17)
Resources and Outro (57:50)

Links

Simon Taylor on Twitter
Rove Live
Rove McManus
The Glass House (2001 TV series)
Spicks and Specks
The Project
Steve Vizard
Shaun Micallef
Live on Bowen
The Loft Live
Simon Taylor hosting Live on Bowen (Video)
The Carmichael Show
The King of Kong
Vine
Sleight of Mouth with Justin Willman

Resources

Poking a Dead Frog – Mike Sacks
Books by Stewart Lee

If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :)

You can find Paper Team on Twitter:
Alex@TVCalling
Nick@_njwatson
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]

Should You Pay for TV Writing Education? (PT19)

Alex and Nick discuss the value of paying for screenwriting education.
From graduate school to extension classes and books, we take a look at whether or not they’re worth your time or money to learn about TV writing.

What is the point of film school for television? Which extra classes are worth paying for? What are some of the best books on the subject?

The Paper Team opens their textbook…

SHOWNOTES

Content

1 – A special e-mail and our own TV writing education (0:32)
2 – Is film school worth it for TV? (10:08)
3 – TV writing extension classes and books (14:53)
Takeaways & Resources (25:03)

Links

UCLA’s TFT mysterious “showrunner program”
UCLA’s Writing Extension Classes
Richard Hatem
The TV Writer’s Workbook by Ellen Sandler
Elephant Bucks by Sheldon Bull
The Cheeky Monkey by Tim Ferguson
The Coffee Break Screenwriter by Pilar Alessandra
Writing the TV Drama Series by Pamela Douglas
Small Screen, Big Picture by Chad Gervich
Desperate Networks by Bill Carter

Resources

BAFTA Guru
BBC Writers Room

Special thanks to Jason J. Cohn for helping us edit this episode.

If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :)

You can find Paper Team on Twitter:
Alex@TVCalling
Nick@_njwatson
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]