facebook_pixel Press "Enter" to skip to content

Looking to start your TV writing journey?

Posts tagged as “Mad Men”

Reach

Yesterday was ABC day as Steve McPherson took the stage over at the TCA Press Tour.
It’s funny (but not really) to see how Steve seems to blame every failure and cancellation on Nielsen.
After heavily criticizing Nielsen, McPherson said about Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies being cancelled:

I really loved the shows. The producers delivered what they promised. For us it was a frustration that we couldn’t get a larger audience — or that Nielsen says we couldn’t get a larger audience.

Wait.
You’re saying that you had to cancel those shows based on a prediction taken from a system you don’t even believe in and publicly criticize?

Isn’t that the definition of hypocrisy?

In other news, Matthew Weiner finally signed that deal for Mad Men. The 10+ millions that were asked was kinda ridiculous given what we’re talking about here: a small cable channel and an indie studio on the brink of bankruptcy with a TV show having between 1 and 2 million viewers. Ultimately Weiner got a 2-year 7-digit contract with Lionsgate TV.
Not too shabby.

The Golden Balls

Viewers (and others) of Flight of the Conchords will be able to purchase the show’s songs the day after the episode airs on iTunes and SubPop.com.
An album of 15 tracks should be available April 14, following the conclusion of Conchords‘ second season on HBO.

Thanks for coming, bye.

Wait…

Haven’t I forgotten to talk about something else?
Right.
The Golden Globes.

Let’s see…

30 Rock and John Adams continued to prove last night that they are awesome by winning all their Globes.

Cue in the big “Duh” for WALL-E‘s win as best animated feature and Mad Men as best drama.

Even though his performance in The Dark Knight was epic, Heath Ledger winning seemed more of a tribute to me.
How else do you explain the fact that The Dark Knight wasn’t even nominated in the other categories?
But they nominated Mama Mia.

Haven’t seen Slumdog Millionnaire yet but I love Boyle’s work so I say good for him.
Congrats as well obviously to Simon Beaufoy for best script.
Funny how there isn’t any distinction between drama and comedy in the script category.

Shocked at Paquin’s win but I was more shocked to discover the other day that she already has an Oscar that she won at the age of…eleven (for The Piano).

Gabriel Byrne finally got some recognition.

Speaking of In Treatment, have you guys seen the format-change for the show?
Two epis on Sunday and three on Monday.
Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of the show?
Live with Paul one day at a time with one of his patient?

We’ll see how this turns out but I’m kind of scared now.
Seems like way too much information per night.

Anyway, guess we’ll have to wait for the big O now to see how many standing ovations there are.

Flash Bump

The Watchmen case seems to be fast-tracked and as predicted Fox and WB are on the verge of finding common ground.
Do I smell settlement?

Meanwhile, some other news have been popping up the last couple of days.

The HIMYM cast got a raise on their paycheck.
HBO has renewed The Life and Times of Tim (yay!).
E.R. is never going to end.
Swoosie Kurtz is going to stint on (dare I say Bryan Fuller’s) Heroes.
Mad Men‘s season 3 is indeed going to premiere this summer. With or without Weiner, although there’s probably as well going to be a settlement.

On the Flash Forward front, Robert J. Sawyer (the man behind the original book) is often making comments on his own blog about the project and seems very pleased about it (as in the polar opposite of Moore’s feelings towards the Watchmen movie).

Sawyer has also confirmed the epicness of the show, comparing it to Lost, and how Goyer and Braga “have mapped out five seasons of Flash Forward” (110 episodes).
Rob Sawyer will as well probably write a couple of episodes.

Besides this, there is an interview out with David Goyer posted on SciFi Wire about the show.
Goyer tells that the season-format will not be too dissimilar to 24‘s as each year hitting reset and having its own flash-forward, with a glimpse of what is to come at the end of the preceding season.
I must admit I am kind of disappointed with that formula.
Heroes failed miserably and 24 really dragged on after the first couple of years.
But then again, those shows weren’t planned beyond the season.
Still, I would have preferred the one major flash-forward across several years instead of four that could ultimately reduce the magnitude of the first one.

The premiere is currently set for Fall ’09, with the first season starting to shoot Feb. 21.