facebook_pixel Press "Enter" to skip to content

Looking to start your TV writing journey?

Posts published in “TV Analysis”

Come back!

The Oscar nominees were announced yesterday.
What’s up with The Dark Knight being snubbed out of Best Screenplay (let alone Best Directing/Pic)?

Weinstein also had to shed a lot of dough for The Reader to be nominated for Best Pic.

In the TV world, pilots continue to be picked up.
ABC has ordered Eastwick, a show loosely based on the 87 movie about 3 witches starring Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeifer and Jack Nicholson. The pilot is penned by Jack & Bobby‘s Maggie Friedman.

In addition, NBC ordered Mercy, a dramedy revolving around 3 nurses “bound together in friendship”. FNL‘s Liz Heldens is currently writing the pilot.

Other dramas are said to be on the verge of pickups by NBC, such as Dario Scardapane and Peter Berg’s Trauma, an emergency medical procedural taking place “out in the field”, and another project by Alias/Heroes/Lost‘s Jesse Alexander.

The Disney-ABC TV Group is currently in full restructuring with ABC and ABC Studio merging and renamed “ABC Entertainment Group”. ABC’s programming chief Stephen McPherson will head the division.

NBC has meanwhile hired a global marketing firm, Naked Communications, to reposition the net’s brand.

There’s an inextricable link between marketing and programming… These two things define the brand. We’re all aligned against the same goals.

Will they spearhead the network and bring them to less SF/Genre-friendly sked?
Will Chuck be back?
Will NBC change its mind on various pilot picks?
Tune in at an undisclosed future date to find out the electrifying conclusion of NBC: The Brand-Over.

And George Clooney has finally accepted to return for an E.R. cameo. The show’s co-creator, John Wells, recently ordered a closed set for a Clooney appearance.

Also, here is a little clip from Pixar’s next movie, Up.
UPDATE: Vimeo removed the vid.

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.