Month: January 2006

I’m Saving My Money for EMILY’S REASONS WHY NOT

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I don’t understand the decision-making behind which shows get released on DVD. Take LAW AND ORDER: TRIAL BY JURY for instance. It was a bomb. Viewers soundly rejected it despite massive promotion and two cross-over episodes (with LAW AND ORDER and L&O:SVU). NBC cancelled it without even airing all of the 13 episodes that were produced. And yet, the complete series is coming out on DVD with a sticker price of $59.98. If people weren’t willing to watch the show for free, what makes the studio and retailers think people will shell out sixty bucks for it now (especially since they can catch the reruns on CourtTV)?

The Commish

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I saw the boxed set of THE COMMISH at Best Buy today.  THE COMMISH was a Stephen J. Cannell crime drama that coasted along for four seasons on ABC without attracting any real attention. It was about a lovable, soft-hearted small-town police chief and family man who solved crimes and helped people in need. It was your typical, inoffensive, shot-on-the-cheap-in-Canada 90s cop show. And yet,  THE COMMISH is directly responsible for some of the most innovative and success series on television today.

COMMISH star Michael Chiklis is now the Emmy-winning lead of  THE SHIELD. 

COMMISH writer/producers Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran created 24 and are its exec producers. The staff on 24 includes Stephen Kronish, co-creator and co-executive producer of THE COMMISH, and Evan Katz, who also worked on the show.

COMMISH director Brad Turner went on to helm episodes of 24, PRISON BREAK, and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, among many others. 

COMMISH producers Glen Morgan & James Wong went on to THE X-FILES (which was co-exec produced by Howard Gordon, who is now an exec producer on 24) and wrote & directed the FINAL DESTINATION films.

COMMISH producer David Greenwalt went on to BUFFY, ANGEL and is now on SURFACE.

COMMISH director David Nutter became one of TV’s most sought after and successful directors of pilots. His credits include SMALLVILLE, SUPERNATURAL, and DARK ANGEL (to name a few).

And what was I doing while all these folks were working on THE COMMISH? I was working right down the hall on another Stephen J. Cannell crime drama called COBRA. The staff of COBRA has reshaped television, going on to do–

Oh God, how depressing.

Vanity Press Ethics

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I have been hammering Writers Digest and editor Kristin Godsey pretty hard here lately. So it should be noted that the latest "tips and updates" email from WD  includes a link to a very interesting article Godsey wrote about whether the POD industry should establish a code of professional conduct.

While many such companies are very clear about their policies and
promises, others are purposely vague and even outright
deceitful—hopeful writers are led to believe that using these
companies’ services is no different from getting a traditional
publishing deal in terms of instant prestige and reaching the
marketplace…

…Whether or not a code of ethics is standardized across the industry,
it’s clear that many writers are confused by the particulars of POD
publishing. Some Book Summit participants had specific suggestions for
practices they’d like to see all POD companies embrace. For starters,
Schwartz says, "Any type ofcode should define the rights and
responsibilities of all parties."

Beyond that, he says, "The realities of marketing efforts and
probable sales outcomes need to be made absolutely transparent."
Pramschufer elaborated on this theme in the October issue of his
monthly newsletter for small and independent self-publishers. In it, he
called on POD publishers to "clearly point out the odds of being
successful. An average number of books sold would be a start. If the
publishers don’t think this is fair, then the average number of books
sold by the top 25 percent of their titles in print and the middle 33
percent."

It’s a great idea but I doubt it will ever happen…it would cut too deep into vanity press profits if their potential customers knew just how few copies they are likely to sell.  Still, it would be nice to see WD champion the idea and at the same time dedicate themselves to exposing the deceptive practices of individual vanity presses (especially if they are among their advertisers and "marketing partners"). Of course, this would require a radical rethink by WD’s editors and publishers about their various marketing partnerships with vanity presses.

A Rawboned Novel of Primitive Love!

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Over the weekend, novelist Bill Crider scanned the delightfully lurid covers of nearly 200 of his vintage paperbacks, many of them by Harry Whittington (under a variety of names).  I don’t know what I like more, the illustrations or come-ons like these:

"He used two women to feed his brute cravings."

"The sultry story of pagan revelries, lonely men, and a native girl."

"Her luscious body was used as a man trap"

"Faceless, he might be a devil or saint…but he had the lusts of a man."

TV Times

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This was a good weekend for TV. It kicked-off Friday with a fantastic episode of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which has not only become one of the best dramas on the air, it has single-handedly reinvigorated the sci-fi genre on television. It used to be all the sci-fi space dramas took their cues from STAR TREK as if it was sacred text. Not any more.  BSG showrunner Ron Moore has changed everything. He started by telling stories involving genuine characters instead of noble cardboard heroes who only do "the right thing" and never get laid.  He’s subverted every other tired cliche along the way, too (but if you miss them, just tune into STARGATE or STARGATE ATLANTIS).  You don’t have to like scifi shows to get hooked on BSG.

On Sunday, while my Tivo was capturing 24, I watched Tom Selleck in the TV movie JESSE STONE: NIGHT PASSAGE, based on Robert B. Parker’s book. Like last years STONE COLD, Selleck played an ex-LAPD cop who becomes police chief of a small, Massachusetts town. The movie was a welcome change from the plethora of procedural dramas on TV.  It was full of atmosphere and character and punchy dialogue. There were no forensics, cool flashbacks, or autopsies, just a simple crime story well told. The mystery was weak, but the other pleasures more than made up for it.

What I don’t get is why they chose to shoot the last Jesse Stone book, STONE COLD, as the first movie, and then do the first book NIGHT PASSAGE (which begins with Stone’s arrival as police chief) as the second movie. It was especially awkward since a key character in NIGHT PASSAGE is killed in both the book and movie version of STONE COLD and presumably remains alive through the next few TV movies (the next one up is DEATH IN PARADISE, the third Stone book), further confusing things.

There’s a new, fifth STONE novel coming this year from Parker and I’m eager to read it — for some time now, the Stone books have been far better than the Spensers. One of the key differences between the TV movie adaptations and the books is the creative decision to relegate Stone’s ex-wife to just a voice on the phone. I think it was a brilliant idea and adds to Jesse’s isolation.

This weekend was also the premiere of the BBC series HUSTLE on AMC. I didn’t watch it, since I’ve got the series on DVD from England months ago. The show is fine, a nice diversion, but the cons get tiresome and the episodes begin to blur into sameness.   Still, it’s nice to see Robert Vaughn back on TV again.

Hard Case Peddling PEDDLER

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Peddler_1
Now that those noir-loving folks at Hard Case Crime have broken the news, I can finally share it here (after hinting about it for some time). My friend Richard S. Prather’s novel THE PEDDLER is going to be reissued… with a brand new cover by Robert McGinnis (who also did the one on the left). THE PEDDLER is stark departure from Prather’s light-hearted, often hilarious Shell Scott detective novels.  It’s a dark and brutal tale about the rise (and ultimate fall)  of a greedy young man working his way up in the San Francisco prostitution rackets. The prose is lean and sharp, in the same league as Harry Whittington’s classic noir tales. It’s a shame Richard didn’t do more books like this.  But the fact is, he had a lot more fun writing the Shell Scott books and, as he says in an upcoming interview I did with him for the Private Eye Writers newsletter, he wanted his readers to feel better after reading his books than they did when they started. I don’t think he realized just how invigorating reading a lean, vicious little crime story can be for someone like, say, me.

I’ve been lobbying Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime for a while — as have a few others — to bring Prather’s best work back into print. I’m hoping the inevitable success of THE PEDDLER prompts a long-overdue resurgence of interest Prather’s work and his incredibly entertaining Shell Scott series.

Lies are the new Truth

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BL asked in a comment on another post here:  "i’m surprised you haven’t blogged about Frey and LeRoy yet. i’m curious to see what you have to say."

I haven’t written about it because I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been said. They are liars and they got caught. Lying is very much in vogue these days, not just here, but all over the world (eg  President Bush saying Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction, President Clinton saying he  didn’t have sex with Monica Lewinsky, the South Korean geneticist who made up all his research results, Jayson Blair making up news reports for the New York Times, etc. etc.) I’ve written here before about how blithely and unapologetically people are "anti-factual" and "disembling" and "honesty-challenged" nowadays. What amazes me is that Frey et all actually think that they can perpetuate a very public, widely repeated lie and get away with it. The fact that these unabashed liars simply don’t care is the disturbing new wrinkle.  Perhaps what we are seeing is an evolution…the beginning of lies as the new truth. Who needs truth anyway?