#1 New York Times Bestselling Author & TV Producer
Television Chronicles was a magazine made for TV geeks like me. It was chock full of interviews and episode guides on classic and not-so-class TV series. Sadly, the magazine disappeared from news stands a few years back. But I am very pleased to report that Television Chronicles has returned as an online magazine. The current issue has an indepth look at the making and demise of the Bill Bixby series THE MAGICIAN.
It seems like everybody is apologizing lately for not keeping up their blogs. Author Duane Swierczynski, for instance, blames the book he’s working on and Tess Gerritsen blames the beautiful Maine weather. Me, I’m just brain dead. I finished my 8th DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel last week and it feels lke my brain has been wrung out and left dry of any ideas, even for a blog post. So, in lieu of coming up with anything clever for my blog today, I’ll steal some cleverness from others.
My brother Tod found a novel way of dealing with some hate mail, Ken Levine has some good advice for industry outsiders with pilot ideas, and it’s nice to see one of my favorite authors, Daniel Woodrell, is finally getting some attention (my friend Denise Hamilton also gave his latest book a rave in Sunday’s LA Times Book Review).
Michael Bracken was kind enough to alert me that there’s a full-page interview with me in the September issue of The Writer magazine. I did the interview so long ago that it completed slipped my mind. I haven’t read it yet, so please let me know if I come off like a brilliantly clever fellow or a complete moron.
I have no idea what MySpace is or how to use it or why I should be part of it… but I have bowed to peer pressure and I am there with a cross-posting of this blog. Please be my friend, whatever the heck that means in MySpaceSpeak…
Newsweek reports that publishing legend Jason Epstein is one of the backers behind the Espresso Book Machine, a new device that can print-out a bound book in minutes for "a penny a page." A 300 page book can be produced in just three minutes.
Imagine if there were a magic machine that could print entire books in
mere minutes. You could go to a bookstore or coffee shop, choose a book
online from millions of digital titles and then—poof!—out would come a
fully bound book. You could get rare and out-of-print titles, in any
language, and for less because the inventory isn’t stored on site.
The machine is now being tested at the World Bank Bookstore in Washington D.C.
The Kansas City Star and the AP reported today about an innovative new film-making program at Stephens College in Missouri that my writing partner Bill Rabkin is actively involved in as an instructor. The students learned by doing — they worked as the crew on an hour-long pilot directed by Bill and written by Ken LaZebnik, who is also dean of the School of Performing Arts at the Stephens College.
Director Bill Rabkin, whose credits include a stint as director and
executive producer of "Diagnosis Murder," called the student crew
members eager to learn and overwhelmingly positive – even in the face
of lunches on 16-hour days that often consisted of bologna and cheese
sandwiches on white bread.For LaZebnik, who co-wrote the "Prairie Home Companion Movie" with
Garrison Keillor, the film camp is more than just a teaching exercise.
He hopes to shop "Triangle" – his story of a family struggling to cope
with the death of a 6-year-old child while adopting a new daughter from
China – to studios as well as regional film festivals."This is an educational experience. But it’s also for real," he said.
Variety reports that the web is becoming a haven for busted TV pilots:
In recent weeks, at least four failed pilots
from the 2005-06 development season have ended up online on services
such as YouTube and Break.com. Inspired by the saga of "Nobody’s
Watching" — the year-old WB pilot that found new life after popping up
on YouTube (Daily Variety, July 21) — interested parties seem intent on getting their work out to viewers, one way or another.That
has sent studios scrambling, forcing them to quickly decide whether to
let the shows live online, where they might build a cult following, or
ask the services to yank them. For the most part, studios seem to be
choosing the latter option.
While the studios pretend that these pilots "mysteriously" show up on the net, and that their lawyers are furious about it, they almost always give up the act (or at least delay taking action) after the pilots begin getting some buzz and wracking up hits.
Studio insiders warn that producers or talent who leak pilots could face penalties.
But
it seems unlikely studios will risk alienating creators, especially
since most pilots simply die after they’re rejected by networks. If
anything, having consumers respond positively to a show rejected by a
network only serves to validate the studio’s decision to take a risk on
a project.And while "Nobody’s Watching" has generated much hype
for its YouTube resurrection, it’s hardly the first pilot to find a
life on the service.Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel’s cult
classic "Lookwell" has been seen more than 50,000 times, while
"Awesometown" — the Fox sketch comedy pilot starring "Saturday Night
Live’s" Andy Samberg — has been streamed over 225,000 times.
Alex Epstein’s CRAFTY TV WRITING is a terrific new book full of great advice about the craft of episodic writing and insights into the business of television (and I’m not just saying that because he quotes liberally from me and this blog). If I didn’t have a book of my own, SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION WRITING, to recommend, this is the one I’d tell every aspiring TV writer to buy. I’d also strongly recommend WRITING THE TV DRAMA SERIES by Pamela Douglas. Tell you what, buy all three. You’ll thank me later.
I just finished writing the first draft of DIAGNOSIS MURDER #8: THE LAST WORD. It was actually due yesterday, but my editor kindly gave me an extension until Monday. It’s the first deadline I’ve ever missed — I didn’t even have two broken arms this time as an excuse. Life just sort of conspired against me on this one — and it turned out to be a much longer book than I anticipated. I wrote this one in many different places, from my home in Los Angeles to a hotel room in Cologne, Germany. If this does turn out to be the final DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel, I think I’ve left my characters in a good place, facing new lives and new challenges. If there ends up being more adventures, then I think created the opportunity to "reinvigorated" the franchise, which will allow me to tell fresh and exciting stories with these characters without trodding over old ground.
Robert B. Parker has launched his own Amazon blog. His most recent post is full of interesting TV & movie news:
In October will come Hundred Dollar Baby
(Spenser), in the Spring will appear a Young Adult novel called The
Edenville Owls (my first try at this), and in the fall of 07 will come
Jesse Stone again (High Profile). We start shooting the next Jesse
Stone movie, Seachase (Tom Selleck as Jesse), this October, and it
will be on CBS sometime during the 06/07 season. When I know, I’ll tell
you. Incidentally I think Tom has absolutely nailed the role. Ed Harris
is developing my western novel, Appaloosa for a feature film. He plans
to star (as Virgil Cole) and to direct. So far he has Viggo Mortenson
attached (Everett Hitch) and Diane Lane (Allie). I’m very pleased with
the casting choices, and have a lot of confidence that Harris will get
the movie made (as you may know, most movies don’t get made). He should
be wonderful in the role. I’ve seen the script and it seems flawless.
Stay tuned.