Film and Television

Staffing Season

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I received this email today:

Lee – as a fringe writer (some low rent success –
but definitely not made) and an avid reader of Successful Television Writing, a question…
When DOES staffing season officially kick off.
I’m always hearing about the "Start of Staffing Season" and you mention it in STW, but I’ve never seen a time when this is  actually going… Late April?

This is how I replied:

It’s not really a staffing "season," more like a couple of staffing "weeks."

The networks announce their fall schedules — the new shows they are picking up and the old shows they are either renewing or cancelling — in late May.  Staffing the new shows, and some positions on returning series, begins almost immediately (though some confident, or at least extremely optimistic, pilot producers actually start taking "get to know you" meetings with potential staffers in early May, before they know whether or not their shows will get picked up).

 
Because most series begin shooting episodes in early July, the staffing season is a very narrow window of opportunity, just about four or five weeks.  If you don’t land a job during those short, competitive, anxiety-filled weeks, odds are you will be sitting out the season (though you may get a freelance gig or a pilot).  That said, there’s another staffing with that opens up a crack around August, when it’s clear that some showrunners and staffers aren’t cut out for their jobs and a quick change needs to be made… and then the window opens a bit again around Thanksgiving, when producers may look to make staff changes for "the back nine" if it looks likely their shows will get a full season pick-up.

 

Star Trek R.I.P.

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I’ve been catching up on my my friend Javier Grillo Marxuach’s blog. We worked together years ago on SEAQUEST, and he’s gone on to much better things… like his current gig as supervising producer of LOST. A few weeks back, he wrote  about the demise of  ENTERPRISE.

For the past ten years, being a star trek fan has been like watching a
beloved relative waste away from a completely curable degenerative
illness… you prayed for someone to administer the readily available
magic bullet of creative freedom, bold choices and individual
thought… and yet, its care was continually entrusted to insurance
company administrators eager to deliver the bottom line.

He nails it, doesn’t he?

Be Warned

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I saw BE COOL, the GET SHORTY sequel, last night (it was our date night and there were no other movies to see).  I can review it succinctly with two words: DON’T BOTHER (or is that technically three words, since "Don’t" is short for "Do Not?"). Not that I’ve reviewed it succinctly, I’ll ramble a bit… GET SHORTY was a great movie. BE COOL is not. Everything that worked in GET SHORTY doesn’t in BE COOL.  The only thing the least bit amusing in BE COOL is The Rock’s performance as a gay bodyguard…which, in a way, should tell you all you need to know about this movie.

By the way, is there an unwritten rule in Hollywood that Vince Vaughan or Jude Law has to be in every movie that’s made?

Big Sunday

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Sunday has become a big TV night in the Goldberg household…one terrific series after another to enjoy. There ware two episodes of NIP/TUCK back-to-back on FX, a new season of DEADWOOD on HBO, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and BOSTON LEGAL on ABC. I can remember the last time we looked forward to a night of TV as opposed to a particular show… it kind of harkens back to the old days, when Saturday was comedy night on CBS… or the heyday of "Must See TV" on NBC. The difference, of course, is that we aren’t just watching one network… we’re channel-surfing between subscription network, basic cable network, and broadcast television, which is probably not what advertisers want to hear.

An Enterprising Director

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I wrote ENTERPRISE off a long time ago… so imagine my surprise when I watched Friday’s episode and I was riveted. Not by the plot (which was flat) or the acting (which was flatter), but the inventive, energetic, and fast-moving camera work and creative staging by director David Barrett. I wasn’t familiar with Barrett, but after watching the episode, I immediately looked him up. His credits include WITHOUT A TRACE, COLD CASE,  THE OC, and VERONICA MARS.  It’s a shame they didn’t bring him in much earlier… he certainly livened things up. I hope Ron Moore was watching…Barrett could do a hell of a job on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I’m going to remember this guy.

The C Word on the L Word

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In all the press about THE L WORD, Ilene Chaiken is always credited as the creator of the series, and the story of how she fought to get her passion project on the air has been retold many times.

So imagine my surprise when I tuned into the first episode of the second season and found out there are two other writers listed in the "Created By" credits with her: Kathy Greenberg & Michelle Abbott. How come these two writers are never mentioned when she talks about the development of the show? Who are they? How come none of the reporters who interviewed Chaiken never thought to ask her about them? What is the real  story behind the creation of the show?

Speaking of THE L WORD, it’s a lot better this season. I sure don’t miss whatshername as whosits.

NYPD BLUE R.I.P.

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I watched the final episode of NYPD Blue last night… could the show have gone out with a duller episode? Compare the pilot to the final episode and it’s like two different shows… one that was edgy, risky, and exciting… and one that could have starred Buddy Ebsen.

The highly-touted NYPD Blue finale was everything the series, at its best, never was…ordinary, unremarkable television.  The finale was so bland, it could have aired on PAX… unedited.

The Television Event of the Decade

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The time has come…the true story behind the making of  DIFF’RENT STROKES can finally be told.  Variety reports that the stirring drama will unfold as a  TV movie that will air as part of NBC’s acclaimed "Behind the Camera" series, which some have already compared to the legendary PLAYHOUSE 90. 

Stan Brooks, who produced the "Three’s Company" and upcoming "Mork and Mindy"
editions of the "Behind the Camera" franchise, said "Strokes" promises to be the
most dramatic pic of the series "by far." Other pics, he said, deal with careers falling apart. "With this one, what’s
at stake was people’s lives," Brooks said.

"The thesis of this movie is, Where were the parents in all this? The
studios, the networks, the managers — all the people benefiting from the
success of this show never looked at the effect it was having (on the young
cast). They stole their childhood."

This is truly a star-making, tiffany project. I think I can safely say the actor lucky enough to portray Conrad Bain will be on the short-list for an Emmy statuette next year.  This is actually the second attempt to film this epic story. A few years ago, Fox broadcast AFTER DIFF’RENT STROKES: WHEN THE LAUGHTER STOPPED.

Personally, I’m waiting for somebody to film the shocking true story behind HELLO, LARRY

Keep Your Spock Ears At Home

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The instant UPN cancelled the low-rated STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE, the fans immediately began mounting the inevitable campaign to save the show. They’ve raised $35,000 so far and took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times. Their goal is to either get the series renewed… or raise the $35 million it will cost to make this dream come true: 

I want you to sit down in front of your TV this October. To hear the
rising sounds of instruments beginning to play in harmony. To see the
vibrant colours of scenery fade into life. I want you all to see Enterprise‘s fifth season explode on to your TV screens in a magnificent blaze of sound and passion signifying everything.

Everything?  They must have asked the folks at the Colonial Fan Force for help writing up  their  call-to-arms.

However,  there are at least a couple people associated with the campaign who have dipped their toes in the real world:  as part of their plans for a Feb. 25th rally outside the Paramount gates,  the folks at  SaveEnterprise.com  are asking Trekkers to leave their Spock ears at home.

Although we think that coming in dress would be great, We also
think this would stereotype us all as "Hardcore" Trekkers and
would hurt more than help. Please wear your daily wear.

The frightening thing is, for some people the Star Trek uniform is  their daily wear, like that nutcake who wore her Federation garb, complete with phaser and tricorder, to jury duty (and who still wears her halloween get-up in her day job at — where else?– Kinkos). The folks at Zap2it have another take on it:

People willing to donate $10,000 of their hard-earned money (mostly refundable
if they don’t reach their goals or Paramount shuns their overtures) for a
low-rated series don’t look desperate but, apparently, those same people in
costumes do.

They want to raise $35 million for a fifth season of a crappy TV show… and Trekkers wonder why people ridicule them. 

Okay, I’ll tell them.

It was one thing when they were fighting to renew, and then resurrect, the original STAR TREK back in the 60s.  It was a campaign that made sense, that people could get behind. 

Wake up, Trekkers. It’s not 1969 anymore. You won that battle.  STAR TREK isn’t the under-appreciated TV series that was treated so unfairly… it’s a multi-billion dollar industry.

It’s hard to work up any sympathy for your cause, or share your righteous
fury,  when there’s  so much STAR TREK out there. There have been five STAR TREK TV series, hundreds of novels,  a dozen
movies… enough already. There have been 500 episodes of the show.  There’s plenty of Star Trek out there. Too much, in fact. And now you want people to get all worked up over the fact that the fifth series is being canceled after their fourth season?

What the hell is the matter with you people?

It’s more obvious now, than ever, that Trekkers have absolutely no perspective.  With so many worthy causes out there needing our time, money and attention, seeing people going to all this effort for a fifth season of a TV show in franchise that has already been milked to death for billions of consumer dollars is beyond pathetic, embarassing, and moronic…

It’s wrong.