Lee Goldberg

William Rabkin and I will be teaching another session of our popular "Beginning TV Writing" online course for Writers University in May. There’s still time to sign up and a few open seats are left in our virtual classroom.

In this four week course, two established executive
producers/showrunners will give you an inside look at the world of
episodic television. You will learn—and practice— the actual process
involved in successfully writing a spec episodic script that will open
doors across Hollywood. You will learn how to analyze a TV show and
develop “franchise”-friendly story ideas. You will develop and write a
story under the direction of the instructors, who will be acting as
showrunners… and then, after incorporating their notes, you will be
sent off to write your outline. Finally, you will develop and refine
your outline with the instructors, leaving you at the end of the course
ready to write your episodic spec script…the first step in getting a
job on a TV series.

My brother Tod beat me to posting about some of the dumb questions I got asked at the Palm Springs Book Festival (though I got lots of great questions, too). Here’s one of them (though you’ll notice that Tod remembers it slightly different than I do):

Woman: Did you have to take acting classes to learn how to write dialog?

Me: No, but I’ve also never been a werewolf, a lifeguard, a psychic FBI agent, a 70-year0ld doctor who solves crimes, or the Captain of a submarine in the year 2032. I make stuff up. The dialog comes from the characters. I don’t need to be an actor to know how people talk. I just have to observe and listen.

Woman: Is there a class you can take for that?

The night before the Festival there was a reception for the authors. Only authors were attending (and their spouses, significant others and, in my case, my mother). But there are always one or two clueless idiots at these kind of events who use this as a selling opportunity. A lady came up to me and thrust her apparently self-published book in my face.

Woman:  I’m the author of GREAT SEX AFTER SIXTY. You should read this book.

Me: Do I look sixty to you?

Woman: Well, you will be, won’t you?

Me:  No, I’m planning on using plastic surgery and drugs to remain 44 forever.

Woman: But you’ll still physically be sixty even if you look 44 and you’ll want to have great sex.

Me: There will be a pill for that, too.

Woman: There might not be.

Me: I’ll take my chances.

I couldn’t believe she was still arguing with me. But I was saved by my Mom, who started laughing.

Mom: He’s my son and he looks sixty to you? My God, how old do I look?

At which point the clueless idiot thrust her God-awful book in my Mom’s face and asked her how her sex was… and I dashed across the room to talk to Gregg Hurwitz. Am I good son or what?

It was a beautiful day for a Book Festival in Palm Springs today. Although the turn-out for the mystery & suspense panels was light for everybody, and I sold maybe two books, I had a terrific time anyway, hanging out with authors Doug Lyle, Theresa Schwegel, Loraine Despres, Kirk Russell, Thom Racina, JJ & Bette Lamb, Taffy Cannon, Eric Shaw Quinn, Barbara Seranella, Nichelle Tramble, Christopher Rice, Gregg Hurwitz, Bill Fitzhugh, and my brother Tod. I even managed to peek in on Chris Rice’s hilarious and informative interview with his mother Anne Rice, which was The Big Event of the Fest and was, predictably, standing-room only. The only downside was the hellacious traffic on the way back to L.A.

My God, reading this post, I feel like I’m channeling one of my Mom’s typical Desert Sun society columns from the 80s and 90s…

UPDATE 4-22-2006:  James Kosub appears to have come to his senses and deleted the ridiculous accusations against me that he posted on his blog, so I’ve deleted the post that formerly occupied this space (the comments, however, remain).

I love it when people stay up all night reading my books. This came today from The Shaudy Life:

For some reason, I am awake. It’s 4 in the am, and I am still awake.
Just got done reading Lee Goldberg’s and William Rabkin’s "Successful
Television Screenwriting." Fabulous book!!! Absolutely amazing! I’ve
never read an industry book that I haven’t been able to put down, even
if it’s a topic I’m really interested in. They’ve got humor and wit.
And they’re a little cynical and neurotic, which makes me more
comfortable with being cynical and neurotic, myself. Fantastic book.

Thanks, Nina!