My Blog

The Unaired

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There have been a bunch of shows cancelled in the last few weeks after only an episode or two. But it could be worse. At least they aired. There are have been a surprising number of series over the years that were picked up by networks, went into production, and were  cancelled without ever airing.

Laf034For example, Fox shut down writer/producer Glenn Gordon Caron’s series FLING after seven episodes were produced and never aired them. They also cancelled the Scott Baio sitcom REWIND without airing it. And the same network had second thoughts after renewing FIRE CO 132 and shelved all 13 episodes produced for the show’s revamped  second season.

A pre-nose job, pre-L&O Benjamin Bratt starred in three episodes of JUAREZ, an ABC cop show that never aired.  The WB cancelled MANCHESTER PREP  afterCruelintentions2dvdcover shooting three episodes that didn’t air — but were later cut together into a direct-to-DVD movie (CRUEL INTENTIONS 2). A few years ago, TNT shelved all 13 episodes of its new drama series  BREAKING NEWS without airing it (Bravo later burned off the episodes).

This is hardly a new phenomenon — NBC ordered 13 episodes of David Brenner’s sitcom SNIP in the late 70s and cancelled the show without ever broadcasting it. There was an NBC sitcom that met a similar fate in the last season or two, but I can’t recall the name.

Anyone else remember any other series that were cancelled before the produced episodes ever saw the light of a cathode ray tube?

The Primetime Dead

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138_1The triggermen at the networks have very itchy fingers. The WB killed Jerry Bruckheimer’s JUST LEGAL, starring Don Johnson, after a mere three episodes and NBC aborted INCONCEIVABLE, starring Angie Harmon, after only two airings. 

But there was some good news for a couple of freshman shows — SUPERNATURAL on the WB and MY NAME IS EARL on NBC got  full season pick-ups.  Variety predicts that full season pick-ups are in the offing for CBS’s "How I
Met Your Mother," "Criminal Minds" and "Ghost Whisperer"; Fox’s "Bones"; and
ABC’s "Commander In Chief."

Midseason shows are already being lined up. NBC has greenlit 13 episodes of Dick Wolf’s CONVICTION, a series about prosecutors that will scavenge left-over sets from LAW AND ORDER: TRIAL BY JURY. Variety reports there’ s a possibility that new Wolf show may yet become part of the LAW AND ORDER franchise.

Connelly’s Road to Hollywood

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Michael Connelly’s crime novels regularly top the best-seller lists.  His Harry Bosch series has sold more than 2.6 million
copies. His website gets one million hits a
month, and his email list boasts about 30,000 names. Connelly is a certified celebrity in the mystery book world.  You’d think studios would be scrambling to make movies based on his books. But so far, only BLOOD WORK has made it to the screen…and was a critical and box-office dud (but was something of a dry run for the creative team that would make MYSTIC RIVER an Oscar-winning success).
Although Connelly co-created the UPN TV series LEVEL 9, his involvement was minimal and the show tanked( a writer on the show, Paul Guyot, has a nice appreciation of Connelly on his blog today).

Over the years, his Bosch books have been optioned several times and countless screenplays have been written…and yet, no movie or even a TV pilot have been produced  (having read a couple of those scripts, I can understand why).  VOID MOON reportedly began as an original screenplay before Connelly turned it into a book…and yet, no movie there, either.

What’s the problem here? I don’t know.  Perhaps it’s the same curse that has kept Thomas Perry’s books from being made into films.  But now there’s buzz that Connelly’s new novel THE LINCOLN LAWYER is generating heat in Hollywood and is big-screen bound.

Let’s hope.

The Invisible Character

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Helfer2On NIP/TUCK last week, one of the characters had a long conversation at a bar with someone who wasn’t there — an old lover who ran off to France. But as I was watching the scene, I realized what seemed like a novel notion just a few years ago — characters talking to full-bodied ghosts/figments of their imagination — has rapidly become a cliche. Now the technique is being used everywhere you look on TV and in every genre you can think of.  SIX FEET UNDER, NIP/TUCK, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, GHOST WHISPERER, LOST, MEDIUM,
MISSING, and MONK are just some of the shows that regularly employ the "talking to people who aren’t there" gimmick. I don’t know for sure where it started (SIX FEET UNDER?) but it’s become a staple now of dramatic television. And it’s stupid. Think about it  — when was the last time you, or anybody you know who isn’t institutionalized, believed they were seeing and talking to someone who, actually, wasn’t there?

(Oh, and a caveat — this rant is coming from someone who has used the gimmick once or twice himself).

The Long Journey to Publication

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I got this comment here yesterday regarding my new book THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE:

I noticed in the comments on Paul’s site that it two years of wading
through rejections and the like, to the point you wondered that it may
just sit in your drawyer for all of time – I would be most interested
to hear more about this journey from you, what your thoughts were on
why it didn’t find a home in the beginning, what obstacles you faced
with it, etc. I think many have the idea that established, published
writers don’t have to deal with that once they’ve broken in and gotten
published.

Succeeding with a book or two doesn’t  mean everything you write from now on will get published.  The publishing business today is brutal. There are many well-known authors who wrote a book outside their established series or genre and, as a result, either had to fight to get it published, had to switch publishers for the title, or couldn’t get it published at all. And there are many acclaimed, mid-list authors who have had their long-running, successful series dropped and are fighting to get back in print again (often having to resort to using a pseudonym to avoid being damned by sales figures of their last few books).

THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE is about a guy who learns everything he knows about being a PI from reading books and watching TV shows. It’s about the clash between fictional expectations/stereotypes and reality. The book is something of a spoof…and yet, at the same time, a straight-ahead crime novel full of explicit sex and violence. That shifting tone made the book a hard sell…because it didn’t fit into a particular marketing niche. Is it a satire? Is it a PI novel? Is it a thriller?

Most of  the editors who rejected the book praised the writing but didn’t see where it would fit in their publishing line.  There were two editors at major houses who loved it and wanted to acquire it…but  couldn’t convince their superiors. Another wrote a LONG rejection letter, saying how much she loved it, that it was the best PI novel she’d read, and how it pained her not to be able to publish it. (In the mean time, I wrote a screenplay version of the book, which landed me the gig writing the DAME EDNA movie. It never got made, but it was a very big payday for me and my first solo screenwriting job outside of episodes of TV shows I’ve produced).

It was frustrating not being able to sell the book because I felt it was the best novel I’ve ever written. I loved writing it and I very much wanted to write more about Harvey Mapes, the main character. At the same time, I couldn’t whine too much, because I have been doing well with the DIAGNOSIS MURDER books. Of course I approached my DM editors about BADGE…but as much as they like me, and my work, they weren’t willing to take the gamble (I’m hoping they will consider the paperback rights now that the book has been so well reviewed).

Finally, after two years of  shopping the book, we took it to Thomson/Gale/Five Star,  which has  a reputation for putting out fine mysteries…and for being a place  where  published authors can find a home for their "dropped" series and unpublished works.   It’s an imprint run by writers (like founder Ed Gorman) and editors (like legendary book packager Martin Greenberg)  who truly love books and appreciate authors. They produce handsome hard-covers that are respected and reviewed by the major industry publications. I had a great experience with them on THE WALK (another book that was a hard sell)  and I knew they would treat THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE well.

The downsides with Five Star are that they pay a  low advance, they primarily serve the library market and have very limited distribution to bookstores (though they are stocked in most independant mystery bookstores). The only way to get your title in a Barnes & Noble or Borders is to have an event in one of their stores.  Still, it’s possible to win wide acclaim and impressive sales with a Five Star title, as my friend Robert Levinson proved last year with ASK A DEAD MAN, an LA Times Bestseller that won a starred Publishers Weekly review.

The hope with a Five Star title is that it will be well-reviewed, sell big within Five Star’s limited market, perhaps get an Edgar nod (or the equivalent from RWA, WWA, etc), and get enough notice that a larger house will pick-up the mass market paperback or foreign rights.

Success can open a lot of doors, and make the experience smoother, but unless you’re at the Stephen King/Janet Evanovich/Michael Connelly level, it by no means guarantees a free ride.

The Flash in the Pan

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Flash_completeYet another flop TV series I didn’t write or produce is being released on DVD. All 22 episodes of the one-season bomb THE FLASH are coming to DVD in a boxed set.

Not that this is related to THE FLASH…but since I’m talking about TV shows on DVD today, I thought I’d mention that  Universal is finally releasing SEAQUEST on DVD. The complete first season, starring Roy Scheider before his face lift,  is being released in December. I’m looking forward to the release of the 13 episodes from Season 3, when the show was retitled SEAQUEST 2032 and starred Michael Ironside (that was the season I worked on).

Today is Pub Day

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1594143722_1Prepare yourself for same blatant self-promotion…but I think I’m allowed.

Today is the official publication date of THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE, which should start appearing in finer mystery bookstores nationwide, like Mystery Book Store, Mysteries to Die For, and Murder By The Book. You can also order if from Amazon. Here are some excerpts from the pre-publication reviews:

"As dark and twisted as anything as anything Hammett or Chandler ever dreamed
up…leaving Travis McGee in the dust" Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

"Approaching the level of Lawrence Block is no mean feat, but Goldberg (the
Diagnosis Murder series) succeeds with this engaging PI novel…" Publishers Weekly

"A
convincing, even moving tale about the real nature of the SoCal streets and
the real nature of heroism," Ed Gorman

"Likeable loser Harvey Mapes is my new favorite private eye, the guy with the dead-end job who longs to be Mannix or Travis McGee.  I hope the folks in charge of the Shamus nominations are paying attention." Victor Gischler

"Violent, often crude, sometimes hilarious and ultimately touching, this book is
a great homage to the Gold Medal paperbacks of the 1950s and 1960s." Clair Lamb, Mystery Bookstore newsletter

A witty, wicked and dare I say wise little book. Lee Goldberg shows off more than just his funny bone here. He reveals a keen eye for the wrenching heartbreaks and triumphs that forge heroes" David Corbett

"Lee Goldberg’s ‘The Man in the Iron-On Badge’ is a very funny book about the ironclad LA class system, life in a security guard’s shack, and the crucial differences between violence as
experienced on a TV show and in real life. " Scott
Phillips

"A quick fun read with a satisfying and unexpected ending. Harvey Mapes is a hero I  hope we see in a sequel." Phillip
Margolin

"A clever, witty and intelligent parody of, and homage to, the PI genre." Robert
Randisi

"Lee Goldberg is a sly and funny writer, with a warm heart and an ease with words. 
He never disappoints." SJ Rozan

"This book starts out as a fine example of the humorous “lovable schmoe”
school of detective fiction, and Goldberg does a good job with that part of it, but then it takes a sudden turn into darker and more dangerous territory and becomes even better…"James Reasoner

"The book is about Harvey’s discovery that real-life crime isn’t like
the fictional variety at all. At first, the differences are played for
laughs, but when Harvey’s case takes a tragic turn, Lee never loses his
footing. Harvey actually matures on the page, a transformation made
evident in the character’s distinctive voice." Vince Keenan

"Goldberg is funny in this rip on pop culture, PI cliches, and
California culture…a laugh-out-loud example of what the best PI
novels should be."  James Winter, Reflections in a Private Eye

A History Of Violence

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I’ve never been a big David Cronenberg fan, but I liked A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, though it could have been so much better. It’s a shame the mobsters were played, costumed and directed,  so cartoonishly over-the-top…had they been as realistic and controlled as the rest of the characters (and performances), this movie really could have soared.