CBS may have canceled SWINGTOWN, but their love affair with the 1970s is just getting started. Hot on the heels of the news that CBS is remaking THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO comes word from the Hollywood Reporter that the network is also developing a new HAWAII FIVE-O. They've hired CRIMINAL MINDS showrunner Ed
Bernero to craft this new take. The last time CBS tried to revive HAWAII FIVE-O, back in the late 90s, they turned to writer/producer Stephen J. Cannell, who wrote the script with former network chief Kim LeMasters and cast Gary Busey and Russell Wong as the stars. James MacArthur reprised his role as Danny "Dano" Williams, who'd bec0me Governor of Hawaii. Several other HAWAII FIVE-O cast members, including Chin-Ho (who was killed off in season 10), returned in cameos. Mike Post even updated the FIVE O theme. The pilot was shot and never aired…but I have a copy.
Maybe the third time will be the charm…or, rather, CHARMED
Variety reports that ABC has ordered a pilot based on the 1987 movie THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK which, in turn, was an adaptation of the book by John Updike. This will be the third time a network has tried to turn the Jack Nicholson-Cher-Susan Sarandon-Michelle Pfeiffer movie into a weekly series.
In 1992, scribes Carlton Cuse and Jeffrey Boam were behind a "Witches of Eastwick" pilot for NBC. That version starred Catherine Mary Stewart, Julia Campbell, Ally Walker and Michael Siberri.
Fox developed a different version in 2002. The abbreviated-titled "Eastwick," from exec producer Jim Leonard and scribes Jon Cowan and Robert Rovner, focused on the teenage sons of the original witches. Lori Loughlin, Marcia Cross and Kelly Rutherford starred.
The pilot is being written by Maggie Friedman, who has some bewitching experience — she penned an unsold pilot about about a witch-turned-life coach for the CW last season.
Wither THE MIDDLEMAN?
My friend Javier Grillo Marxuach gives Star-Ledger reporter Alan Sepinwall the skinny on the past, present, and endangered future of his ABC Family madcap sci-fi/retro-spy series THE MIDDLEMAN, which has been having a hard time ratings-wise. Javi and the network mutually agreed to cut the show's 13-episode order down to twelve and to pump a few more dollars into the budget of the unintended season finale. The future of the show, at least on ABC Family, is in doubt but Javi remains enthusiastic, optimistic, and realistic.
I waited 11 years to put the show on the air my way, I can wait to get
it to another place, and if I don't, honestly, I have no regrets. It
has been 12 episodes made lovingly, hand-crafted, by people who truly
believe in the product. If at the end of the day, I have to walk away
from it, I won't walk away from it crying in my beer about how I didn't
get to tell my story.
it to another place, and if I don't, honestly, I have no regrets. It
has been 12 episodes made lovingly, hand-crafted, by people who truly
believe in the product. If at the end of the day, I have to walk away
from it, I won't walk away from it crying in my beer about how I didn't
get to tell my story.
BookWhirl Can’t Even Sell Itself
I got the following spam email from Bookwhirl, a online marketing & promotion huckster for authors:
Greetings!
I am Jen, and I am Marketing Service Representative from BookWhirl.com. I understand that you have published books. If I may ask, do you have any marketing plans for your books? I am asking this because we at BookWhirl.com want to help you market your books and we want your books to succeed!
I clicked the link to their site, where they say that:
Waging a successful online book marketing campaign does not require a lot of money — it’s all about having the right combination of knowledge, creativity, and business sense. Let our team of experienced online book marketers do the selling for you.
If the flatly-written, uninspired, and impersonal mass email that I received is an example of their combination of knowledge, creativity, business sense and online experience, then God help the fool who hires them (packages start at $800).
BookWhirl.com employs an experienced team of online marketing strategists, ad copywriters, graphic artists, and web designers whose combined expertise ensure an effective online marketing campaign
Except their email campaign for themselves is a bust, a demonstration of their total lack of persuasive skills and marketing savvy. Their email begs the question… if their "marketing strategists" can't even effectively sell themselves, how are they going to sell you?
Naturally, the people who are most likely to waste money on something like this are those who are already experienced at flushing cash down toilets. So it's no surprise that Bookwhirl's list of clients is full of suckers from PublishAmerica, Xlibris and subsidy presses like High-Pitched Hum Publishing.
Absent
Sorry I haven' t been around here much. We have family staying with us from France and I had a book signing down in San Diego this week (on the way there, I stopped at eight Barnes & Noble stores and signed stock). I also have been preparing for some network pitch meetings and working hard on the next MONK book, which is due in a few short weeks. So, blogging has taken a back seat, though I've set aside a few things that showed up in my email this week to blog about later…
Free Books
I'm going to be at the The Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego on Friday, August 8th at 7 pm to sign my new book MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY alongside my brother Tod, who will be signing his new book, BURN NOTICE: THE FIX.
Anyone who buys a copy of MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY at the signing will get a free signed, hardcover, first edition of BEYOND THE BEYOND or MY GUN HAS BULLETS while supplies last.
I'll also be giving away the books at my signings on Saturday, August 16 at Mysteries To Die For (1 pm) in Thousand Oaks, CA and Mystery Bookstore (4 pm) in Westwood, CA.
I hope to see you there!
Ciscos are taking it to The Streets
The recent announcement that CBS is developing a remake of THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO made me wonder how the news was playing with the Ciscos, the diehard fans of the show who inundated ABC with packages of Rice-A-Roni a few years ago.
It isn't going over well. They have taken out a full-page ad in Daily Variety demanding the return of the show with the original cast, wardrobe, and automobiles.
"It's an outrage," said Kirby Sneed, spokesperson for the Save Our Streets Global Alliance. "Any version of STREETS without Karl Malden, Michael Douglas, and Darleen Carr would be an abomination."
His dream of a STREETS reunion nearly came true sixteen years ago when NBC mounted the TV movie/pilot BACK TO THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, which was written by William Robert Yates, one of the original producers. Malden returned, as did Carr, but he was teamed with two new partners and Michael Douglas' character was killed off. The fans felt betrayed.
"The fen have disowned the movie," he said. "We don't consider it canon."
Sneed says the "horrific creative choices" made in the movie have "been corrected in the subsequent fanfiction, but it took a lot of work."
He says that Ciscos realize that Malden, now in his 90s, might be too old to resume his part, but the fen would be willing to accept Paul Sorvino in his place, as long as he reprises his role as Inspector Bert D'Angelo, the lead of a short-lived STREETS spin-off called SUPERSTAR.
They also have "realistic expectations" as far as Douglas' participation is concerned, acknowledging that its unlikely that the feature film star would return for a TV movie. They are in serious discussions with Douglas' publicist's secretary about the possibility of him doing a cameo if a "true remake" is made.
They are confident, however, that Richard Hatch, who replaced Douglas in the series' final season, would be available to resume his role (he has already written his own screenplay for a STREET revival, which he is adapting into a comic book).
Sneed, who lives in San Francisco, has kept the series alive through fan fiction and a driving tour of STREETS locations that he offers to tourists in his1971 Ford Galaxie 500, the same model as the one Inspector Stone drove.
"It was more than TV show," he said. "It's as much a part of the city, and its history, as the Golden Gate Bridge."
Monk’s 100th Party
I just got back from the MONK 100th Episode party at an Italian restaurant in Hollywood. I had a great time catching up with all the writers and meeting some of the guest stars (as well as new semi-regular Hector Elizondo). I brought along my nephew Killian, who doesn’t speak a word of English. He’s in town with us from France for a few weeks and is a big MONK fan. Luckily for him, USA Network president Jeff Wachtel, actress Glenne Headly (who played Stottlemeyer’s wife), and Jason Gray Stanford’s
girlfriend all spoke French, so he had folks to talk to. He also got to meet the whole cast and have his picture taken with them. On the way out, we all got a bottle of French wine in a “Monk 100th episode” comemorative leather bottle-bag. I let my nephew drink it on the way home (just kidding, of course). Now I am back at home, working on my 8th Monk novel, which is due in less than 90 days. Ahhhhhh!