The writers’ strike is over. Most of my favorite shows will be back next month (except for Pushing Daisies, which has been renewed but won’t be back until fall). And the late night talk show hosts actually have good jokes to tell rather than their scattershot attempts to come up with jokes on their own (or, in Jay Leno’s case, attempts to make it look like he came up with the jokes on his own). By the way: Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien, you navigated well without your writers. Jon Stewart? Well, as you used to say all the time… “not so much.”
Now I wonder what this means for TV writers — and those who want to be TV writers — in the long term. Will there be less opportunities for young up-and-comers to get in the business, because networks are going to go with more reality TV, or will things eventually get back to pre-strike levels? Will the internet be best way to start your TV writing career? It’s all going to be interesting to watch, and some of it is going to be for very personal reasons…
For the new year, I decided to start a new feature called “Dead Article Theater.” This is where I’ll put essays and articles that never saw the light of day. These could be essays or ideas that were shopped around forever and ever and given the thumbs down at every turn. Alternately, they could be assigned articles that, for some reason, got killed and I was unable to place it elsewhere, either because of indifference or laziness.
This first article is in the latter category. In April 2007, I pitched Radar Online the idea of doing an interview with Jackie Martling, formerly of the Howard Stern Show. They agreed. I could have easily done the interview over the phone, but when Jackie offered to take me to the Friars Club, I couldn’t turn it down. So I traveled into the city, met Jackie at his midtown Manhattan apartment (he lives in the same building as Colin Quinn, whom I saw on the way in) and did the interview, then went to the Friars Club for lunch.
I have a blurb about NJ Devils’ owner Jeff Vanderbeek in the January / February issue of Arrive, Amtrak’s in-train magazine. You can read a digital copy of the magazine here; my contribution is on Page 12.
On Monday, I’m rolling out a new feature on this blog; for now I’m calling it “Dead Article Theater”. It will consist of articles that were killed by the publications I wrote them for, or essays that never found a home after years of submissions. The first piece is an interview I did last April with a very funny comedian that anyone who listened to a certain radio show would know pretty well. Stay tuned.
Finally… I’m getting a lot of comment sp*m. Since I moderate comments, I delete them before they ever get published on the blog. But they seem to be coming in at a more rapid pace than ever. Any of you veteran bloggers figure out a way to stop the sp*m? The only way I’ve seen is to use HaloScan, which of course takes the comments off my server. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments (I’ll make sure I approve them if you’re not already approved. Honest).
In my last note, I mentioned that Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens had put a letter on his website regarding his bands’ absence from New Jersey Monthly’s music issue. Well, it looks like he’s taken that letter down. Maybe he felt he said his piece and didn’t want to belabor the point. Dunno. So, if you follow the link below and see nothing there, don’t fret for my sanity. There was a letter there at some point. I swear.
One of my articles that got cut from the New Jersey Monthly music issue was a short one I did on the Hanukkah concerts mounted by the indie band Yo La Tengo. It was cut because we couldn’t confirm that the shows were going to take place in time to make the print publication. But, since they are going to happen, the folks at NJM were nice enough to put the article on their web site. Here it is.
Now, here’s the video of my MSNBC appearance, which my boss Keith at TV Squad was kind enough to encode so I could embed it (the embed is at TVS; I have an AVI copy of the video here). I thought I did OK; I even made anchor Contessa Brewer laugh a couple of times. Will I do anything different when (if) I get asked back? Sure. But, at least I didn’t choke under the glare of the cameras; I thought I was going to pull a Cindy Brady and freeze up, but I just ignored the cameras and talked to Contessa. Seemed to work. Watch if you dare:
Looks like my pundit career is “taking off.” Tomorrow, I’ll be on MSNBC, around 2:10 PM ET, representing TV Squad. I’ll be interviewed for their special “Super Tuesday” political show, discussing a new TV Guide article that finds out the shows the presidential candidates like to watch. They’re asking me to have fun with the topic; after having seen a press release that lists some of the candidates’ choices, I don’t think that will be much of a problem.
Other stuff:
Just posted: A TV Squad interview I did with David X. Cohen, executive producer (along with Matt Groening and others) and show-runner of Futurama, on the DVD release of Bender’s Big Score and the show’s return to TV.
Also: In the December issue of New Jersey Monthly, I wrote two articles for their Music Issue package: One on Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, and a lengthier one on Robert Randolph. Neither piece is online yet, but it should be on the stands as we speak.
Whew, October went in a flash, didn’t it? So much so that I didn’t realize that I hadn’t posted for the entire month until I looked at the blog yesterday.
I’m not much of a union guy, but I completely support the TV and movie writers in this dispute. As a freelance writer myself, I know what sort of constant struggle it is to be properly paid for the use of my words in various media. Publishers are increasingly putting in wording in their contracts that give them the right to use our stories on “every medium that will be created in the known universe for infinity plus one” or other such CYA nonsense. But at the very least, we get to keep the right to resell our material on our own (in most cases). TV and movie writers don’t get that choice; a long time ago, they traded the right to own their work for the union protection the WGA gives them. But they still should be compensated for every use of their work, whether it be on TV or DVD or online.
No TV show has been more impacted by online distribution than The Office, so I’ll let them explain why the WGA is on strike, in this video, which contains the same wry humor familiar to fans of the show. Enjoy!
Here’s the embed of my Attack of the Show appearance last night. They said I did a good job, so who am I to argue?
Yes, that’s my dusty rack of CD’s (my friend Ken will enjoy seeing his handiwork getting a little TV exposure) and a couple of photos of mine in the background. The door on the right is to my kitchen, and I think it’s the only time it’s been closed in the 10 years I’ve lived in this apartment. I wish the webcam wasn’t so choppy, but they were using Yahoo! Messenger and I don’t think it’s particularly fast to begin with. Maybe next time they’ll use AIM and/or iChat.
I wrote an article about Newark’s new arena, the Prudential Center, for the October issue of New Jersey Monthly. Here’s the link to the story.
I’ll be on G4’s Attack of the Show again tonight, on a segment called “Blog Watch.” I’ll be talking a little about the new fall season, concentrating on the shows G4’s audience loves. Here’s the interesting part: instead of schlepping into New York to do the interview from a satellite studio, I’ll be doing it via webcam from my New Jersey hidey-hole. It should be on between 7:30 - 8 PM ET.
I’ve decided to dip another toe into the 21st century by creating a Facebook profile. Click on the badge to the left and you will see it. Hey, throw me a friend invite if you feel like it. Just don’t poke me; that term creeps me out to no end. Next stop on the train from Ludditeville: an iPod! I’ve heard those things are cool.
I interviewed Rob McElhenney, creator and co-star of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, for TV Squad. This time, we decided to embed the audio and list highlights rather than transcribe the whole thing. Rob gave a pretty informative and funny interview. Definitely check it out if you’re a fan of the show.
Folks, I encourage you to go over to my “main gig”, TV Squad, today. We’re paying tribute to Adam Finley, one of the biggest contributors to the site; he died Thursday morning after he was hit by a school bus while riding his bike. No one found out until Saturday; Adam didn’t have any ID on him, and the medical examiner’s office finally identified him via the serial number off his iPod. He was only 30.
We’re foregoing news today and just posting our favorite posts from Adam, who had a love of animation, Amy Sedaris, and had a really wicked sense of humor. In my assistant editor’s role at TVS, I sometimes clashed with Adam over the obscurity of what he posted. But I always enjoyed what he wrote, especially when he created fictional conversations between two people, or himself and God, or himself and a can. Yes, he’s “talked” to God and a can.
1) Both Hilly Kristal (founder of CBGB) and Richard Jewell (hero, then suspect in the bombing at the 1996 Olympics) died today. That leads me to this question: do obscure semi-celebrities die in threes? If so, who’s next?
Here’s my appearance on Attack of the Show last night. Besides the fact that I kept my mouth open the whole time, I don’t think I did too badly. Enjoy!
For those of you with digital cable, tune in to G4 at either 7 PM or 10 PM ET tonight; I’ll be on the “geek chic” channel’s Attack of the Show, talking about how networks are dealing with pilots that are leaked to BitTorrent and other places on the Interwebs.
Here are the details; the segment I’ll be on is called “The Loop.” This is the third time I’ve done the show, but the first time in about a year. The reason why I say “I think” I’ll be on is that I could be bumped at the very last minute. But right now, I’m 99% sure I’ll be on.
Oh, and later tonight, at 10 PM, I’ll be participating in the second full episode of TV Squad’s revived podcast, which is being hosted by BlogTalkRadio. Details here. So it’s a very busy multimedia kind of day for me. Woo.
I just realized that the link that I posted for Andy Breckman’s radio show, Seven Second Delay, hasn’t been updated since 2001. So, here’s some more up-to-date links: the show’s blog (which happens to have a link to my article at the top… don’t worry, there’s no quid pro quo deal or anything like that), and a list of archived shows.
By the way, if anyone can tell me what the Robin Williams quote I discussed yesterday actually means, let me know in the comments. I’ve been hearing that damn quote for 20 years now (I even had the soundtrack, which had all of Williams’ bits as Adrian Cronauer interspersed between the oldies), and to this day I have no idea what it means.
For the new year, I decided to start a new feature called “Dead Article Theater.” This is where I’ll put essays and articles that never saw the light of day. These could be essays or ideas that were shopped around forever and ever and given the thumbs down at every turn. Alternately, they could be assigned articles that, for some reason, got killed and I was unable to place it elsewhere, either because of indifference or laziness.
For those of you with digital cable, tune in to G4 at either 7 PM or 10 PM ET tonight; I’ll be on the “geek chic” channel’s Attack of the Show, talking about how networks are dealing with pilots that are leaked to BitTorrent and other places on the Interwebs.
