A-Team Leader

Those of you who don't know the name Stephen J. Cannell (shame on you) may nevertheless be familiar with his classic end credit vanity card which featured Cannell himself typing on an old typewriter before pulling the page out and tossing it into the air, where it becomes animated, floating down to form his production company logo. And certainly you're familiar with the shows that end card was attached to. Cannell's real claim to fame is as a creator, writer, producer of classic, enduring 80s/90s television. "The A-Team," "21 Jump Street," "The Rockford Files," "The Greatest American Hero," "The Commish" and "Wiseguy" among many others. On his site Cannell gives you insight into how he writes so prolifically in a great, free "online writing...

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Just the Tip

Check out Screenwriting Tips... You Hack. I'd hate to liken the page to Twitter but it's short, quick advice on screenwriting with some bite to it. You can blast through a lot of these. A recent tip that I like: Screenwriting Tip #305 Never settle for good enough. Not in your word choice, dialogue, emotional beats, anything. Don’t stop rewriting until you get it rig...

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Byte Sized Stories

In my travels across the web recently I came across Weird Tales Magazine. They have open submissions for their "One-Minute Weird Tales." You can get a taste below and then check the submission guidelines....

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Spec ific

Those of you interested in writing a "Burn Notice" spec, check out this interview with creator Matt Nix for some insights on the series and its characters.a target="_blank" createSummaryAndThumb("summary2487433628397906666...

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Summer Season

TV, I love you. But won't you give me a little break? Guess not; here are the chock-full Summer offerings from network and cable: MAY 05/19/10 – Wednesday The Good Guys (FOX) – Series Premiere 05/24/10 – Monday The Bachelorette (ABC) – Season Premiere 05/27/10 – Thursday So You Think You Can Dance (FOX) – Season Premiere 100 Questions (NBC) – Series Premiere 05/28/10 – Friday Past Life (FOX) – Returns from hiatus 05/29/10 – Saturday The Special Relationship (HBO) – Original telefilm premiere 05/31/10 – Monday Cake Boss (TLC) – Season Premiere True Beauty (ABC) – Season Premiere JUNE 06/01/10 – Tuesday America’s Got Talent (NBC) – Season Premiere Losing It With Jillian (NBC) – Series Premiere Wipeout (ABC) – Special Presentation Hell’s Kitchen (FOX) – Season Premiere 06/02/10 – Wednesday Happy...

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It’s hard at the to-- in the middle.

I wrote before about the WGAW Writer Access Project. It's a diversity program for writers with television staffing experience. The 2010 honorees have been posted. Again writer's spec scripts and original pilots have been upload...

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Recommended Reading 2

Here is the list of books that the CBS Writers Mentoring Program suggest to improve your writing. Writing for Episodic Television From Freelance to Showrunner edited by John Wirth and Jeff Melvoin. Writing the Television Drama Series by Pamela Douglas Making a Good Script Great 2nd edition by Linda Seger How to Make it In Hollywood 2nd edition by Linda Buzzel...

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And now for something completely different

Here's a video I found a while back on that ever distracting YouTube that cracked me up. 3979WDSKT...

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A Writer Lost

With the return of "Lost" for its final season in less than a month, now is the time to look back at its beginnings. Not the pilot script but the script that never made it to air. Before "Lost" was "Lost" it was "Nowhere;" a realistic island survival pilot written by Jeffrey Lieber. Lieber was given the boot and the project was handed over to JJ Abrams and company and the rest is history. I never heard about any of this till my friend e-mailed me a link to the script. You can read about the story in this article. "Lost" is one of my favorite shows but after reading "Nowhere" I can say I would have watched and enjoyed this show as well (given its ultimate execution.) Since it was a jumping off point for "Lost" there are a lot of similarities. Though they don't last long. "Lost" has many sci-fi...

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