His Ticket In

Jordan Harper is an alumni (alum, alumna? I can never get this) of the Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop (2009). He was staffed on "The Mentalist" through the WB program and is also a short fiction writer. What's all this have to do with you, why should you care? Well, if you're interested in getting into the WB Workshop, Jordan was kind enough to post the spec script that got him in on his site. No, you're not Mr. Harper. No, you're not gonna submit the same script. No, your gem of a spec won't be up against the same competition his was. But it starts with the writing and this will give you an example of writing that got noticed and was successful. You can read the script he...

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They Do Run Run

The Hollywood Reporter has a series of Emmy Roundtable videos with actors and showrunners. The drama showrunners roundtable features Frank Darabont ("The Walking Dead"), Jason Katims ("Parenthood"), John Wells ("Southland" and "Shameless"), Mike Royce ("Men of a Certain Age"), Graham Yost ("Justified"), Kurt Sutter ("Sons of Anarchy"), and Terence Winter ("Boardwalk Empire"). Most of the conversation revolves around issues of running a show and isn't exactly writing related. The later part is a little more interesting. I usually like these types of videos and getting a glimpse into the minds of writers and the creative process; but this one left me a little flat. You can watch the comedy showrunner roundtable here (Warning: this does contain...

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Summer Season 2011

When the idea of a Summer television season was first introduced a few years ago I was less than thrilled. Maybe I was locked into the notion that TV happened from September-May and the Summer was a time to catch up on missed episodes or go see a Blockbuster. The initial offerings were weak; mostly reality dreck, show's that didn't make the Fall line-ups and some experiments. Then some shows started to emerge; "The O.C." was an early Summer scheduled breakout, premiering August 5, 2003 on Fox. Now things are flipped upside down. The starting of the TV season used to be an event for me; I would buy TV Guide's Fall Preview issue — I used to love that thing - and excitedly thumb through it, eager to discover all the new shows. (Side note: those issues are great to look back on years later....

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Access Granted

The 2011 Writer Access Project honorees have been selected and posted on the WGA site along with their scripts. (This year with class photos of the writers as well. Is it just me, or does the blonde in the first pic look like she played a psychic a few years on NB...

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