Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Deep breath, kids, the fall TV season is about to begin!

It's actually on a rolling start as we speak, of course. I'm already enjoying HOUSE, STANDOFF, and MEN IN TREES, although I'm not sure how many of those will survive the rotation once the season gets up a full head of steam.

My TiVo's ready to pounce on:

STUDIO 60
THE UNIT
SMITH
JERICHO
GREY'S ANATOMY
THE NINE
CSI
COLD CASE
HEROES
LOST
UGLY BETTY
VERONICA MARS
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

I'll also probably sample FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and WHAT ABOUT BRIAN.

Season's passes are set for some shows, the rest I'll give a few episodes before signing away more hours of my life than are embarrassingly accounted for with the above.

And that's just the stuff that hasn't aired yet. Still watching PROJECT RUNWAY (Go Michael! Go Laura!). And damn you, pay cable, with your WEEDS and THE WIRE and MINOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF JACKIE WOODMAN!

What about you? What's topping your must-see list?

M$ L33tspeak Glossary FTW!!!!111

I just love how adorably earnest this parents' guide to l33tz0r lingo from Microsoft is.

Imagine it read aloud in a soothing Marlin-Perkins-Mutual-of-Omaha's-Wild-Kingdom voice: "Though it was originally used by computer hackers and online gamers ('leet' is a vernacular form of 'elite'), leet has moved into the Internet mainstream. Your kids might use it online for fun, and you might even have seen a word or two used by your own friends and associates online."

Teh r0xx0rz!

9/11

Has it really been five years?

Being in California, by the time I heard about the attacks they were long over, and the painful digging out and recovery underway.

I'd been out running, and The Boyfriend called me at about 8:30am Pacific time.

What's up? I asked, wondering why he was awake at what was for him 0-dark-thirty.

Turn on the TV, he said.

I turned on the TV.

Downtown Manhattan was my home for two years while I was in graduate school, and a favorite long-weekend vacation spot for my family. Mom, Sis, and I would go vintage clothes shopping on Lower Broadway while Dad got half-price theater tickets at the World Trade Center TKTS booth, a well-kept secret with lines much shorter than the Times Square one. I'd been there myself, marveling at the massive, airy lobby of cool marble and odd, narrow windows of the offices above.

Never visited the top. Never went to Windows on the World, even though they had regular swing dance nights with bands I liked. I always thought there'd be time.

There is never enough time.

I heard on the news this morning that statistically 20% of Americans know someone who was killed or injured in the attacks. While I don't know how this figure was arrived at, the scope of the tragedy and the fact that key locations were major U.S. cities make the circle of those who were affected quite large.

Most people I know are only a degree or two away from a victim or survivor. Friends of friends of mine died; a woman I worked with had a blood relative on one of the planes.

The circle grows very large indeed when you include the millions who've served and are are serving in the two wars that resulted.

Here are a few photos from around the world that day, which are to me very moving in the way they convey support and connectedness in the face of tremendous loss.

Sublime Primetime: Emmy-Nominated Writers Panel

Meant to write this up ages, ago, sorry! On August 24, the Writers Guild Foundation and the Hollywood Reporter presented their annual panel of Emmy-nominated writers. This year's roll call:

Carlton Cuse - LOST
Doug Ellin - ENTOURAGE
Damon Lindelof - LOST
Ian Maxtone-Graham - THE SIMPSONS
Cliff Schoenberg - PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT!
Krista Vernoff - GREY'S ANATOMY

Dennis Miller was the moderator. He was mostly well-behaved (more on that later), and opened first with a zinger at the loooooong clip reel of all the nominated writers in all categories, and then gave a tip o' the hat to the guy translating the whole show into American Sign Language. The guy wasn't lit for the first few introductions and Dennis prompted him sympathetically, "How do you say 'Turn the fucking light on'?"

It was pretty meta -- and funny -- watching the guy sign the question and then answer the question vocally, signing his answer as he spoke. The signer guy was kind of a highlight of the show, amazingly expressive in his face and body. Must be an actor.

Dennis' first question to the panel was the moment at which they knew their show had hit the big time.

Doug: When people on the street started asking him and the cast if Vince was doing AQUAMAN.

Carlton: Seeing the ratings from the pilot.

Damon: Hearing his mother tell him, [Jersey accent] "I'm very interested in this Dharma Initiative." [/Jersey accent]

Ian: His show obviously was trundling along quite well before he got there, he's just trying not to screw things up.

Cliff: It's hit the big time? It is exciting that the show was getting critical acclaim, he said, especially since no one has Showtime.

Dennis (I think it was him. My notes are sketchy and almost completely illegible) interjected a joke about why God is thanked at the Oscars but not in Emmy winners' speeches. If God was with Emmy winners, they'd be working in films.

Ian and Dennis bonded over what's apparently a vintage Lorne Michaels note: Lorne apparently gets his boxers in a bunch when actors in a sketch set in a seafood restaurant are given red prop wine to drink.

Work schedules and process. Damon reports 75 hour work weeks on LOST, during which they have up to 5 episodes in various stages of progress at a time.

Krista reported the staff working on one episode from 8am to 1am, and how their workdays have been a normalish 10am-7pm or so, but they're now cranking hard to adjust a string of episodes since a story idea early on was changed, having a ripple effect. This also happened last season when it was decided that Derek and Meredith should stay friends. They originally weren't going to be.

Doug's been working seven days a week since last August.

Casting. Carlton reported that they built Mr. Eko's character around the actor, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Mr. Eko was originally going to be a real priest, but then they heard raves from their casting director. "You know who'd be perfect? That ass rapist from OZ!" Mr. Eko got a rework after that. And I'm now officially scared of the Googling that'll lead people here.

Damon echoed this, that they wrote character to the actors. There was no script for LOST at its initial casting.

Both Damon and Carlton admitted to a sort of "up the river" phenomenon when either spends too much time in Hawaii hanging out with the actors. "Holy crap, they're right! We're not writing enough for Sayid!" The other one will be back on the phone here in LA yelling, "Get out of there, man! Get out!"

Early jobs. Dennis asked the panelists if, during their worst industry job they learned that things would never get better, they would've stuck with it. Most said yes.

Damon seemed to mostly enjoy his early jobs, since they taught him how to write television, "which is very different from writing."

Carlton talked about an international spy action show he worked on that for budgetary reasons was filmed entirely in Orlando, Florida. Um, international? Apparently they were exhorted to film in Epcot.

Krista worked on CHARMED (and gave up a lot of money when she chose to walk away, she said), which she said devolved from being a show about female empowerment after the episode in which Alyssa Milano appeared as a mermaid, with the associated billboards all over town showing Alyssa in seashell pasties. After that, the male viewership shot up, the network started to ask repeatedly, "Can we get some skin this week?", and the show became about getting the girls naked in a San Francisco that was "mysteriously bereft of homosexuals."

Krista also talked about one of her first experiences as a baby writer on an unnamed show, where the staff gathered around to discuss her script, some on conference call, and the showrunner opened with "So. Does anyone have anything positive to say to Krista before we begin?" Crickets. Crickets followed by an utter shredding. She joked that the goal for TV writers was to get to the top so they could do this kind of thing to other people.

Damon described hauling last year's Emmy statuette to Mel's Diner, and loving the award's dangerous and aggressive styling. "It's like it's saying 'Fuck you!!'"

Dennis noted that Ian looks like "Michael Bolton on a low-carb diet."

Advice to newbie writers:

Ian: Read scripts, books, everything. Recommends the Writers Guild Library. Also, if you want to write comedy, be a stand-up comedian (I think this was Ian's point. Again, sketchy notes). "You'll get the unfunny beaten out of you." The other former stand-up comics on the panel agreed.

Cliff: Don't listen too much to people who "know everything." Write what you want to see. What you like.

Damon: Read bad writing. He got depressed when he read good writing...

Carlton: Another vote for reading, both good and bad writing. He used to read for a producer and most of the scripts he read sucked-- and those writers had jobs. Also, investigate the options that digital distribution is opening up like YouTube, viral stuff.

Krista: Yep, reading, also write and keep writing. Don't write one single script and treat it like a jewel. Also, she was a singing waitress for 17 years.

Doug: Write a lot. You'll get better.

TV's a collaborative medium. Know how to play well with others. I forgot who said this, but everyone agreed on the point.

The panel then took a few questions from the audience. Dennis got all snarky when a woman asked Krista how she felt about being the only woman on the panel, and to reflect on the state of women in the industry. Dennis' sarcastic sideshow to this nearly upstaged Krista's answer, but she persevered to note that a lot of women were nominated for Emmys this year but that she was the only one "self-flagellating enough" to appear on the panel.

Krista also said that things were getting better for women in TV overall, and got out a gentle but pointed "You've been odd since 9/11" to Dennis that he didn't appear to hear in the throes of his eye-rolling and wanking gestures. Who better to comment on gender parity in television than a rich middle-aged white guy, right?

I have no idea why Dennis reacted so strongly to a well-intended and not strident question (his behavior was directed at that, not at Krista, btw, who he seemed to like. At one point he suggested she get a talk show since her "rap" was so good). It's not like Dennis wouldn't have made some crack if things were reversed and it was just him and one other guy on a stage full of women writers. Something obscure about Paradise Island and Diana Prince, probably.

"Thank you, Helen Reddy," Dennis smirked to the question-asker before moving on. Helen Reddy? In the age of Hilary and Xena, that's the best and most contemporary he could do?

Last audience question was, who's one person who inspires you?

Carlton: Stephen King.

Krista: Anne Lamott. I got so excited when she said this, because I think Anne Lamott is amazing. Bird by Bird is one of my favorite books on writing, ever, full of helpful advice that's funny and genuine.

Doug: "A lot of neurotic Jews." Woody Allen, Albert Brooks, Mel Brooks, etc.

Ian: Jim Downey, SNL writer extraordinare.

Dennis apologized for some early gag I didn't understand (or transcribe) about someone named Ballard, a cesarean section, and a whorehouse in Nevada. Anyone get that? He then thanked Signer Guy who indeed rocked, and we all decamped to the lobby for nibbles and free wine.

I had white merlot. Cold red wine is a little odd, but not bad, especially on a hot summer night waiting for the fall TV season to start!

Beta forum threadLike a freezing rain, cold deathTo games bloomed too soon.

Okay, so the below isn't a haiku, but I got a curiously worded and spaced tone poem of an email upon registering for the Vanguard beta test:

Congratulations,

You've successfully completed registration for Vanguard Beta.

If you are accepted for Vanguard beta, you will receive a future email
containing a registration key
that you can consume within this flow.

Thank you,
SOE

Who've they got in customer care writing these things? William Carlos Williams?

Coming Soon to a Mailbox Near You

Wired has an article up about how Netflix is quietly but successfully moving into film distribution. Movies they've picked up have gone on to HBO, wider DVD release, and even theatrical runs.

Like the Miramax of old, they're advocates of the little guy, haunting festivals looking for product. Festivals too exclusive for you? There's a link on Netflix.com where you can submit your film.

Most interesting, I think, is how the Netflix recommendations engine relates here. Netflix knows a tremendous amount about its subscribers, and can tell whether you might like some little flick by an unknown filmmaker, which makes their distribution play low-risk and high-reward.

Robust affinity sorting is incredibly powerful: a good engine knows that THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY are both romantic comedies, but are fundamentally different. And which one you're likely to watch-- or buy.

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE

Has it really been a year since Katrina? Of course, it's surely seemed longer, much longer, to those still dealing with the hurricane's fallout long after the rest of us have been distracted by newer and shinier tragedies.

Watch Spike Lee's HBO documentary, WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, if you have access. It's a searing indictment of the government's response, and an elegy to a city that may never be the same but that can still dance even while burying their dead.

Lee managed to get interviews with an amazing number and variety of players. Nagin, Blanco, Kanye West, the doctor who told Cheney to go fuck himself while Dick posed at a photo op, scientists, historians, and most especially survivors of all stripes. As illuminated by Lee's interviews and footage from both then and now, there's plenty of blame and pain -- and resilience and resolve -- to go around.

I learned all kinds of things I didn't know before, such as the allegations that the levees were breached by explosions on purpose, a callback to an actual event from an earlier New Orleans hurricane, where a levee was detonated in a poor neighborhood to save a wealthier one.

I didn't fully understand the breadth and (still) lingering impact of the evacuation diaspora, or the land grab currently underway in the largely vacated worst-hit neighborhoods. That insurance companies weaselled so thoroughly to avoid paying claims to lifelong customers who had lost everything. That cash-poor Louisiana sees no money at all from the natural gas and oil industries just offshore.

Among other things, the documentary begs the question of what might happen in another city, with another disaster of this magnitude.

Here's one for Californians to try on for size: what will happen when the Big One hits? Will FEMA go to Pacific Heights and Beverly Hills before Bayview and Compton? And what will happen next?

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Parker

Raise a glass or three today for Dorothy Parker, patron saint of this blog and indeed of cocktail-fond writer broads everywhere.

Parker wasn't all quips and martinis. She was also an activist, blacklisted by the HUAC, and a founder of the Screen Writers Guild which evolved into the WGA.

Oscar-nominated for 1937's A STAR IS BORN, Parker, like other luminaries such as Fitzgerald and Faulker who came West to write for the movies, found in Hollywood a lucrative but weird terra incognita:

When I dwelt in the East I had my opinion of writing for the screen. I regarded it with a sort of benevolent contempt, as one looks at the raggedy printing of a backward six-year-old. I thought it had just that much relationship to literature.

Well, I found out, and I found out hard, and found out forever. Through the sweat and the tears I shed over my first script, I saw a great truth - one of those eternal, universal truths that serve to make you feel much worse than you did when you started. And that is that no writer, whether he writes from love or from money, can condescend to what he writes. [italics mine] What makes it harder in screenwriting is the money he gets.

You see, it brings out the uncomfortable little thing called conscience. You aren't writing for the love of it or the art of it or whatever; you are doing a chore assigned to you by your employer and whether or not he might fire you if you did it slackly makes no matter. You've got yourself to face, and you have to live with yourself.

Pretty contemporary take, no?

Another quote (attributed), to see you off into your day:

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Amen, sister.

STARGATE SG-1: "200"

Gold. Gold.

The 200th episode of STARGATE SG-1, the little Sci Fi Channel show that could (it debuted in 1997!) is a must-see for any sci fi fan.

Regular viewers of the show will no doubt pick up on a zillion in-jokes that I missed, but there's plenty to go around as the SG writers and actors tweak their own noses when the characters "help" a screenwriter (Willie Garson, as Hollywood shnook nonpareil) with a screenplay based on his TV show based on their exploits: WORMHOLE X-TREME! Exclamation point theirs.

Everything's fair game in the TV and movie development world, from the title sequence to act outs to swapping lead actors mid-series to having your funding slashed over a text message, but the real heart of the ep is the sci fi parodies of the show.

We see the Stargate posse as angsty O.C. punks, Classic Trek, in a galaxy far, far away, as Thunderbirds-style puppets (!!)... My favorite bit is when alien Vala tries to get her own storyline added, but only offers glosses on other, very familiar movie and TV tales. "If you're going to rip off someone," the writer admonishes, "You're going to have to pick something a little more obscure."

Cut to a pitch-perfect parody of a late, lamented sci fi show dear to my heart, one where Claudia Black (Vala) and Ben Browder clearly feel right at home.

"That's better," says the writer. "I have no idea what that is."

"200" rebroadcasts on Sci Fi on 8/25, I think, or track it down digitally. Find it. Watch it. Love it.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But It May Be on iTunes

When NBC announced that it would be releasing the pilot for HEROES for free on iTunes in advance of its broadcast premiere, I made a "squeeeeeeeee" noise of delight that probably could only be heard by Aquaman.

The selfsame Aquaman whose own pilot (which wasn't picked up, unlike HEROES), gloriously, eponymously retitled from the safe 'n' boring MERCY REEF, hasn't left the iTunes top 10 TV Shows since it was posted.

I'm also in love with NBC's other savvy, digital media ploy, to release STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP to Netflix subscribers. My copy's winging its way to me as we speak.

I tuned in late to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA this year and have the entire third season on my iPod.

How great is all this? TV-watching in the age of the digital holy trinity -- Netflix, iTunes, and Holy TiVo -- is a thing of beauty.

There are interesting strategies at work with digital distribution: expand on the moneymaking potential of hit shows by making episodes available for sale after they air; promote and drive early word of mouth on shows that the networks want to be hits; and provide a revenue-generating home for those shows that didn't make the cut.

This last one I find the most fascinating. I hope more networks follow the Aqualead and make more pilots available on iTunes or on their websites. The interest clearly is there; for one, I'd pay to see SPLIT DECISION, whose script I loved but that didn't get picked up by the CW.

Digital distribution also works guerrilla-fashion. GLOBAL FREQUENCY was, of course, the first pilot to turn up on the internets and find popularity and press. Its owners should sell that puppy on iTunes, the perfect place for long-tail content. The pilot for NOBODY'S WATCHING, from a SCRUBS writer-producer, burned up YouTube and got bought for webisodes and script development by NBC.

Why not make more failed pilots available online? Let those who didn't get invited to the fall lineup prom find an audience, one that doesn't need to be the multimillions required to keep a TV show afloat. Recoup a bit of development money. The world's iPods are waiting!

It's the End of E3 As We Know It

...and I feel fine.

The game industry buzz over the weekend was all about how E3 is dead or downsized.

Between swarms of goofball non-industry attendees, the adverse impact to the game development calendar (it's hard for some companies to make progress on the actual game early in the year if everyone's busy with teh shiney E3 demo), and dubious actual value to publishers, this may not be a bad thing.

And now, straight from the ESA's mouth, it sounds like the rumors of an "evolved" E3 are true.

Guess the tools trolling the West Hall for boobage dressed in skimpy game character costumes will have to go back to paying escort services for it.

MMOG Boom Times in the Bay Area

Austin, home of SOE, NCSoft, and the new Bioware outpost, has long been ground zero for massively multiplayer online game development and ops, but Northern California's seen a marked increase in the genre recently.

A quick roundup of quakeland's MMOG players:

Perpetual's all systems go on Gods and Heroes (publishing partner SOE) and Star Trek Online, two high-profile titles, the former launching this year, I believe.

Cryptic (an NCSoft company) is hiring for multiple new titles to be announced this year, something I'm particularly excited about since City of Heroes/City of Villains is still in rotation in my house. Cryptic nailed the satisfying player experience -- you really do feel like a superhero -- and pound for pound is still the most fun to play of the current live games as far as I'm concerned. New offerings that leverage Cryptic's strong engine and learning so far (e.g. addressing complaints about shallow gameplay) will position them to keep breathing once the new DC and Marvel MMOGs arrive to threaten their flagship games.

Three Rings continues to innovate the casual MMO genre with the recent beta launch of Bang! Howdy and enhancements to Puzzle Pirates. These guys are figuring out leading-edge aspects of MMOG design, including creating for the mass market player and monetizing her through cash-backed virtual currency. Their numbers for the latter are scary good. Expect to see more of these kinds of games and less of the men in tights genres as more companies hop on the casual gamer clue train.

There.com and Second Life both operate on the fringes of MMOGs, being virtual worlds focused on creation and socialization rather than orc-bashing, but both are thriving. There.com's made some key hires recently, and SL is in the virtual world news practically every week with some new buzzworthy milestone. Virtual currency and user-generated content are at the heart of both games, it's worth noting.

Even Electronic Arts is in the mix again. The industry behemoth is looking to improve its reputation as the Game Company Where MMOGs Go to Die with an overhaul of Sims Online, as well as an unannounced second game that perhaps a little too excitably is being called by one staffer "the next Spore." Given that Spore hasn't launched yet, I'm not sure what this means. And, Ultima Online is still up and running, lo these many years later.

The landscape of MMOG development in the area was very different even only a couple of years ago. Nice to see the rise of virtual worlds in the Valley again!

Sneak Peek of STUDIO 60 and KIDNAPPED for Netflixers

NBC's partnering with Netflix to offer the full premiere episodes of two of its biggest new series, six weeks before the shows air. I've read the pilots, but am eager to see how the execution pans out.

Fellini's 8 1/2 MILE

Maybe you've already seen this, but if the interwebs have not yet passed it your way:



For the seventeen of us who've seen both movies, this actually works pretty well.

(Thanks, Dave K., for the tip!)

POD People

A few weeks ago I went to a WGA event which featured small group chats with producers and executives at companies with PODs (production overall deals).

A very interesting evening, not just because there was free wine and chocolate-covered strawberries. But those helped. Those always help.

The gathering involved the attendees, about 100 of us, grouped into sets of ten and arranged in, well, pods throughout a bunch of multipurpose rooms. Hee! I didn't know buildings that weren't junior high schools even had those!

Every ten minutes or so, a new guest rotated over to our group from the previous group to give a rundown of his or her company and deal and be peppered with questions.

Basically it was speed-dating with development execs.

This was emphatically NOT a pitch festival, though. One of the things I've found most sobering about being involved with the WGA as an associate member (through the New Media Caucus) is that the Guild's always reminding members of the pitch policy when attending events.

Which is, don't. Don't pitch, don't buttonhole a guest, and don't lie down in front of her departing car brandishing a script.

The fact that the WGA feels the need to print this in an event program and mention it explicitly at the evening's start depresses me. I mean, yeah... as with most creative unions (say, Equity), some large percentage of the WGA membership is underemployed or outright unemployed, but still. You'd think professionals would know better.

But everyone as far as I could tell was very well behaved this night. The 11 guests, of which we saw 9, represented a range of companies, from those hooked up with name talent to those behind powerhouse shows like GREY'S ANATOMY, 24, and PRISON BREAK. All were amazingly nice, grounded people, gracious in their answers and helpful in their advice.

And advice is what we all wanted. This was definitely an employment access shindig, after all, and even though no one outright pitched (in my group at least), the clear subtext behind most questions was "What should I write so I can sell my show to or be hired by you guys?" The evening was probably of most use to writers looking to pitch original shows, but there was plenty to make note of even if you weren't yet hungering for a Created By credit.

Moderators in each group kept things moving, and kicked off each new guest's arrival with a round of introductions from the group. This started feeling silly after the fourth or fifth time, as we rattled off our spiels, but really pointed up the diversity of backgrounds and experience of those looking to break into TV.

In my group there was a guy with decades in news, a documentarian, feature writers, writers repped by important agencies who wanted to sell a pilot, and a TV writer with a load of credits in the 90's who had taken a break and was trying to get back in.

This is the competition for TV jobs, remember. Also, during the hors d'oeuvres I ran into a couple of comedy writers who had been on big but cancelled shows and now, thanks to the comedy drought, are scrambling for jobs.

But they're not scrambling. They're writing one-hour drama specs and can bring the funny. Ignore at your peril.

A few points from the night that I thought were interesting:

With one exception, every exec said they really wanted to read original material as a sample, spec pilots especially. A few people also mentioned short stories and plays.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and THE SOPRANOS are played out as specs. Done. Sleeping with Luca Brasi. Not a surprise to those who monitor the suggestion lists on various blogs or who have good intel from their agents, but this was hard confirmation from folks who read specs all day. Those two shows were mentioned by every exec who said they were tired of episodics as samples. GREY'S got a couple mentions too.

The development world is desperate for good comedy pilots.

Dick Wolf and Jerry Bruckheimer pwn procedurals. No company was that interested in developing a procedural because these two guys -- mentioned as a pair in this context by every single guest to our group -- have the genre locked up tight.

If you want to pitch/write a spec procedural, make it quirky and character-driven. HOUSE was the example everyone mentioned.

My corollary: Don't try to clone HOUSE. Everyone is.

Use your spec pilots to push the envelope. Be more diverse than network TV currently is. Go farther in the script than an aired show might do. Better to have someone rein you in than come off thinking that you can't go there.

Get a good agent. I mean, duh, but yes.

Everyone (these folks at least) is looking for colorful and off-center, no matter what the genre. One woman mentioned vampire lawyers but I think she was kidding. Maybe.

Whew! Inspired yet? Go write that pilot! Or that spec that isn't about Bree or Tony! I mean it, go. It's going to be too hot this weekend to do much else and you already saw PIRATES. Scoot.

The POD event clearly was no mean feat to pull off, and the folks behind it are to be commended. Hats off to the Guild's Committee of Black Writers and Committee of Women Writers. Here's hoping they do it again.

Emmy Time

The noms are out, with some surprising omissions including sophomore dramas LOST and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. Shawna's got a nice recap and brief analysis over at Shouting into the Wind.

Here's an excerpt of the nominations list:

DRAMA SERIES
"Grey's Anatomy," ABC
"House," Fox
"The Sopranos," HBO
"24," Fox
"The West Wing," NBC

COMEDY SERIES
"Arrested Development," Fox
"Curb Your Enthusiasm," HBO
"The Office," NBC
"Scrubs," NBC
"Two and a Half Men," CBS

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
"Arrested Development: Development Arrested," Fox
"Entourage: Exodus," HBO
"Extras: Kate Winslet," HBO
"My Name Is Earl: Pilot," NBC
"The Office: Christmas Party," NBC

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
"Grey's Anatomy: It's the End of the World, as We Know It (Part 1 & Part 2)," ABC
"Grey's Anatomy: Into You Like a Train," ABC
"Lost: The 23rd Psalm," ABC
"Six Feet Under: Everyone's Waiting," HBO
"The Sopranos: Members Only," HBO

ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES
Denis Leary, "Rescue Me," FX Network
Peter Krause, "Six Feet Under," HBO
Christopher Meloni, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC
Kiefer Sutherland, "24," Fox
Martin Sheen, "The West Wing," NBC

ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer," TNT
Geena Davis, "Commander in Chief," ABC
Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC
Frances Conroy, "Six Feet Under," HBO
Allison Janney, "The West Wing," NBC

ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
Larry David, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," HBO
Kevin James, "The King of Queens," CBS
Tony Shalhoub, "Monk," USA
Steve Carell, "The Office," NBC
Charlie Sheen, "Two and a Half Men," CBS

ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES
Lisa Kudrow, "The Comeback," HBO
Jane Kaczmarek, "Malcolm in the Middle," Fox
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "The New Adventures of Old Christine," CBS
Stockard Channing, "Out of Practice," CBS
Debra Messing, "Will & Grace," NBC

Superhero Video Games and Tentpole Movies We Will Be Spared

Cringe before The Tumbler! Boggle at Matter-Eater Lad! Salivate over King Kandy (and his Licorice Lariat)!

These losers join fellow third-string heroes and villains The Fantastic Fireworks Master, Stiltman (precariously balanced but lethal, apparently), and my favorite, The Hoopster, the Villain with 1000 Hoops, over at Stupor Powers.

Also making guest appearances in lameness are heroes we know and love, including Batman attempting to block bullets with his head and Supes himself, who among his lesser-known abilities has super-weaving, super-ventriloquism, and super-landscaping.

Super. Landscaping.

Check out Superdickery's other image galleries for more delights, including damning proof of Superman acting contrary to his boy scout PR.

The pages load pretty slow thanks to the graphics, but are so so worth it. Be sure to read the commentary.

In other news, I went to a fascinating WGA event last night, sort of speed-dating with TV development execs (but emphatically NOT a pitch festival). I'll write more on it soon, but will leave you with a brief tease that original material, especially spec pilots, are confirmed to be hot samples now. Fun stuff!

Have a great weekend! I'm off with a few folks from the scribosphere to do some super-moviegoing (to see guess who), and maybe will indulge in a little super-napping and super-martini-imbibing. And yes, I'll be writing. You too, 'kay?

Edit: Not to quell any celebration, but Alex over at Complications Ensue posted a serious and thoughtful reminder on what this weekend's about. No foolin'. Worth a bit of thought between beers.

Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel at the Writers Guild Foundation

The final installment of this year's WGF's Spring Storytellers series featured Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, longtime writing partners with something like 18 produced scripts to their credit, among them SPLASH, A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, NIGHT SHIFT, and FEVER PITCH.

A congenial pair, funny as you might imagine, with a wealth of experience, they made for another inspiring night at the WGF. My random notes:

As an introductory remark, Ganz made the point that he and Mandel are writers. Not aspiring directors or producers. Writing's what they've always and only wanted to do, and it's a fine occupation for an adult (YMMV with friends and loved ones!).

The other introductory point they made was a nod toward the collaborative nature of making movies, and that the success or failure of their films was not theirs alone but the product of many individuals.

While Mandel always wanted to write movies, both got their start in TV. The lessons of writing for TV and how those helped them in features turned into a common thread throughout the evening's discussion. Writing for shows, they learned "disposability" (to divorce yourself from the material), "fear" (how and how not to pitch), and the "fine line between flexibility and hackiness." A TV mentor told them, "Love nothing, boys," meaning to not ever get too precious about your own words.

These lessons have served them well, both in getting jobs and executing on them. They've never really had a disagreement. Their process is to throw out ideas not like "I GOT IT!", shouted while leaping across the table, but more like "What if..." or "This isn't it, but..." or "Is this anything...?"

They write about a script and a half a year these days, and admitted to have cut way back from their previous productivity. Check out that resume -- sheesh, they've earned it, in more ways than one.

They don't write on spec. Ideas are brought to them. They feed off the shared energy and enthusiasm of ideas that originate elsewhere: "cowardice," joked Mandel, is why they don't generate original scripts that have only themselves as champions.

They start each day by reading the paper and woolgathering for a bit, then review the previous day's pages, which have been typed by their assistant from their original longhand draft. Then come the new pages.

Character is king with Ganz and Mandel. They start every project by finding the character through whose eyes the story will be told.

It's the inability to "go deep" on character, they said, that was behind the failure of many hotshot 1980's Saturday Night Live writers to transition to movies. These folks were used to writing characters superficially, focusing on situation, as you might expect from sketch writers.

The leads in their movies are the writers themselves, even in a movie where that seems like a stretch, say, A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN which is about sisters from Oregon playing baseball during WWII. But the trip to Chicago the girls take, to pursue their dream-- that's Ganz and Mandel, moving to Hollywood from New York to chase (and ultimately catch) their own dreams of being writers.

They're open to serendipity (again being flexible without being hacky), citing the example of a scene from PARENTHOOD that was jotted as notes on the way to the set one morning after Ron Howard identified a missing moment. The actors, Jason Robards and Tom Hulce, riffed off those notes and the scene was filmed, eventually to become a fan favorite of the film.

Arthur Miller had a similar scene in DEATH OF A SALESMAN, they grinned, but theirs "was funnier."

They used to outline but now don't. Personally, I wouldn't take this (or Milch's non-outlining either, to reference another recent WGF speaker) as a blank check to not outline yourself. These are masters who've no doubt internalized structure to the point that they probably don't need an explicit roadmap.

They've never sought arbitration on their numerous "funny for money" script doctor jobs.

And this business, it is a business. They came off as consummate, lifelong professionals for whom writing is a joy but also a job.

One aspect of their success, they surmised, was their ability to feel the audience, to shift between thinking about a script internally (as writer) and externally (as watcher).

Going back to their TV roots, Jack Klugman gave Ganz his first boot camp in writing full characters, when he roared "What do I want?!" after reading a script.

This is the chief failing of newer writers, they said, who look at a script and think, "I need to get my guy into that tank of eels," not "Why does my guy want to go into the tank of eels?"

Ganz's definitive "good character" is Jack Lemmon from THE APARTMENT, because he's complicated. Unlikable in many ways but never unsympathetic.

They pride themselves on being "the best-behaved writers in show business" and routinely are not only on set but in the editing room. Where, they were quick to say, they are the most merciless of anyone on the movie, cutting what doesn't play.

Free rewrites. They do them. Ganz acknowledged that this is a hot button issue, but given the situations they've been in and the people they've worked with -- people they trust, respect, and like -- they do free rewrites.

On taking notes. Garry Marshall advised them to listen to the solution, not the problem. Find what's behind the note -- a note which may in itself be a terrible idea -- and fix that.

Michael Keaton was almost fired off NIGHT SHIFT by the studio. "Too weird." Ron Howard went to bat for him.

They wrote Jon Lovitz' role in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN specifically for him, to capture that 1930's character-actor look and feel, and as a favor to Penny Marshall to get him out of living in her house.

Wrote BL's moisies for him. (WTF? That's what my scribble looks like to me but I have no idea what it means now. Anyone in my writing classes or groups can testify how appalling my handwriting is.)

Wait, I got it. They wrote Billy Crystal's roles mostly for him. Meaning, they had him explicitly in mind when creating those roles. No moisies.

CITY SLICKERS was written as a sort of comedic murder mystery. They knew they needed to end up with the three guys taking the cattle in on their own, so they had to figure out how to "bump off" the other characters to leave our heroes alone on the cattle drive.

Personal interjection from me. What is wrong with the people who ask questions at these things that they can't remember, even after it's repeated multiple times, to wait for the frakking mic to ask the damn question? You may think you're loud but a) you're not and 2) you're not loud enough to make it onto the recording, Einstein. Lordy.

Parting advice for writers: "Be interesting quickly." The moderator, Ed Solomon (MEN IN BLACK), no slouch in the comedic writing department his own self, followed up with an encouragement to make sure the audience (or reader) feels that they're in good hands from the very start.

Lots of good checks here for scripts in progress: are you interesting early? Is the audience with you, supported, or stranded and confused by page 10? Does the action arise from character? Or are you just maneuvering your guy into that tank of eels?

Gracious, articulate, talented guys. And I need to load up my Netflix queue now with their movies that I need to see again (SPLASH) or never saw (NIGHT SHIFT).

Electronic Arts Buys Mythic

Pretty big news item for the game industry's traditionally slow summer months: EA went shopping for a studio full o' successful MMORPG goodness. Key management is staying aboard.

Cynics may point to the acquired-and-dismantled notches on EA's bedpost -- Kesmai, Westwood, Origin -- but a lot of the news and PR coming out of gaming's 800 lb. gorilla points toward new strategies and policies. Innovation, new IP, and smaller, more agile teams leading feature development are just a few.

Mythic knows what they're doing. Here's hoping EA will just, y'know, let them do it.

THQ was in the press a bit ago stating that it's "misguided" to build an MMO to compete with World of Warcraft. I agree that coming out now with a fantasy MMO sans killer, marquee IP is a dicey proposition at best (if I was working on Vanguard, I'd have my resume in good shape), but for Lord British's sake, do we need more fantasy MMOs?

Other genres and themes are woefully underrepresented, as are completely different takes on virtual worlds. Habbo Hotel is a rampaging success. Second Life is growing like gangbusters. Maple Story and other "lite" MMOs with business models beyond the mass market-offputting $15/month money suck are snagging customers by the bushel.

I also agree with Damion at Zen of Design that progress is the bete noire of all MMOs, and who's to say WoW will still be teh shiney by the time it takes a next-gen MMO to come out?

The TV Season is Dead, Long Live the TV Season

In days gone by, summer was the time for reruns. Movies. Baseball. Maybe even going outside. TV returned in the fall with cool weather and back-to-school shopping.

Now, all kinds of TV debuts in the sunny months! What's that about? No sooner have we cleared out the TiVo of season finales than new shows come streaming in!

Okay, I kind of love it, especially when some of the shows are top shelf offerings such as DEADWOOD, ENTOURAGE, and RESCUE ME. I'm also watching THE CLOSER to balance out the guy-itude and get my procedural fix.

And you? What's keeping you indoors these balmy summer nights?