Now that it’s upfronts season, we’re back to reading the trades, anticipating pick-ups, and speculating on what Fall 2009 will look like. It’s a funny time of year when being able to parse TV speak comes in handy. Who’s on the bubble? How many new laffers did the Peacock go for? What pilots were picked [...]
The winter hiatus has been long, dark and quiet (at least here on the blog). But with the New Year comes the promise of new television. Here’s an informal list of a couple of things I’m looking forward to this month:
Lost (premieres January 21 on ABC) Every once in a while I think I know [...]
Last week, New York Magazine ran a feature article on the subject of product integration in scripted television. The author, Emily Nussbaum, discussed the growing trend and the way it pushes showrunners to plug products within the context of scripted television. Nussbaum makes 30 Rock the center of her discussion and uses Tina [...]
There is no doubt that Tina Fey inspired a “lady-writer” look. Survey the population of television fans and writers with two X chromosomes and chances are high that you will find many pairs of sassy glasses among them.* While popular opinion of girls who wear glasses has changed over time, Tina Fey gave a bespectacled [...]
In her discussion of the new season’s sitcom fare, Alessandra Stanley of the NY Times makes some interesting points about the role taboo plays in sitcom humor. One question she raises is, how can writers best subvert social norms for the sake of a joke when social norms have shifted so dramatically over time and [...]