Yesterday I felt so knowledgeable about my process of getting talent to consider joining my reading. And I still am, but I also made a big mistake today. An agent gave me a slap on the wrist, and I deserved it. Now, kids, don’t do what Donny Don’t does…I was at the final stage, where an agent called me back to follow up on the conversation I’d had with his assistant earlier today. I had prepared an e-mail version of all the details I knew about our reading, like the assistant had asked. The agent had clearly read through this, because he said, “Oh, you have Dropped Name working on your project? I used to represent her. Has she already said she’d do it?”

Oops.

I had to backpedal pretty fast. Now, I didn’t lie. In fact, I had Read the rest of this entry »

When we started the process of putting together the table reading for Fat Guy, Hot Wife, “Seth” indicated that he wanted to involve only actors with significant TV credits. I created a wish list of people I felt had the right look and background, and he indicated that he had a connection here or there to get to some of the people I mentioned.

For one of the roles, however, an early twenties Asian woman with great comedic skill, Seth told me he had no ideas. Finding that actor, we decided, would be my problem. So while Seth was going to dig through his rolodex of people from acting classes and TV shows he had worked on in the past to arrange most of our cast, I began the attempt to find the perfect person for our reading with nothing more than an internet connection and my charming phone voice.

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NBC has announced a shift in schedule. Starting November 30th, Thursday nights will look like this

8:00 My Name Is Earl
8:30 The Office
9:00 Scrubs
9:30 30 Rock
10:00 E.R.

Do you recognize it, people? It’s actual Must-See TV! Four sitcoms and a drama! The sitcom, my chosen art form… not dead as everyone decried? Howie Mandell’s shaved head no where in sight? Donald Trump placing his products elsewhere?

I, for one, greet this decision with open arms. Happy childhood memories flood back to me… The Cosby Show followed by Family Ties, then Cheers, then Night Court. That was a Thursday night a fifth grader could look forward to. It’s interesting to note that this new schedule is four one-camera shows, while my childhood dream line-up was four three-cameras, but more interesting is the fact that for the first time in years, NBC is offering a single night of four (potentially) very high quality shows.

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When Veronica Mars first came on the air, I couldn’t get enough. Here was an interesting, character-driven premise with clever stories, solid dialogue, and worthy actors supporting well-written relationships. The show had a solid mix of weekly mystery plot combined with season-long Big Mystery subplot. Here was a show that could be the methadone to my Buffy habit.

Season two lost me. I am a person who watches TV in the background while working on my computer in the foreground. The second season had so many suspects and so many theories on the Big Mystery that I couldn’t keep track from week to week, halfway paying attention as I was. Fortunately, I caught up with it again on DVD a few months ago, and was converted back into a fan. I thought the second half of the season was significantly better than the first, perhaps as the production team found their legs in making the show sustainable past the first season. The show’s ratings agreed with me, growing a bit, in part helped by a new time slot. It was a minor upswing, but may have helped save the show. I was happy to see the show renewed. It was safely on my list of shows I would continue to follow.

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