The following was written by an Emmy-winning Showrunner with long experience in Hollywood, and published anonymously in The Ankler today. I’m publishing it here because I’m a big believer in not reinventing the wheel. This really sets out what is wrong now with Hollywood, and what’s really at stake.
Some years ago, New York magazine had a wonderful profile of Joseph Lelyveld, who had been The New York Times's executive editor. Howell Raines succeeded him and nearly ruined the place completely, and Lelyveld came back and saved publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr.'s life. Anyway, Robert Lipsyte, The Times's marvelous longtime sports columnist, had a description that I always have loved, and I quote it here. He referred to how Raines loved to invoke Bear Bryant as an example of leadership:
“If Howell really had been the coach of a football team,” says Lipsyte, “he would have been successful, because jocks are basically sissies and they roll over for alpha males. But what he had was a bunch of nerds, and nerds take it and take it and take it and then show up in the cafeteria with an AK-47. And that’s what happened at the Times.”
any mention of Bob Lipsyte makes me happy. he attended my high school (Forest Hills) about ten or twelve years before I did, and we both had the same amazingly inspirational journalism teacher. as a treat, Bob once came in to stoke up our inclinations to enter the field.
a few years ago, I was exchanging posts with Bob on FB, and he told me that even now, with everything he writes, he feels the presence of Mr. Kernan (our teacher) over his shoulder, keeping him honest.
I was in that class when the first Clay/Liston fight happened and Bob's lede began "Incredibly," and went on from there. the next day, Mr. Kernan began the class with "how many think you can't start a lede with and adverb?" and then HE went on from there.
Howell Raines may have nearly destroyed the NYT, but for me, just about ANYBODY is preferable to that POS Abe Rosenthal (my dad's old colleague on the CCNY Campus), who, after he left the Times, demonstrated for the rest of the world what everybody who ever worked for him already knew.
it also just occurred to me that there's a lesson here about the power of great teachers. teachers are, of course, some of the worst-treated people in this increasingly pathetic country. AND some of the most important.
That’s the best analysis of what’s in play that I have read to date Tom. I may be retired but I’m not disinterested. Inequities abound all over the “biz”, that’s something we all know, where you are in the pecking order, there’s a reason it’s called that, in thanks to our feathered friends, but this is about more, than a place in the line to eat. This is about whether you can own a home, raise a family, have a life that’s about more than worrying about getting the next show. There’s a lot of things said and unsaid that are on the table, both with the 2 guilds and all of the other stakeholders, it’s kind of like the country, in many ways it’s broken. Whoever wrote that piece has a brilliant mind, I hope there are a lot of others like him or her on all sides working to fix this. Most people have no idea how important this industry is to America and how we are seen by the world, this is an opportunity, it would be a shame not to seize it.
The consolidation into vertical silos needs reversing, as was done last century with telecommunications and, I believe, when the major movie studios were forced to give up ownership of movie theaters.
The creators or wholesalers of the "products" should not be allowed to own and control the distributors or retailers of same (nor vica versa). Streaming services shouldn't own studios/production companies. Amazon, Apple, Disney, etc. should be creating series and movies OR streaming them, not both. This world needs more diverse artistic creativity, not this greater homogenization that we have been served for the last decade, of cartoons and comic book stories.
There are so many wonderful books written by authors in my lifetime that I wish I could have seen transposed onto a screen. Neil Asher, Iain M Banks, Steven Erikson David Gemmell, Peter F Hamilton, Anne McCaffrey, Richard Morgan, Alistair Reynolds, Martha Wells. They are on the bookshelf to my left, many many more in my kindle library.
The point I'm trying to make is that there's an enormous ever-expanding supply of exellent material created by brilliant authors out here, there are also gifted script writers, directors, actors, and associated crews who live to turn words into images and sound and bring the ideas to life for us to experience. BUT, as always, it's the throwbacks with cro-magnon genes and seven-figure salaries at the top of the pyramids who inevitably screw everything up for everyone. Small minds can't see beyond feathering their own nests and covering their own pampered arses.
I don't entirely disagree with what you're saying, but I tend to think that the adaptation of novels is not the most productive way to find material. if you think about novel adaptations, the BEST ones tend to be based on fairly second-rate sources. there are some big exceptions ("The Last Picture Show" springs to mind, and it's a case in which the movie is actually BETTER), but I'm sticking with it. actually, the series is probably a better way to adapt novels. and I'm not especially pleased with most of the more recent novels I've started to read. the prose tends to be too simple and very much like most other prose.
I DO remember thirty or forty years ago, when movies started to get prohibitively expensive to make, my friends in the business were blaming it on outrageous star salaries. but that was before these insane CEO contracts. I THINK.
but screenwriters have always been considered pretty dispensable, at least in terms of the studios honoring their creative input. I just read a pretty good book on the making of "Chinatown." great movie, but NOT what Robert Towne originally wrote. at least he got screenplay credit.
Try the Billy Boyle WW2 mysteries by James Benn. On #7 (of 18 as next month and he's working on #19 for next year) and all good - and each different in the manner of story layout. The history is solid and the mysteries are excellent; I haven't been able to foretell any twists so far, am surprised by each, followed immediately by "of course!" because it was so well set up. The only current novel series I recommend without hesitation (Thank you Judith!).
I can't disagree with you either David. There are exceptions such as "Blade Runner" which didn't stay completely true to Philip K Dick's novel, but also others like "2001: A Space Odyssey" spawned from a short story that then created a movie and a novel. But they were done, and those were absolute masterpieces, that made me think and caused me to go back to movie theaters and pay to watch them again, several times.
Some author's visions and the worlds they create are so grand that a single story requires three three-hour movies to tell the tale (Lord of The Rings). Also yes, a sequence of books such as George R R Martin's (which I enjoyed more than the "Game of Thrones" series due to missing character content) has to be made into a series, as would some of the works by authors I named earlier, each book a season (or two).
Read books about the economy created by private equity and the merger and acquisitions craze. Hollywood is one example of how Americans are being pillaged by a new set of Robber Barons.
It really is the economy!! The economy as a whole!!
All true - plus 30+ years of corporate takeover starting with Guber-Peters selling MGM to Matsushita and letting the intergalactic widgetmakers get their nose under the tent flap.
Yes - Gulf & Western - but those guys pretty much let the movie-making alone. ' But the intrergalactic widget-makers with their demand for a 10+ ROI and their lack of care about quality (it's just another widget) are what got us to Super Heroes only to attract the teenagers.
I also found some of the insider language confusing, but at the end of the article I feel like this recommendation is very clear and important., "To that end, we need to hit the brakes hard on mergers and corporate consolidations. We need to return the jobs of being writers and creative executives to the careers — not gigs — they once were. This means allowing writers and executives to focus on doing their jobs, not merely keeping them. " Yes!
Trust is the basic foundation of our relationships to one another. You have shared with us TC, what is at the root of Hollywood's disconnect from the writers, from the art of telling a story and making movies and television shows that connect with the people.. It is also at the root of democracy. Thank you sharing the story, which we will tell over and over again in different ways.
I'm going to go off topic, but it's necessary to face the Godzilla in the room
Tom you mentioned how in the past working with studios could result in mentoring, developing and working with writers
No argument there but one thing "back in the day" was so successful because it was white guys with white guys
No POC. No women
Nobody different
I'm reading "Burn it down; power, complicity, and a call to change in
HOLLYWOOD " by Maureen Ryan a journalist and I believe an editor at an entertainment magazine
I'm so fucking angry how white people are treated compared to POC, women, anyone with differences
It's the entire industry
People who think things ended with Weinstein and Metoo is history is naive
Inappropriate sexual behavior is but one way women ( or men) are treated. Plus fucking divas that hold power at studios and their behavior by humiliating crew and talent. The excuse is that talent makes you a jerk because you are so creative is encouraged not rewarded
Second HOLLYWOOD has the best PR in any field....fuck it just read the book
TC, WGA, “notes” (and their context to “IP”), MGA, etc. I worked in Automotive and needed a glossary for all the SPC, GCI, PBL Etc. Insiders automatically forget that outsiders need a primer to the context
What a blockbuster this story would make if it were a screenplay! The lack of trust at the heart of our neoliberalized country has aroused the thunder from the Gods of art and drama with sufficient intensity to make the bean counters in Hollywood quake in their fake alligator shoes. It's got all the plot-thickening elements of a hit: lust, greed, fear, evil, etc. The beautiful piece you have written amounts to an eloquent "note" that should help all the parties involved see the error of their ways and find the means to make the "product" reflect what really matters in a world that's lost touch with the virtues essential to harmonious relations in human affairs: empathy, honesty, trust, compassion--all the graces that comprise the foundations of a society dedicated to decency and the common good.
Interestingly, this writer does not seem to pit writers against all management but draws a picture of how both are caught in the same cul de sac. A systemic overhaul will be a much heavier lift than agreeing selected negotiating issues!
Our society's plunge into undescriminating, often gluttinous, consumption-- be it fast food, fast money or "fast" entertainment-- seems to lie at the heart of so much of our malaise. Artists, teachers, and children especially suffer in this "anti" trust world; we all suffer from the political failure to make anti-trust laws fast enough to address technology's stampede through our lives.
I have a good friend who when we first met was the development executive who suggested I be hired for my first hired-writer gig. Victoria and I have been friends now for 38 years.
Passionate and right. No trust. No obligation. Not fringe benefits. Buy the product not the service. No thing like a career. Just, a string of gigs and one-night jobs until you gams go bad and your ass drags.
Thanks for posting this TC. I am very much in support of the writers and actors, although I certainly have no idea how the situation can be resolved. I admit to being completely ignorant of the creative process, but I do know that I appreciate new ideas in movies and television and not the old formulaic crud. Imagination is the writer's treasure and why they're worthy of respect and proper remuneration.
All that said... what can we, the audience, do at this time, and after the strike is hopefully resolved? I've never been a fan of reality shows. I really like watching actors act, and interpreting the words and scenes of excellent writers. What should we be avoiding? What should we be supporting? Those seem like stupid questions, but I honestly don't know. Perhaps that can be a topic for a future letter? I know I'd be very grateful to know how I can support these creative folks who work for our enjoyment.
Don't subscribe to any streamers until the strike is resolved, and don't watch any you have right now until then. And avoid "(un)reality TV" like the plague it is. Consider dropping any streamers until then, and if you do so let them know why you are.
I blame CBS for tv’s current state. Survivor and Big Brother make me nauseous. Reality tv is nothing but people behaving like idiots for money. How creative is that. Too bad that others signed on to that crap.
people HAVE commented a little acidically that in calling itself "Max," the new entity wants to erase all remaining traces of HBO and its "tradition of quality." recent offerings are tending to confirm that.
I wouldn't have thought so. and they're about 90% of what I watch. I DID pay attention to the whole flap over TCM getting fucked by that monster Zaslav. but it looks like a few random movie directors got plenty pissed off, and it seems he's backed off. at least for now. that "random" was a little joke. I DO get a little depressed at all the wines and cruises and whatnot, but if they're necessary revenue sources, fuck it.
May I suggest going to plays? Not the touring shows--those producers are nearly as concentrated as the Hollywood studios/streaming industry. I mean your local nonprofit theaters. You can find new dramatic literature there, and earnest performances, and the constraints of space and physical matter require playwrights, and dramaturges, and lighting designers, and sound engineers, and directors to be imaginative. It’s a world I’ve had a little experience in, and there is crossover between theater and Hollywood. A more vibrant theater scene could give Tinsel Town a run for its money.
for a lot of NYC playgoers on small fixed incomes (like me), this is not as feasible as it was when I was a kid and if you didn't mind sitting upstairs, you could see any play for a reasonable amount of money. not now.
Thanks! We definitely do that, although we're in a small town with limited, but high quality options. Mostly, we watch old reruns, even before the strike. And two weeks ago, we saw a first-run movie on the big screen - the first time since the pandemic started.
one of the best movies I saw last year ("Armageddon Time") was made by a major Hollywood writer/director (James Gray) with a splendid track record and superb writing and acting. it got excellent reviews, and seems to've sunk without making any kind of splash. this happens all the time.
It sounds like an interesting article that makes all sorts of enlightening points, but I'm afraid I'd need something like a key to industry terms to understand large portions of it!
"Showrunner" is the writer who created the original idea that a show be done, who is the manager in charge of getting it done. Always a writer (because episodic TV needs someone who knows the whole picture of the project) - hires the other writers, the directors who come in to shoot the episodes, the acting talent, crew, etc. (Runs the Show)
"notes" - commentary/feedback on the written screenplay. Hopefully useful, (too) often useless, but the writer still has to respond to them.
Sorry! I was gone all day but those two terms were the main ones. I often acquire vocabulary additions from reading context, but in this case some of the context was confusing. When that happens it can mean the systems or relationships involved are counter intuitive, actually illogical or or there is something else wrong with them... which seems to be partly the case here. "Notes" was especially odd.
Thank you TC for this. I'll point out, on recent acquisitions, Paramount buying Simon and Schuster publishers. I was really disheartened about this. Especially since author's books, by the thousands, are being used to train these CHAT bots, without author consent. It's a real mess in the making because of copyright infringement and the "invasion" of AI into so many different ways we receive information. It's creepy.
Some years ago, New York magazine had a wonderful profile of Joseph Lelyveld, who had been The New York Times's executive editor. Howell Raines succeeded him and nearly ruined the place completely, and Lelyveld came back and saved publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr.'s life. Anyway, Robert Lipsyte, The Times's marvelous longtime sports columnist, had a description that I always have loved, and I quote it here. He referred to how Raines loved to invoke Bear Bryant as an example of leadership:
“If Howell really had been the coach of a football team,” says Lipsyte, “he would have been successful, because jocks are basically sissies and they roll over for alpha males. But what he had was a bunch of nerds, and nerds take it and take it and take it and then show up in the cafeteria with an AK-47. And that’s what happened at the Times.”
That's very true about we nerds. :-)
ain't it now?
any mention of Bob Lipsyte makes me happy. he attended my high school (Forest Hills) about ten or twelve years before I did, and we both had the same amazingly inspirational journalism teacher. as a treat, Bob once came in to stoke up our inclinations to enter the field.
a few years ago, I was exchanging posts with Bob on FB, and he told me that even now, with everything he writes, he feels the presence of Mr. Kernan (our teacher) over his shoulder, keeping him honest.
I was in that class when the first Clay/Liston fight happened and Bob's lede began "Incredibly," and went on from there. the next day, Mr. Kernan began the class with "how many think you can't start a lede with and adverb?" and then HE went on from there.
Howell Raines may have nearly destroyed the NYT, but for me, just about ANYBODY is preferable to that POS Abe Rosenthal (my dad's old colleague on the CCNY Campus), who, after he left the Times, demonstrated for the rest of the world what everybody who ever worked for him already knew.
it also just occurred to me that there's a lesson here about the power of great teachers. teachers are, of course, some of the worst-treated people in this increasingly pathetic country. AND some of the most important.
Teachers certainly are.
👍
That’s the best analysis of what’s in play that I have read to date Tom. I may be retired but I’m not disinterested. Inequities abound all over the “biz”, that’s something we all know, where you are in the pecking order, there’s a reason it’s called that, in thanks to our feathered friends, but this is about more, than a place in the line to eat. This is about whether you can own a home, raise a family, have a life that’s about more than worrying about getting the next show. There’s a lot of things said and unsaid that are on the table, both with the 2 guilds and all of the other stakeholders, it’s kind of like the country, in many ways it’s broken. Whoever wrote that piece has a brilliant mind, I hope there are a lot of others like him or her on all sides working to fix this. Most people have no idea how important this industry is to America and how we are seen by the world, this is an opportunity, it would be a shame not to seize it.
The consolidation into vertical silos needs reversing, as was done last century with telecommunications and, I believe, when the major movie studios were forced to give up ownership of movie theaters.
The creators or wholesalers of the "products" should not be allowed to own and control the distributors or retailers of same (nor vica versa). Streaming services shouldn't own studios/production companies. Amazon, Apple, Disney, etc. should be creating series and movies OR streaming them, not both. This world needs more diverse artistic creativity, not this greater homogenization that we have been served for the last decade, of cartoons and comic book stories.
There are so many wonderful books written by authors in my lifetime that I wish I could have seen transposed onto a screen. Neil Asher, Iain M Banks, Steven Erikson David Gemmell, Peter F Hamilton, Anne McCaffrey, Richard Morgan, Alistair Reynolds, Martha Wells. They are on the bookshelf to my left, many many more in my kindle library.
The point I'm trying to make is that there's an enormous ever-expanding supply of exellent material created by brilliant authors out here, there are also gifted script writers, directors, actors, and associated crews who live to turn words into images and sound and bring the ideas to life for us to experience. BUT, as always, it's the throwbacks with cro-magnon genes and seven-figure salaries at the top of the pyramids who inevitably screw everything up for everyone. Small minds can't see beyond feathering their own nests and covering their own pampered arses.
I don't entirely disagree with what you're saying, but I tend to think that the adaptation of novels is not the most productive way to find material. if you think about novel adaptations, the BEST ones tend to be based on fairly second-rate sources. there are some big exceptions ("The Last Picture Show" springs to mind, and it's a case in which the movie is actually BETTER), but I'm sticking with it. actually, the series is probably a better way to adapt novels. and I'm not especially pleased with most of the more recent novels I've started to read. the prose tends to be too simple and very much like most other prose.
I DO remember thirty or forty years ago, when movies started to get prohibitively expensive to make, my friends in the business were blaming it on outrageous star salaries. but that was before these insane CEO contracts. I THINK.
but screenwriters have always been considered pretty dispensable, at least in terms of the studios honoring their creative input. I just read a pretty good book on the making of "Chinatown." great movie, but NOT what Robert Towne originally wrote. at least he got screenplay credit.
Try the Billy Boyle WW2 mysteries by James Benn. On #7 (of 18 as next month and he's working on #19 for next year) and all good - and each different in the manner of story layout. The history is solid and the mysteries are excellent; I haven't been able to foretell any twists so far, am surprised by each, followed immediately by "of course!" because it was so well set up. The only current novel series I recommend without hesitation (Thank you Judith!).
I can't disagree with you either David. There are exceptions such as "Blade Runner" which didn't stay completely true to Philip K Dick's novel, but also others like "2001: A Space Odyssey" spawned from a short story that then created a movie and a novel. But they were done, and those were absolute masterpieces, that made me think and caused me to go back to movie theaters and pay to watch them again, several times.
Some author's visions and the worlds they create are so grand that a single story requires three three-hour movies to tell the tale (Lord of The Rings). Also yes, a sequence of books such as George R R Martin's (which I enjoyed more than the "Game of Thrones" series due to missing character content) has to be made into a series, as would some of the works by authors I named earlier, each book a season (or two).
Matt Stoller covered this (industry consolidation and the Writers Guild of America strike) in hi "Big" substack last week. https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/make-hollywood-great-again?r=8u0q8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks. That's really excellent. I forgot it was Trump who got rid of the Paramount Decrees. Of course that fucking moron would do that.
Read books about the economy created by private equity and the merger and acquisitions craze. Hollywood is one example of how Americans are being pillaged by a new set of Robber Barons.
It really is the economy!! The economy as a whole!!
All true - plus 30+ years of corporate takeover starting with Guber-Peters selling MGM to Matsushita and letting the intergalactic widgetmakers get their nose under the tent flap.
I thought Paramount was the first studio entity to sell out to Big Oil, but maybe it's just the first one I remember.
Yes - Gulf & Western - but those guys pretty much let the movie-making alone. ' But the intrergalactic widget-makers with their demand for a 10+ ROI and their lack of care about quality (it's just another widget) are what got us to Super Heroes only to attract the teenagers.
Where is Teddy, maybe we need some kick arse action
Bust the Trusts!!!
Oops, I posted the same thing before I read your post! Sorry!
I also found some of the insider language confusing, but at the end of the article I feel like this recommendation is very clear and important., "To that end, we need to hit the brakes hard on mergers and corporate consolidations. We need to return the jobs of being writers and creative executives to the careers — not gigs — they once were. This means allowing writers and executives to focus on doing their jobs, not merely keeping them. " Yes!
Hitting the brakes--HARD--on corporate consolidations and mergers is equally important to the business and economic health of the country as a whole!
Yes! This!
If you hadn't mentioned this, I would have. Thanks.
Trust is the basic foundation of our relationships to one another. You have shared with us TC, what is at the root of Hollywood's disconnect from the writers, from the art of telling a story and making movies and television shows that connect with the people.. It is also at the root of democracy. Thank you sharing the story, which we will tell over and over again in different ways.
I'm going to go off topic, but it's necessary to face the Godzilla in the room
Tom you mentioned how in the past working with studios could result in mentoring, developing and working with writers
No argument there but one thing "back in the day" was so successful because it was white guys with white guys
No POC. No women
Nobody different
I'm reading "Burn it down; power, complicity, and a call to change in
HOLLYWOOD " by Maureen Ryan a journalist and I believe an editor at an entertainment magazine
I'm so fucking angry how white people are treated compared to POC, women, anyone with differences
It's the entire industry
People who think things ended with Weinstein and Metoo is history is naive
Inappropriate sexual behavior is but one way women ( or men) are treated. Plus fucking divas that hold power at studios and their behavior by humiliating crew and talent. The excuse is that talent makes you a jerk because you are so creative is encouraged not rewarded
Second HOLLYWOOD has the best PR in any field....fuck it just read the book
Great piece, Tom
Thanks
All typos are mine
Humans were not meant to write on cell phones
Yes, largely true. However, the writer who taught me to be a good screenwriter was a woman.
The good news is there are quite a few writers in the Guild now who have surnames I cannot pronounce. :-)
TC, WGA, “notes” (and their context to “IP”), MGA, etc. I worked in Automotive and needed a glossary for all the SPC, GCI, PBL Etc. Insiders automatically forget that outsiders need a primer to the context
And "speaking airplane" is worse. :-)
https://mechanicshub.com/jokes-aircraft-mechanic-humor/
I've seen many of those lists - always good! - thanks.
Very funny, though less so in light of the crash today of the plane that killed Prigozhin and nine others, apparently members of the Wagner team.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yevgeny-prigozhin-plane-crash-russia-passengers-dead-wagner-group/
Posted before crash report
In any event, I don’t suspect Russian mechanics actually keep a log book
You’ve reminded me of something I think you’ll appreciate. Brb
What a blockbuster this story would make if it were a screenplay! The lack of trust at the heart of our neoliberalized country has aroused the thunder from the Gods of art and drama with sufficient intensity to make the bean counters in Hollywood quake in their fake alligator shoes. It's got all the plot-thickening elements of a hit: lust, greed, fear, evil, etc. The beautiful piece you have written amounts to an eloquent "note" that should help all the parties involved see the error of their ways and find the means to make the "product" reflect what really matters in a world that's lost touch with the virtues essential to harmonious relations in human affairs: empathy, honesty, trust, compassion--all the graces that comprise the foundations of a society dedicated to decency and the common good.
The "beautiful piece" was written by someone else (just to keep the record straight - I wish I had written it).
Interestingly, this writer does not seem to pit writers against all management but draws a picture of how both are caught in the same cul de sac. A systemic overhaul will be a much heavier lift than agreeing selected negotiating issues!
Our society's plunge into undescriminating, often gluttinous, consumption-- be it fast food, fast money or "fast" entertainment-- seems to lie at the heart of so much of our malaise. Artists, teachers, and children especially suffer in this "anti" trust world; we all suffer from the political failure to make anti-trust laws fast enough to address technology's stampede through our lives.
Thank you, TC!
I have a good friend who when we first met was the development executive who suggested I be hired for my first hired-writer gig. Victoria and I have been friends now for 38 years.
Passionate and right. No trust. No obligation. Not fringe benefits. Buy the product not the service. No thing like a career. Just, a string of gigs and one-night jobs until you gams go bad and your ass drags.
Thanks for posting this TC. I am very much in support of the writers and actors, although I certainly have no idea how the situation can be resolved. I admit to being completely ignorant of the creative process, but I do know that I appreciate new ideas in movies and television and not the old formulaic crud. Imagination is the writer's treasure and why they're worthy of respect and proper remuneration.
All that said... what can we, the audience, do at this time, and after the strike is hopefully resolved? I've never been a fan of reality shows. I really like watching actors act, and interpreting the words and scenes of excellent writers. What should we be avoiding? What should we be supporting? Those seem like stupid questions, but I honestly don't know. Perhaps that can be a topic for a future letter? I know I'd be very grateful to know how I can support these creative folks who work for our enjoyment.
Don't subscribe to any streamers until the strike is resolved, and don't watch any you have right now until then. And avoid "(un)reality TV" like the plague it is. Consider dropping any streamers until then, and if you do so let them know why you are.
I blame CBS for tv’s current state. Survivor and Big Brother make me nauseous. Reality tv is nothing but people behaving like idiots for money. How creative is that. Too bad that others signed on to that crap.
jeez...do Criterion and TCM count?
WBD is trying to kill TCM by firing most of their staff. It's just another "tile" on Max.
I hope TCM will stay TCM somehow.
Yes!
okay, I'm gonna cry uncle...for which, what or whom are WBD and TCM acronyms?
WBD - Warner Brothers/Discovery - the mutant critter created by the conjoining of Warner Brothers and The Discovery Networks.
TCM - Turner Classic Movies
people HAVE commented a little acidically that in calling itself "Max," the new entity wants to erase all remaining traces of HBO and its "tradition of quality." recent offerings are tending to confirm that.
Thank -you, TC.
No, they don’t count. ;-)
I wouldn't have thought so. and they're about 90% of what I watch. I DID pay attention to the whole flap over TCM getting fucked by that monster Zaslav. but it looks like a few random movie directors got plenty pissed off, and it seems he's backed off. at least for now. that "random" was a little joke. I DO get a little depressed at all the wines and cruises and whatnot, but if they're necessary revenue sources, fuck it.
May I suggest going to plays? Not the touring shows--those producers are nearly as concentrated as the Hollywood studios/streaming industry. I mean your local nonprofit theaters. You can find new dramatic literature there, and earnest performances, and the constraints of space and physical matter require playwrights, and dramaturges, and lighting designers, and sound engineers, and directors to be imaginative. It’s a world I’ve had a little experience in, and there is crossover between theater and Hollywood. A more vibrant theater scene could give Tinsel Town a run for its money.
for a lot of NYC playgoers on small fixed incomes (like me), this is not as feasible as it was when I was a kid and if you didn't mind sitting upstairs, you could see any play for a reasonable amount of money. not now.
Good points.
Thanks! We definitely do that, although we're in a small town with limited, but high quality options. Mostly, we watch old reruns, even before the strike. And two weeks ago, we saw a first-run movie on the big screen - the first time since the pandemic started.
Let me guess: Barbie? (which really is subversively good)
one of the best movies I saw last year ("Armageddon Time") was made by a major Hollywood writer/director (James Gray) with a splendid track record and superb writing and acting. it got excellent reviews, and seems to've sunk without making any kind of splash. this happens all the time.
surprise surprise...
Actually... Haunted Mansion. Quite bit of fun, and I was pleased with the diversity of the cast. 😀
A stunning post, dear one. I hope it gets the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, I'm afraid it won't, but the truth is there in your words. xx's
It sounds like an interesting article that makes all sorts of enlightening points, but I'm afraid I'd need something like a key to industry terms to understand large portions of it!
List the terms you don't understand and I'll define them for you. I'm sure this would also be helpful for other readers.
Showrunner and notes . Thanks for this good article.
"Showrunner" is the writer who created the original idea that a show be done, who is the manager in charge of getting it done. Always a writer (because episodic TV needs someone who knows the whole picture of the project) - hires the other writers, the directors who come in to shoot the episodes, the acting talent, crew, etc. (Runs the Show)
"notes" - commentary/feedback on the written screenplay. Hopefully useful, (too) often useless, but the writer still has to respond to them.
Sorry! I was gone all day but those two terms were the main ones. I often acquire vocabulary additions from reading context, but in this case some of the context was confusing. When that happens it can mean the systems or relationships involved are counter intuitive, actually illogical or or there is something else wrong with them... which seems to be partly the case here. "Notes" was especially odd.
The effing one percent strike again.
Thank you TC for this. I'll point out, on recent acquisitions, Paramount buying Simon and Schuster publishers. I was really disheartened about this. Especially since author's books, by the thousands, are being used to train these CHAT bots, without author consent. It's a real mess in the making because of copyright infringement and the "invasion" of AI into so many different ways we receive information. It's creepy.
And visual artists' works as well.
Good one TC, wish there was more I could do to support the strikers.