Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

Inspiring Words From A Writer Who Made It

Posted: April 19, 2015 in TV
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Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner was one of several people who were approached for the book Getting There: A Book of Mentors. In this excerpt, he shares the story of his long path to success, with some inspiring words and anecdotes for anyone who has ever wanted to succeed in writing or the entertainment industry.  Here’s one:

“It took seven years from the time I wrote Mad Men until it finally got on the screen. I lived every day with that script as if it were going to happen tomorrow. That’s the faith you’ve got to have.”

The whole article is worth reading, and I suspect the rest of the book is as well.

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The Purple Wedding

Posted: April 18, 2014 in Pop Culture, TV
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Ding! Dong! The witch king is dead!

I’m a few days late on this, but for those of you who haven’t heard, the most reprehensible inbred brat in television history got whacked at his own wedding.  For the back story from the show perspective, I would recommend reading Entertainment Weekly’s interviews with Jack Gleeson, George R. R. Martin, and David Benioff/Dan Weiss. Naturally, the Internet had to chime in, here are a few responses via Twitter [full disclosure/shameless self-promotion: some of the tweets are mine]:

And last, but certainly not least – here’s a clip of Tyrion slapping Joffrey around for 10 minutes, set to Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles Last Stand.”

Take a Bow, Governor Hickenlooper

Posted: April 2, 2011 in Humor, TV
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For the best April Fool’s gag of 2011:

Gov. Hickenlooper appoints new Director of Paper Distribution in the Department of Natural Resources

Friday, April 1, 2011 – Gov. John Hickenlooper announced today the appointment of Michael Scott to serve as the new Director of Paper Distribution for the Department of Natural Resources.

“Scott’s success in selling paper will help Colorado effectively and efficiently move the large amount of bark beetle lumber from the forest and into the marketplace, creating tons of jobs and making lots of money,” Hickenlooper said. “This is a unique opportunity to resolve Colorado’s forest health and budget issues.”

Scott, of Scranton, Pa., recently announced he is leaving his job as the regional branch manager for Dunder Mifflin Paper. Scott has served in this position since 1994 and is moving to Colorado to join his fiancé, Holly Flax, who is returning home to care for her elderly parents.

Scott was also a small business owner, having successfully started the Michael Scott Paper Co. in 2009. The company was later purchased by his former employer, Dunder Mifflin, which restored Scott and his employees Pam Halpert (née Beesley) and Ryan Howard to their previous positions.

Scott has a unique management approach, where he spends 80 percent of his time “distracting others,” 19 percent of his time “procrastinating,” and 1 percent of his time “critical thinking.”

Photo courtesy of NBC.

Jack Is Back

Posted: November 28, 2008 in Pop Culture, TV
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jack-bauer

Jack Bauer is back, albeit only for a 2-hour TV movie prequel for the upcoming season of 24 scheduled to begin in January. I’m stoked about this because it’s the first new episode in nearly a year and a half, since the writer’s strike last fall led to the season’s cancellation. This isn’t a full-fledged new season, but it’s a good teaser of things to come: Jack on the run, a new female President of the United States is sworn in, and a new villain in a very high place.

“24: Redemption” sticks to the multilayered real-time dramatic narrative format that has made the show such a success. But they did something different here, which I think is a refreshing change: they moved the action in the show out of Los Angeles (according to the credits, the episode was shot in Cape Town, South Africa and Los Angeles). While during most seasons the action goes back and forth between LA and Washington, this time around Jack is living in hiding in a fictitious African country on the brink of war, helping out a friend who runs a UN and State Department-funded school for young boys.

Without getting into specifics, the show takes a turn into contemporary and historical events, doing its own take on elements from the movie Blood Diamond and the U.S. embassy evacuation of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975. How all of this is going to tie into the new season I have no idea, but it’s definitely good for the show to change the scenery from Washington and Los Angeles, as it expands the range of subjects, characters, and issues that can be worked into the plot.

January can’t come fast enough.