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2014-15 TV Cancellations: Under the Dome canned, what will CBS do with CG cows next?

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I think it has a lot more to do with season 1 of SHIELD being absolutely terrible. Once you lose people is really hard to get them back. Even though it's found its groove, I think starting off with monster of the week and really low stakes was a mistake. A mistake they might not be able to recover from.

This is true as well, but Paul Lee is also on record (at last year's winter TCAs) as having said that he considered the Netflix series "super-fan shows," whereas SHIELD and Carter are "really broad plays."

A lot of SHIELD's S1 creative missteps can probably be attributed to ABC watering the premise down in a spectacularly misconceived attempt to make the show appealing to people not normally interested in Marvel. As though Avengers wasn't a broad enough hit for them.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Can you imagine the ratings for The Walking Dead if they didnt have a 1 male black character limit?

please stop propagating this stupid meme. that hasn't been a thing for years.

The Walking Dead is one of, if not the most, diverse shows on TV right now.

I feel like black character shows are running TV right now.

Empire
Blackish
House of Lies
Scandal
HTGAWM

It can't be a coincidence, especially since 5 years ago you were lucky to even get a relevant black character on a long running TV show.

Don't forget Starz' 'Power'!
 
please stop propagating this stupid meme. that hasn't been a thing for years.

The Walking Dead is one of, if not the most, diverse shows on TV right now.

I haven't watched the most recent season, but you do realize that it's absolutely true?

Correct me of I'm wrong, but season 4 had two black males, Bob and the big guy, and they were kept apart all season long until the last episode.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
I haven't watched the most recent season, but you do realize that it's absolutely true?

In the earlier seasons, sure. lolmemez But as I said, it hasn't been true for years.

Correct me of I'm wrong, but season 4 had two black males, Bob and the big guy, and they were kept apart all season long until the last episode.

Bob and Tyreese were kept apart during the back half of season four, yes. And? The larger group was split into a dozen smaller groups. That was one of the main themes of that arc. Splitting the characters into groups has nothing to do with the show having a "1 black male character limit".
 

Link

The Autumn Wind
I haven't watched the most recent season, but you do realize that it's absolutely true?

Correct me of I'm wrong, but season 4 had two black males, Bob and the big guy, and they were kept apart all season long until the last episode.
Also Gabriel. And Morgan, sort of.
 
Right now there's:

Tyreese
Gabriel
Noah

and Morgan, who will be a regular soon.

Black dudes are the second largest character demographic on TWD behind white dudes (3-4 former vs. 5 latter).

So it only took four years of outrage that a show set in the south had a one black male character limit?


I.don't even know why this is an argument.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
So it only took four years of outrage that a show set in the south had a one black male character limit?

3 years. And the "outrage" didn't begin until around year two.

Yes, The Walking Dead had big problems with regards to diversity early on, but they made great strides to improve - to the point where it's now one of the most diverse shows on TV. Ignoring that fact and continuing to propagate lazy memes that only diminishes the show's progress is obnoxious.
 

beat

Member
How J.P. Manoux’s arrest put Spun Out behind bars: Menon

Now the show’s future hangs in the balance.

Actor Jean Paul Manoux, who plays Bryce McBradden, was arrested by Toronto police and charged with voyeurism. He is accused of using a hidden camera to spy on two women, aged 25 and 27, who were renting the condo he owns at 1171 Queen St. W. After discovering a camera and concealed Internet wiring, the horrified tenants called police on Jan. 22.

[...]

Within hours of the arrest, there was a high-level conference call during which CTV execs decided to cancel the post-Super Bowl showcase. The network also decided to yank all Spun Out episodes from rotation across all platforms, meaning it no longer exists on the web or TV, nor will it be available through an on-demand cable channel or premium digital subscription service, such as CraveTV.

CTV, which on Wednesday announced the Season 2 premiere of MasterChef Canada will follow the football spectacle, declined to provide a long-term prognosis for Spun Out, only saying it has been “suspended indefinitely.”

Officially, the show is on life support. Unofficially, there is no way it can survive.

Also, I missed this last summer, but the EP and co-creator has a tendency towards tweeting racist jokes.

In all honesty, if I didn't know about either of the above, I would still already loathe "Spun Out" for being criminally unfunny. I guess it's employment for Dave Foley -- clearly slumming -- but it's so terrible.
 
please stop propagating this stupid meme. that hasn't been a thing for years.

The Walking Dead is one of, if not the most, diverse shows on TV right now.

They should diversify their writing staff. Replace some of the hacks writing the current borderline unwatchable garbage with actually talented people.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
They should diversify their writing staff. Replace some of the hacks writing the current borderline unwatchable garbage with actually talented people.

mrZISOK.gif
 

ivysaur12

Banned
I know that some of you are interested in TV writing, and if you are, you should check out some of the tweets that a friend of mine, Javi Grillo-Marxuach, just posted. Informative and real about what goes on day to day.

https://twitter.com/OKBJGM

EDIT: Made readable here:

http://kateohare.tumblr.com/post/109598570772/tv-writing-twitter-master-class-from-javi

A staff writer’s first script is literally a spec for the show they’re on (it’s counted against pay), so they’d better know how to write one. Pilots, short stories, plays, are nice ways to get TV writing jobs, but you KEEP the job by successfully mimicking your showrunners’ style. That most agents/managers don’t encourage beginning writers to write specs feels short-sighted. Write a spec, even if just for practice.

Showrunners who say they want only “distinctive” voices are amateurs/posers. By ep. 13, all a showrunner wants is to not have to rewrite. It’s cruel: entry level TV writers are told they get jobs for being “a very special snowflake” when the real work is mimicry and pastiche.

Agents want original pilots because they can sell if you don’t staff. Write one, but better be ready to play in someone else’s sandbox. But know that you need to know how to write a show you didn’t create, in another writer’s style. Write the specs for your own education. Even if your agent won’t read your spec or go out with it, write it! Showrunners want people who UNDERSTAND their job… and the job is this: write ideas your showrunner didn’t have but liked, and write them in the way the showrunner would have if s/he had!

There is nothing more insulting to a staff than an entry level writer who thinks they are only slumming in television so they can “fix” it. Finally: being a staff writer is about surrendering your ego, knowing it is NEVER about you, good or bad. Make peace with that early, often. The two worst personalities in the room, the “Dr. No” (I don’t like that) who hates it but doesn’t have a pitch on how to fix it, ever.

As a staff writer, you may think you understand what’s gone horribly wrong and want to lead the charge to fix it for the sake of the show. Resist that urge at all costs. Your job - and that of most staff positions - is sometimes to produce “proof of lack of concept.” Sometimes you have to give a showrunner’s bad idea the best college try in good faith. It’s not bullets; it’s dry erase ink. Acting like it’s beneath you to take an idea out for a test drive pisses off your boss and is the fast road to being labeled “difficult.” If the room decides an idea doesn’t work, let the co-ep break the news, they get paid very well to take that hit: they are your flak jacket.

Your job on a TV staff is to express your showrunner’s vision, not to insist on your own. Your showrunner’s job is to articulate what Maya Lin called “a strong clear vision” that the staff can follow… but here’s the bummer. Even if a showrunner can’t articulate a clear vision, it’s still your job to find out what you can about it and try to do express it. That’s the Sisyphean task of a TV writer who is not a showrunner: it’s their show for better or worse, there’s no work around for that.

And finally, if you don’t like what your showrunner does, DON’T VISIT IT ON YOUR STAFF WHEN YOU BECOME A SHOWRUNNER. The bad ones teach you more than that good ones sometimes. Our business is legendary for enabling abusers, that’s not a blank check for you to “get yours.” When you get to the top. If you were abused or experienced shitty management on the way up, but don’t stop the cycle, you are every bit as bad as they were to you. Staffs work in harmony when everyone knows their part clearly and plays it to the best of their ability.

In short: whether you’re at the bottom or the top, don’t be a dick.
 

Sober

Member
I know that some of you are interested in TV writing, and if you are, you should check out some of the tweets that a friend of mine, Javi Grillo-Marxuach, just posted. Informative and real about what goes on day to day.

https://twitter.com/OKBJGM
Thanks for that ivy, lots of good advice. Had most of it told to me before by other writers, but still good to read again.

That does remind me I was working on a spec, should probably get around to finishing that and maybe thinking about another one, although I don't know if and when I'll even make use of them.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
So superbowl means no new episodes of anything correct?

Except the blacklist right after it?
 
I'm so, so happy it got a pilot pickup. It seemed totally dead
I'm not really into horror stuff generally, but some of my fav TV shows currently are horror. At least as far as Teen Wolf and Penny Dreadful are concerned.

I'll check this out, if just to see if they use the original opening/theme song. (PLEASE.)
 
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