April 30, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Oh I am over-joyed that a bunch of rich assholes decided to ruin a whole TV season with their total and utter pithy stance. The Producers are like every other owner… a goof. They are goofs that ruined a whole TV season — during a gold age for the medium — over gains that barely effect their bottom line.
So here’s to the Fall, new episodes being written, and very small boxsets that guarantee the producers have cost themselves money. Good on you… you pithy goofs.
Nikki Finke isn’t. There go her page views. The writers voted for this 15-1. I wonder what the many, many, many angry writer commenters on her site think about this?
IOI, You keep using that word. I do not think it means, what you think it means.
And we’re all sorry you were deprived of your favorite TV shows, but there are many thousands of people whose careers and livelihoods were at stake.
Actually, the increase in page views wasn’t all that spectacular, I suspect. Maybe 10,000 people who cared… even 10 times a day, that’s only 100,000 page views a day.
It’s the love and admiration and living the lie that she was actually performing acts of journalism… that’s what she’ll be losing.
Most of us are now waiting to hear if we have a job to which we can return. Even if our shows return for a 2nd season, in many cases, the networks are choosing not to film more eps. TV Guide has a pretty good guidesheet for this right now. I’m hoping to hear good news, but it is becoming apparent that my show may be gone until the summer.
So the town may be back to work, but that may not apply to everyone. The consequences for this strike will continue for a lot of people for months. And I do mean careers and livelihoods when I say that. It’s possible that new pilots may pick up some slack, but this is a lot grimmer than I had been anticipating. A good number of people may not be out of the woods yet.
As for Nikki Finke, I believe she should be held fully responsible for her behavior during this entire matter. She has no claim to being a journalist or even an impartial observer. She has taken every opportunity to try to embarass the moguls and any other easy target. In her latest swipe, she hears a rumor about NBC and HFPA potentially suing the WGA over the crashed Globes (something we discussed here, as I recall, given that the WGA refused to offer the same fair contract to Dick Clark Prods and the HFPA that it did to Worldwide Pants or anyone else). And in this swipe, she uses the nastiest invective she can and flings it at Jeff Zucker. I’m not a friend of Zucker’s, but come on. That wasn’t just a typical Nikki Finke cheap shot. It was actually wrong in the facts, too. I truly hope one day Finke gets interviewed by someone and has to answer for encouraging and trying to extend this entire disastrous situation.
Jeff, I do not have any sort of friendly rapport with you. Why are you acting as if we do? Freakin dipstick. You also once again try to put your spin on my postings, and it’s not appreciated.
Did you read what Working AD just posted? Did you — you absolutely vacant vessel of felsh and blood — did you read it? That’s what it’s all about. It’s not just about the shows. It’s about everyone who works on these shows.
If you are really devoted to any form of pop culture. You soon realize that’s it’s a TEAM PROCESS that makes these shows happen. If the shows do not film anymore episodes this season. Not only does it limited my ability to watch the shows that I love. It keeps people out of work until freakin Summer.
Now leave me be. I am not in the mood for someone like you to harsh my mellow.
Yes; I may have been a bit harsh to Jeff up above, but teasing has never made me anything more than angry. My bad. Nevertheless, Surnow has now left 24, thanks to the strike giving him time to clear his head. Here’s to DAVID FURY aka — a more liberal showrunner/writer — getting a chance to take over a series that definitely needs a different take on this story.
Anybody else a little bummed that Mark Lisanti is leaving Defamer?
What’s the inside? Good career opp? Or forced out?
He had some really biting commentary. Hopefully it’s off to greener pastures.
And I loved Jack’s rant to Variety. Exactly why I don’t like the Oscars anymore.
Awesome that he bitch smacked Marty and Leo for being squares and basing their self worth on that stupid award.
Also, I read on another thread on another site that The Sarah Connor Chronicles are already canceled?
Is this true?
I haven’t been able to find any source that confirms this. I’m pretty sure the poster was just being an ass. But if anyone else knows…
not trying to ‘harsh a mellow’ but, honestly, i’ve been wondering forever from what country ioio is writing…..the grammar and syntax is just weird (and i’m willing to give a pass to the spelling…blogging and all)……
and the thought process is not unlike dz….
and that relentless ‘heat’ thing…it’s all just too strange……
well, i guess that would be ‘grammar and syntax ARE…”….my bad, indeed……
I don’t think anyone is going to know if the strike was worth it for another 10 years. Maybe more. I for one was surprised at 92.5 considering the ambivalence at the DGA deal.
Glad to see someone else bummed about Mark leaving Defamer. Sounds like he was burnt out but was still pushed out. He’s a smart guy and should be doing so much more.
Finally, David Fury showrunning? He’s a good draft writer, but he’s never run any show let alone something crazy like 24.
Howard Gordon is the showrunner for season 7, same as he was for season 6.
IO, I read your post again a few more times and I realized that you were referring to the producers and not the writers. I still don’t know what you think ‘pithy’ means.
There has been buzz about it happening. (SCC cancellation) Ratings have been down every week.
I believe they only have one more produced show to air, but I could be wrong about that.
They seem to be having the same problem as The Brave One… too much girl for guys, too many guns for girls.
There are four more episodes of Sarah Connor set to air.
There ya go.
Hard to imagine they will abandon a show with new episodes right now.
On the other hand, a post-Idol slot might be a good idea for a change.
too much girl for guys, too many guns for girls.
My problem isn’t too much girl…James Cameron always had strong female leads too. My problem is the same as with the Highlander series — the movies left no room for expansion, and I never wondered what happened in between the gaps, so they just ignore continuity. Yet they’re trying to build a franchise based on name recognition from that continuity. I may have similar issues with the new Star Trek movie, but it’s too soon to tell.
At least Battlestar Galactica went the full-on remake route. And Doctor Who acknowledged the previous 20-plus decades of continuity without over-emphasizing it. One or the other, people, no half-ways.
20-plus years, I mean, of course. Though time travel is relative…
The first episode of Chronicals aired down here last night. I quite liked it. We’ll see how it goes.
scooterzz, best not to even think about it.
Have you seen that Show Business: The Road to Broadway documentary, Dave? If so, thoughts?
“And Doctor Who acknowledged the previous 20-plus decades of continuity without over-emphasizing it. One or the other, people, no half-ways.”
I agree, except in the case of Doctor Who their solution has been to regurgitate more and more the previous 2-3 years of the new version, which is probably even more self-defeating than regurgitating the 26 years of the original version. At least in the latter case there’s a lot more to rehash. 2-3 years is all the new version has, so the effect is that they keep rehashing the same things over and over, as there’s much less history to draw on.
IO- you pop culture front runner….jeff was pulling a pithy quote from THE PRINCESS BRIDE when he questioned your use of “pithy.” Get with the times dude…he wasn’t degrading you. In some circles, what he said was a compliment…I mean it. Anybody want a peanut?
SCC is supposed to come back in fall with new episodes. but no new ones for the rest of this season.
i’m enjoying the show, but it’s taking a lot of liberties with the bible of the story. for instance, how is the terminator from the past able to come through the time jump with them? i thought metal can’t time travel. that’s the whole point of covering them with skin.
Speaking of ratings…
My step-brother lives in New York and his fiance works for Viacom and crunches all the ratings for Viacom for their VH-1 shows and MTV shows.
After picking her brain, I was amazed at how antiquated and clearly inaccurate the ratings system their still using is.
Still using Nielsen, still using the old model,
No accounting for Tivo or DVR..
God, if I was running one of these huge conglomorates, the first thing I would do would be to come up with a new ratings system.
Get some way to measure how many DVR’s are recording a show instead of numbers off a Nielsen box.
Then you have a better idea of which shows are getting the most eyeballs and what rates to charge your advertisers and how to maximize eyeballs.
The fact that all of these networks are sticking to this antiquated model is just laughably inefficient and shows absolutely no common sense.
Example:
Why didn’t Ben Silverman or someone else at NBC pull all 3 seasons of Battlestar Galactica and run them in HD on NBC???
You have high quality content already paid for; for a show you already own, running on one of your subsidiary networks which is getting ready to cancel it due to budgetary issues and stupid choices.
I bet with the right promotion they could’ve increased their numbers and moved that show to NBC and given it a prime time slot. So you have a high quality and critically rated show in one of your top time slots bringing in an established audience and building upon the new audience you got from re-running them from the strike.
All at no cost…
Not to mention the hit straight to DVD movie you have from the same TV show franchise..
But no, we got some new Gay Gladiators show.
Awesome business and programming logic NBC Universal!
**Edit:
Example:
Why didn’t Ben Silverman or someone else at NBC pull all 3 seasons of Battlestar Galactica and run them in HD on NBC DURING THE STRIKE???
(in my fury I forgot the key part of the point, the strike..)
Battlestar Galactica has its fair share of haters as well on the web, because of the liberties they took in reiventing the original show (and doing a great job at it, IMO).
I don’t quite understand the objections toward the alleged lack of respect for the Terminator canon in SCC, simply because: how can you have a canon set in stone with a show/franchise that has, at its roots, time travel?
I do like the show, and I don’t see Fox canceling it anytime soon. The ratings dropped a lot from the pilot, but they’re still solid enough, reviews are positive, there’s Terminator 4 coming to a theatre near you in 2009…They’ll be back.
SCC has 4 more episodes in the can, to be aired this season.
One thing I’ve noted is the strike whiners have nothing to say now but “Gee when does my show start” after their endless vitrol and wrongheaded predictions towards the poor doomed greedy writers who could not win this monolithic struggle against the all powerful corporate gods.
frank delsa:
i’m enjoying the show. i’m just saying that particular piece doesn’t make sense. especially as the clothes our heroes were wearing didn’t come thru with them. that’s violating its own canon (not just the movie’s).
cromartie’s a machine. he could have just as easily come the old fashioned way, day by day, like the rest of us.
Did we win?
Pet; I know, but it rubbed me the wrong way. Scoot; I hail from NotACracktopia on the western shore of IDontSpeakWhitey state. It’s a quality place. We just got a Best Buy, and we are very excited about it.
Silliness aside; Sarah Connor does nothing more than add some vital to a terminator canon that has always been FLIMSY. Hell. This show at least makes SKYNET’s creation something more than the Defense Department creating an evil version of WINAMP.
So I can see this show sticking around for a while. Especially on a FOX that continues to have very little luck with picking original programming. Serves the fuckers right. That’s what they get for cancelling every great show they have had on Friday night for the past 13 years.
Wait, WINAMP isn’t evil?
No; it is indeed not out to get us. HUZZAH! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!
Considering the future after Skynet is a result of Miles Dyson creating Skynet after the discovery for a Terminator chip, it (the Terminator universe) doesn’t make any sense at all. The only way Dyson could have found the chip was by a Terminator being destroyed in the past. But if the Terminator hadn’t have come through into the past and been destroyed then Dyson wouldn’t have discovered the chip and wouldn’t have invented Skynet, which means there wouldn’t be a Terminator to be sent into the past to be destroyed to have it’s chip found by Dyson.
…make sense?
Christ time travel is frustrating.
…the discovery OF a Terminator chip…
^ That’s your basic temporal paradox, Kam. Welcome to the philosophy of time. Fun, innit?
It’s only a paradox of time. If you believe TIME works in one reasonable applicable way. When it may not work the way we assume it works. There can still be terminators sent from the future. They could just be sent from a future that was applicable from one point, then changed after a different time. Terminator canon is a screwy place, but it’s fun times. Fun times.