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Granada Days
Kill transmission! Lime Grove? Fill in, will you. I’ll be back as soon as possible. Tell Presentation… My first steady TV job in 1975—my only steady job, ever—was with Granada Television’s Presentation Department. Prior to that I’d put in a few weeks as a researcher for John Willis in Yorkshire TV Documentaries, but I took…
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Crusoe Region 2
This one sneaked by without my hearing about it… the full season is now available on a Region 2 3-disc set, presumably replicating the content of the Region 1 release. Which will mean no DVD extras, which is a pity. NBC had a behind-the-scenes crew covering just about every aspect of the show’s making, and…
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The Brimstone Boys
More from The Hollywood Reporter on developments in the US version of Eleventh Hour. I have to tell you, the trade press is where most of my information is coming from. Any direct involvement I might have had in the production was precluded by the exclusivity clause in my Crusoe deal, made within a couple…
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Those Cancelled Golden Globes
“Sadly, it feels like the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom. But NBC wants to try to keep that prom alive.”
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Lost, in Transition
You know where I came across the pilot episode of Lost? The one with the graphic plane crash and everything? It was part of the in-flight entertainment on a Virgin Atlantic service to the US. I mean, it didn’t bother me, but, you know… Apparently eight episodes of the new season were shot before the…
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Who Needs Them Golden Geese Anyway?
The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan has written this astute analysis of the changing face of entertainment distribution, and the failure of the networks’ negotiators to grasp where their industry’s going. She writes, To put it bluntly, the corporations that control the entertainment industry need to wake up. In the digital age, content creators matter more…
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WGA Strike: International Day of Solidarity
The strike called by The Writers Guild of America to secure a structure for future revenues from digital media continues. Today sees demonstrations of support in London, Toronto, Montreal, Paris, Dublin, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. My favourite story so far is of the homeless person on Hollywood Boulevard holding a handmade sign that read, Bums…
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The WGA Strike and the UK Writer
Thursday’s Variety carries this article suggesting that American producers have been scouting the UK media scene with a view to using the services of British screenwriters to supply them with material during the WGA strike. Some people have interpreted this as a unique opportunity for a British writer to ‘break in’. Others – like, people…
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The Nature of the Beast
Given that I’m a zillion miles from the action and not even an American writer, this isn’t the place to come for front-line news on the WGA strike. But what’s going on out there is an important and necessary step in evolution that’s going to affect us all, and we’ll be feeling its effects sooner…
Hauling Like A Brooligan
Stephen Gallagher
