June is the most popular month for weddings because it’s just about time for summer to burst into color with fresh blooming flowers, blue summer skies and temperatures that are not too hot yet and not too cold. It’s perfect. It also makes me think of all the weddings we’ve seen in television over the years. I have 12 of ... Read More »
Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Executive Producer and Writer Jennie Snyder Urman. Jennie got her start in the entertainment industry just a little less than a decade ago, writing spec TV episodes with an old college roommate. That has parlayed into quite an impression resume of female lead TV series, starting with the comedy Hope & ... Read More »
Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is focused on TV and theatre director Sarah Pia Anderson. Sara was born in St. Albans in southern Hertfordshire in England, which is north of central London. She did her training at the University of Wales, graduating with a B.A. in English Literature. She worked as a stage manager at the Traverse Theatre in ... Read More »
Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on writer, director and producer Amy Sherman-Palladino. Amy got her first big break working as a staff writer for the sitcom Roseanne in 1990. She stayed with the show until 1994, working her way up from story editor to executive story editor than later to co-supervising producer and then co-producer. She stayed ... Read More »
Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on director Marita Grabiak. Marita was born in Ambridge, Pennsylvania where she attended Chatham College for Anthropology studies and Carnegie Mellon University for theatrical workshops. She lived in New York City for a year, working in Off Broadway Theatre. She later moved to Los Angeles, graduating from UCLA with a major in ... Read More »
Some of my earlier columns this year have been about TV tie-in books or books that were made into TV shows. This time around I will be dedicating a number of columns to an interesting collection of books from Benbella Books known as “Smart Pop Books”. These books are (according to their official website) “a line of smart, fresh, funny ... Read More »
There’s something special about your favorite show producing a holiday episode. It’s a reminder that you exist in the same universe. Sure, you have to pay bills and put gas in the car and do the laundry while they get to wrap things up in 30 or 60 minutes and not resurface for another week, but at least we all ... Read More »
Music and television have always been a package deal for me. I can’t have one without the other. For me, a TV series simply isn’t any good without some kind of musical accompaniment – whether it’s an original piece created by a talented composer or a full-fledged song by a singer or band that is either featured as the theme ... Read More »
It’s almost a comedy at this stage, but for the last two years around the Paley Festival, I’m sick. It’s a sad excuse, but those recaps have been delayed for the sake of feeling like a reason person. With the time at home, I’ve been sleeping while listening to Veronica Mars (never a bad combination, let me say but the ... Read More »
Recently I was chatting with a fellow fan of a certain hour-long show which boasts a segment of the fanbase who are incredibly disgruntled. Thousands and thousands of words have been written expressing their displeasure about a certain plot development, extending to constant negativity about the show as a whole. Other fans, like the two of us who are admittedly ... Read More »