Justine Bateman tries her hand at sitcom writing
Give Justine Bateman credit: She could have been typecast after playing the dippy, fashion-obsessed Mallory Keaton on Family Ties, but she’s been able to build a nice career for herself over the last twenty years by playing interesting supporting roles in movies like The TV Set and series like Desperate Housewives. But she’s also been — just like 75% of the people in Hollywood — an aspiring writer, struggling to get her scripts produced (and you think having connections helps … she knows Michael J. Fox and her brother is Jason Bateman, and she still couldn’t get her scripts produced).
But now she can add “sitcom writer” to her credits; she just wrote an episode of The Disney Channel’s hit Wizards of Waverly Place, according to the New York Daily News. Apparently, she’s a friend of executive producer Peter Murrieta, and she got to know some of the show’s writers during the writers’ strike. So, when the strike ended, she was invited to write an episode for the show.
The most interesting part of the article is Bateman’s analysis of the paltry sitcom market these days: “Television used to have an awful lot of sitcoms. It’s interesting to see Disney is really a place where there are sitcoms,” she said. “Going back 15 years, there were a fair amount of sitcoms families could watch. I absolutely love 30 Rock and The Office, but I don’t know how many 13-year-olds are watching that stuff.”
She’s right; the big “hit” sitcoms are ones like Wizards and Hanna Montana, which are written by adults for teens and pre-teens. Maybe the networks should take note of that; another “TGIF” lineup might end up making more money than an entire season of The Office.
Men in Trees Is Back!
Tonight we reunite with Marin Frist, her friends and the quaint little town of Elmo, Alaska, as Men in Trees returns for 11 new episodes.
This move to Wednesdays marks the fifth time-slot change in about a year, but creator Jenny Bicks is excited about this latest shuffle. “[It is] certainly a better place to be than Fridays! There are people who want to find the show again. Hopefully they will.”
Here's a little dish on what our Elmo pals will be up to during the next few months…
Jack: Marin’s main man is still lost at sea, but die-hard fans (and celeb-romance followers) know James Tupper couldn’t possibly be a show casualty. “I have found that people are very upset when Jack and Marin aren’t together,” says series star Anne Heche. “It’s a credit to the writing. Everyone asks all the time. I love that people are so invested.” According to Bicks, Jack will be doing a lot of growing, overcoming his fear of relationships and the emotional scars he acquired with past love Lynn (Justine Bateman).
Patrick & Annie: Still suffering from amnesia, Patrick explores who he is away from Annie, and it tears the couple apart. His journey to find himself takes him to New York, where he works for Jane. Meanwhile, Annie moves in another direction…with Ivan, the hot Croatian hockey player!
Buzz & Mai: Buzz's growing gambling problem makes for a marriage in crisis. Mai will move in with—who else?—Celia! The unwelcome houseguest drives Patrick’s poor madre bananas and, consequently, closer to her supervisor squeeze.
Ben & Theresa: It‘s babymaking time, but the couple encounter various complications. The hockey team—Ben's dream come true—is one of ‘em, as he spends a little too much time with the players.
Sara & Pastor Eric: Their relationship continues to grow, though that pesky celibacy vow is still getting in the way. Thoughts of marriage will arise, though Sara is uncomfortable with the idea of sealing the deal before, you know, sealing the deal.
Cash: The sexy nude dude is back in town, but he's certainly not in tiptop shape. The whole town, Marin included, comes together to help him with his health crisis.
Marin: Our gal will complete her book over the course of these next 11 eps, which begs the question, why stay in Elmo when your initial reason for being there no longer exists?
Look for a guest appearance by Morgan Fairchild (she wants to buy Marin's life rights to play her in a movie!) and the return of Kelli Williams. Yes, Jack’s new friend is coming to Elmo, and we’re not quite sure how Ms. Frist will feel about it.
But don’t fret. Bicks assures us that fans of the show will be pleased with what goes on between Elmo’s favorite twosome this season…
Korbi Ghosh
Strikewatch: TV's Bosses Walk the Line and We're There
It’s not every day you see the top show runners of the biggest and best shows on television all together in one place. But such was the case this morning at ABC Studios in Burbank.
Unfortunately, as you probably know, these TV bosses gathered together for what many of them called a "sad," "sobering" and even "funeral"-like occasion (as My Name Is Earl producer Greg Garcia put it, "I want to throw up and cry"): to walk the picket line in support of the Writers Guild of America strike, which entered its third day today.
Team WWK (Korbi, Jen and I) hit the Walt Disney Studios gate to check out what happens when the likes of Damon Lindelof, Joss Whedon, Bill Lawrence, John Wells, Ronald D. Moore, Shonda Rhimes and many, many others grab a sign and face the press to rally the writers' cause. A few actors we love (Sally Field, Dave Annable, Justine Bateman) also joined in to show their support.
Below, you’ll find our favorite snapshots of what went down and who said what…
Out of the 75 show runners who hit Disney Studios' front gate, Lost boss Carlton Cuse’s sign (above) easily took the cake: "Do you want to know what the island is?" Fellow show runner Damon Lindelof (pictured at top) cracked a wry smile as told me, "That’s phase two [of the strike], when we start threatening to withhold sacred facts. And then we can sell them to individuals on eBay, saying, ‘This is what the monster is,’ and put that money into a kitty for all the assistants that are going to get laid off."
Despite their light tone, Damon and Carlton say the severity of the strike is really sinking in. "I’m feeling very sober today," Damon explains. "It’s a lot like when you’ve been out all night partying and you’ve got a head full of steam and you’re very passionate about something, and then you wake up in the morning and the alcohol has worn off. And you’re suddenly like, this is my life right now…I think the writers believed the threat of a strike would yield a breakthrough in the negotiations, but now that I’m sitting with it, I feel that was very naive. Nobody in this country has ever gotten anything in this country without suffering. It actually makes me feel better to know that I’m running a marathon more than a sprint."
The theme of the day was Show Runners United, and all the TV-show chiefs were asked to carry signs identifying their shows. Some noted they were coming midseason, and Joss Whedon made a point to describe his newly hatched Dollhouse as "not coming soon."
"I honestly wasn't sure what to put on my sign," he told me. "But of course I had to be here. This is too important."
Meanwhile, According to Jim show runner Warren Bell used his sign to clarify that despite what you may have heard, his show is not canceled. Good to know! (And very funny.)
Sally Field, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of a union organizer in the film Norma Rae, was offered a cardboard UNION sign à la the iconic image from that film, but she waved it off, instead encouraging her Brothers & Sisters boys Matthew Rhys, Dave Annable and Balthazar Getty to join her in talking to the press about the issues at hand. (BTW, she couldn't have been more Nora Walker to her onscreen sons in that moment, and it couldn't have been more awesome for us die-hard B&S fans to see.)
I'm told Rachel Griffiths was the first Brothers & Sisters castmember to visit the striking writers—she brought the coffee and sunscreen yesterday. According to Brothers & Sisters executive producer Greg Berlanti (also pictured above), they will have completed 12 episodes of the current season before shutting production down, while his other series Dirty Sexy Money will have finished 11.
Desperate Housewives show runner Marc Cherry smiled for the camera with fellow ABC show runner Silvio Horta, of Ugly Betty. Bill Prady, head honcho of frosh comedy The Big Bang Theory, commented on the Housewives creator's famed spec-scripted sale that resulted in the soapy megahit: "Marc Cherry will say that he couldn't get a job to save his life, and he was living purely on residuals from previous work, and during that time, he developed and wrote Desperate Housewives, which is now a property worth untold millions. And the studios, through residuals, funded that development at a very low cost."
So, what's the creator of the best comedy on television—Greg Daniels of The Office—gonna do if the strike goes on? "I'll go back to teaching," he told Korbi. (We're only okay with that if he's teaching people the secret to TV comedy.)
As for why he's on the line, Daniels said: "The Office is a perfect example of a show that has a vested interest in the issues on the table. We’re one of the highest downloads on iTunes. We made a lot of money there, and the creative people didn’t see any of it. And this is the future of the television business. People are going to sit in front of a box that has computer guts inside and watch their shows, and just because it’s not called a TV, it doesn’t apply to our contract. All we’re saying is that it’s the same thing."
That nice Shemar Moore stopped by on his racing cycle, in a Criminal Minds-branded bodysuit, no less, to show support for the Writers Guild of America. Nothin' like flexing a little muscle for a good cause. There was also a '90s flashback moment when Mark Curry, best known as Mr. Cooper of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper fame, honked loudly as he drove past the picket lines.
Adorable pixie and show runner Marti Noxon, one of the many Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel alums now staffed elsewhere, talked to the media about the strike and her work on Grey's spinoff Private Practice.
Craig Thomas, cocreator of the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother, revealed that HIMYM is shooting its last script this week—the season's eleventh—and then will go out of production, which means the series is expected to air through the first or second week of December. Not surprisingly, Craig says the HIMYM cast has been "totally cool" regarding the strike. "Alyson Hannigan was on the line with us for like three hours yesterday, handing out her leftover candy bars from Halloween. Several of the castmembers came, actually." We always knew they were a tight-knit fam!
ALSO THERE (BUT NOT PICTURED):
Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl): "They're still shooting. I have two episodes being shot by directors I've never worked with, and no one there to watch. It's kind of hard to be here. I usually get up at 4:30 and go in and work, and that's all you do as a show runner, is work. So, if I'm not out here pacing with a sign, I'm at home pacing, worried about what's going on there. I'm sure the episodes will be fine, but it drives you absolutely insane. You're not editing them, you're not there, you're handing your child to someone you've just met, and there's no nanny-cam for the live feed. And you're constantly getting emails from wardrobe and editing, asking, 'What should we do here?' and I'm returning all of those with, 'I'm sorry, I can't answer.' "
Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl, Chuck, The OC): "The actors are behind us. This is their fight. This is their issue, too, because whatever we get [as compensation for internet programming], they’re gonna get, too, and they know that. Our crew is very supportive as well. Most of them are in unions of some kind, so they understand. That being said, it’s very painful. And it’s going to affect them first, and that weighs very heavily on all of us here."
Bill Lawrence (Scrubs): "We're staying positive. The hope is that it won't go on and on, and that Scrubs will be able to finish [the way we intended]. The actors and I are heading to the New York Comedy Festival together this weekend, and it will be tough to face the fans there and not be able to answer their questions about what's going to happen."
Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica): "At Battlestar, we had a very specific situation last year, dealing with webisodes, which opened my eyes to the problems. When we were approached to do Galactica webisodes, the studio's position was they didn't want to pay anyone to do it—they considered it promotional material. They weren't going to pay any of the writers or the actors or the directors to do it, which we thought was crazy. We refused to do it, and eventually came to an accommodation where they said they would pay us, but then when we were almost done, they decided they weren't going to credit anybody. They weren't going to acknowledge anybody who wrote it. And then I refused to deliver the webisodes, and they came and took them anyway, which is their right since they own the show…but it really made me aware of these issues. I mean, my staff writer, who is the lowest man on the totem pole, they want him to do all this work for another media, not pay him for it, and then make money off of his work. Ultimately, that's why we're here, because that's just wrong."
Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Bionic Woman): "Personally, what's bringing me out here is that somebody was out here, years ago, for me, and I benefited from that. I'm not out here for myself, I'm out here for the next generation, the ones after me."
Desperate Housewives: Opening Doors
(S04E14) “I thought you were a hooker.” - Gaby to Ellie
Finally, after weeks of being almost useless to the series (those of you who read my reviews regularly know that lately I’ve been rooting for the Solises to leave Wisteria Lane), Gaby and Carlos got a meatier storyline thanks to the addition for a few episodes of Mallory Keaton, err, Justine Bateman. The downside? The storyline is too predictable.
As many TV fans out there, I enjoy mysteries, have fun trying to solve them, and like getting answers sooner rather than later. This week, I felt like I was offered a new mystery (who the hell is Ellie), was given a few clues (men coming and going, one was in a suit while she was in what looked like a bathrobe, she gets money after each visit), was given a few tiny minutes to ponder what the she was doing (hooker was my first choice too), had a chance to interrogate the suspect (well, Gaby did the questioning for me), and then had the rug pull from under my feet before I could solve the crime!
Did they really have to show us this week that Ellie is a drug dealer? Isn’t Desperate Housewives all about mysteries and making us wait for answers? They made us wait months and months to get answers to why Mary Alice killed herself, learn the Applewhites’ secret, discover what Katherine is hiding (we are still waiting for all the answers to that one), etc. Couldn’t they let us wonder for a week if Ellie was really a tattoo artist? Maybe they could have shown her put a package into a locked drawer instead of showing the stash. That would have added mystery and made us wonder what she put in there and who she really is all week. No, instead they had to give us all the answers asap and kill the only storyline with potential that the Solises got since the show came back from the strike.
Knowing now that Ellie is a drug dealer makes the storyline too predictable. Ellie will continue her shady affairs, Gaby will be suspicious once again, she will eventually snoop in Ellie’s room and find the drugs (which don’t seem to be that well hidden), and Gaby will argue with Carlos about what to do next (cops or no cops?). Blah blah blah. I hope they have a nice twist in store for Ellie because if I’m right, I’ll be disappointed.
The cat is out of the bag: Kayla was the brains behind the operation! Even if some apples do fall far from the tree (see Julie and Susan for example), Kayla fell rather close to her mother’s tree. Rachel G. Fox is doing a good job at portraying the troubled Kayla. Those eyes, that stare, are just so creepy. Kayla is becoming a character that could very well be the possessed child in a horror movie. After this week’s episode, I’m putting in question Tom being Kayla’s father. My bet is that she is the evil spawn from Reaper’s Devil. Everything she does is evil: from the way she brushed her doll’s hair, to how she manipulated Lynette in order to not talk to a shrink, not forgetting how she got the twins to jump off the roof.
I have to agree with Lynette that Kayla does need therapy to go back on the right path. But so do the twins. Yes, they may not be serial killers as Lynette said, but the kids do not know right from wrong. So what’s good for Kayla to teach her about good and evil is also good for the twins. I’ll repeat it again this week, that entire family needs therapy. Tom and Lynette need someone to talk to about the twins and Kayla too.
Katherine and Wayne finally came face to face. The look on Katherine’s face when she saw Wayne and Dylan at the restaurant was priceless. That woman was truly terrified by the scene. The speech she gave about being strong now and not afraid of Wayne was chilling. She was quite determined and serious. I was so expecting her to throw a knife towards him. It’ll be interesting to see what will trigger her to use that gun she is hiding in the kitchen. But since the gun is not well hidden, I’m wondering if Dylan will find it first and use it. We will know soon since the season wraps up in two weeks.
Other tidbits of interest:
- Karl was quite the jerk this week. Even if he made up for it in the end, Karl needed to be slapped for all he said to Susan and Mike. The scenes at the Lamaze class may have seemed like they were there to fill time, but it was important for Susan to hear from someone who wronged her that Mike was the good guy and that she should be happy about it. Now Susan can stop worrying a bit and try to focus on her pregnancy, her couple, and Julie.
- Edie, Edie, Edie. Mike, Karl, Carlos and now Orson? The woman needs to find her own man and stop picking up the left overs.
- Lee and Bob are back!
- “Cash and I go way back” - Gaby
- “It really wasn’t the guy’s arm?” - Carlos