The Ren & Stimpy Show was a cartoon on Nickelodeon that didn’t hold anything back when it came to jokes involving lower bodily functions.  The show was the brainchild of animator John Kricfalusi, who was influenced to create the cat and dog duo by another cartoon and a ridiculous postcard.  Kricfalusi’s voice was lucid and permeated behind the hilarity of the show’s revolting hijinks.  The Ren & Stimpy Show’s influence on comedy can be clearly seen on animation shows on the air today.  

John Kricfalusi started his career in 1979 working at crummy animation studios in Los Angeles, but he dreamed of one day selling an original intellectual property to a network. He began as a storyboard artist and layout artist on low-end Saturday morning cartoons such as The Jetsons revival and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.His mentor, the great animation legend Ralph Bakshi, saved Kricfalusi from obscurity by hiring him as a supervising director in 1987 on Mighty Mouse, the New Adventures. Unfortunately for Kricfalusi, the show was shortly cancelled after a scene where Mighty Mouse sniffed pollen from a flower to attain superpowers, alluding to cocaine use. 

I have seen the future of horror fiction, and his name is Clive Barker” – Stephen King

Hellraiser is my favorite horror film of all time.  I saw this film on television when I was really young and it inspired me to become a writer of horror fiction.  What really intrigued me about the film was that I never saw anything like it before.  Its depiction of combining the grotesque with the beautiful was truly original.  The film inspired me so much that I sought out and read the original novel The Hellbound Heart.  I fell in love with how the writer, Clive Barker, told the story through a poetry of pain like how I fell in love with the images he shot for his screen adaptation. 

Barker stated in an interview that the first movie you make is out of sheer luck.  Barker lived in England and was friends with fellow producers Oliver Parker, Allen Parker and Chris Figg.  There were all inexperienced but wanted to make a movie.  Allen put up some money so they could put a package together and get investors interested.  Clive adapted the Hellraiser script from his novel, drew up some drawings of the villains, and wrote up some loglines for the package.  Figg and Barker flew to Los Angeles hoping to pitch their project around town.  They wouldn’t have to go far because the first company they pitched to, New World Pictures, wanted to make the film.  And so, in 1987, Hellraiser was born. 

Being a guy in my late thirties puts me in the prime demo (but almost about to fall off it) of what studios are after these days, when it comes to ticket buyers.

But being an American history buff, bumps me in the 50 - 60 year old range (according to the studios demo for historical dramas). And the funny thing is, they're right. I was probably the only guy in the theater   with all my hair,  able to do 20 push ups  without getting dizzy. 

Sad, but again, most "yuths" these days are too busy with other stuff than to be in a movie theater on a Sunday night and particularly watching a movie about the founder of the F.B.I. 

Either I need a girlfriend, or divorce myself from the love of history.

So back to the movie. The only thing I knew about John Edgar Hoover was that he was the crossdressing founder of the the F.B.I. and a big pain in the ass to most of Washington D.C., or like Nixon said in the movie:  "that little, C*#@s%^$#! "

AMC is on a roll with hour-long dramas like "The Walking Dead," "MadMen," "Breaking Bad" and a few others.  

"Hell On Wheels" is probably going to turn out to be another success story for them.

 The thing is, I'd watch Jennifer Morrison ("House, M.D.") recite the phone book.  So although I wasn't that interested in "Once Upon A Time" I wanted to see what Ms Morrison was up to after her amazing turn as Dr. Allison Cameron. 

The premise:  The characters from film and fairy tale are real.  They've been cursed by the evil queen (Lana Parrilla) and all their happy endings have been cancelled.  If this is familiar then you've probably seen the film "Enchanted," another Disney offering which was a *lot* more fun and charming and at least tried to remain consistent.

Given this premise, I'd probably be okay with this show but the creators made things even more confusing.  Follow (if you can) - 

Our board member, Larry Porricelli who has been in the theater business here in Southern California for more years than he probably wants to admit.  

He's interviewed on this fantastic website by local raconteur Art Kirsch.

Go HERE. 

For journalists, drawing the line between professional responsibility and individual activism has always been tough. The Occupy Wall Street activity in D.C. has a brand new spokesperson - Lisa Simeone. Simeone, however, is also hired as a freelance reporter. Resource for this article: NPR host Lisa Simeone facing questions about political activism

NPR doesn’t pay

The representative for Occupy D.C. which has to do with Occupy Wall Street is radio reporter Lisa Simeone, press noticed recently. As reported by Simeone, she is a freelancer. That is why NPR should not care what her place is.

ABC is determined to pwn Wednesday nights.  Check this lineup:  The Middle, Modern Family, Happy Endings and now this snappy new comedy from Warner Brothers Television.  

Suburgatory features single parent George Altman (Jeremy Sisto) an erstwild architect who finds a box of unopened condoms in his teen daughter's possesion, freaks, and packs her up to move from NYC to the 'Burbs where he thinks she won't be subjected to bad influences.  You're kidding, right?  Can anyone really be this legtimately stupid? Besides having no clue about how sexually active teens in the suburbs are, he is lost as to how to raise said daughter Tessa (Jane Levy) during these difficult years of young adulthood.  Tell me why all adults in these shows are fundamentally clueless.  No wonder this country is in the crapper - the once smart and hip kids somehow grow up to be stupid adults.  How will we ever get ahead?

So they move, weird neighbors, country club where the men are orange and the women are all MILFs, school, etc.  The end of the 1st act.  More to follow after commercials including the cast of broadly-drawn friends.  Including regulars Allie Grant,  Alan Tudyk and Cheryl Hines who wants to be bed Sisto.

It's the 22nd Century and you've just scored an orange for your illegal family. The environmentalists have lost the war and the world is choking on its own foul emissions so everyone has to wear re-breathers and live in sealed steel caves and the population police are a'knocking on the crib because you've got 2.5 kids, not the legal two and they want to know why.

What's a parental unit to do?

"PanAm" is one of a few new offerings that take viewers back to  a simpler time and place where kids were allowed to tour the cockpit of a jet and women wore girdles.  My main question to this would be "why?"

The nostalgia boom engendered by the hit show "MadMen" has found its way into this oddball drama which stars Christina Ricci, Kelli Garner, Margot Robbie, Michael Mosley, Karine Vanasse, Annabelle Wallis, Dean Lowrey, and Mike Vogel.  If you notice a preponderance of female leads it's because the show basically follows four young women as they pursue what is considered the epitome of 60's femnitude (made up word) - being a PanAm Stewardess. Glamour, elegance, travel!  And yes, that is the correct term for a woman in the air at that time before if became "flight attendant."

The eye-candy factor is decently high - all these women and dashing men are gorgeous.  I almost expected a bright shaft of light to blink off the young pilot's teeth when he smiled the first time.

We’re Going to Cambridge, England!
Summer 2012

(June 30th-August 11th)
6 weeks!

[Go for the classes—stay for the Olympics!]

OCC English professor Raymond Obstfeld will be taking a group of 40 students to live on campus at the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

Cambridge alumni include John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, A.A. Milne, William Wordsworth, and Sylvia Plath, as well as the more contemporary Sasha Baron Cohen (Borat), Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie (House), and the members of Monty Python.

Students will live at Girton College, and attend OCC courses offered by Prof. Obstfeld.  

All units earned are transferable.

Students who have participated in this program in the past describe it as “life-changing” and “the best time I’ve ever had.” You, too, will have the time of your life.

 Hollywood has always been a town of trends. The risk of failure, financial uncertainty and loosing money has made modern industry execs no braver that a one month bunny rabbit.

With the economy still weak investors are hard to come by and those around don't wish to gamble too hard. But then there's the old saying: "The show must go on"... And therefore the industry has to make products. T.V. has been, for the last years, the best area of quality vs. production the industry has had to offer. Film has been great but more driven to the teen market. T.V. has settled with the more mature demographic who enjoys it's costume dramas more that caped men behind colorful explosions.

It's 2:00am and I'm just getting back from my first day at the newly minted West Coast Film Festival.  Full details as to pricing and scheduling are available on the their website HERE but I thought I'd jot down impressions before I turned in.

Professional - how else to say it?  Not a hitch in the giddy-up anywhere.  Run by Regency Theaters and overseen by (I'm proud to say ) OCSWA board member, Larry Porricelli, who is the Regency Theaters General Mgr., it couldn't have been more effortless to buy tickets, park and attend.  To a person, the people working the theater and the festival were incredibly helpfull and personable.  You get the sense that they are crafted from the mold of Mr. Porricelli himself.

The venue is the gorgeous Regency Franciscan Plaza in San Juan Capistrano which features not only the normal theater amenities but also a bar/restaurant on the top floor that tonight was taken over by the cast, crew and fans of the movie "Double Tap" starring Fabain Carrillo and Robert LaSardo ("Nip/Tuck") which was having it's world premiere that evening.

Yeah, we've been gone a bit  but it's only because we were planning some fantastic late summer and Fall events.  This is our first.

MeetUp/Networking Event

WHERE:  The Fabulous Ritz Restaurant
880 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660-6387
  (949) 720-1800 (map)

WHEN:  Wednesday August 17, 2011

TIME: 6:00pm start

MEET: OCSWA board member, Raymond Obstfeld.  
Raymond is a New York Time Best Selling novelist, and screenwriter.  His last book, a collaboration with Kareem Abdul Jabbar was just made into the film "On The Shoulders of Giants."   

Raymond's prolific career (60+ books and hundreds of articles and dozens of screenplays) makes him a fascinating and eloquent speaker.  Plus, he's a great teacher with encyclopedic knowledge of film and prose writing.

MEET:  Jule Selbo.
As a producer/writer Jule has worked for Disney, Dreamworks and many other studios.  Her prolific career so far includes nineteen movies as a writer and a dozen TV episodes as a producer. 

She is a fantastic writer and teacher who teaches screenwriting courses at UCLA Extension Writers' Program and is Chair of the Radio-TV-Film Department at CalState Fullerton, and Head of the MFA in Screenwriting Program at CSF.  
 

COST:  
$10.00 Advanced Registration (you can change quantities at PayPal)  
$12.00 at the door (credit cards accepted at the door - NO CHECKS please)

NOTE:  Students with recent I.D.'s can get in for $5.00 at the door. 

PAID ADMISSION includes one chance to WIN Final Draft 8.0 and other prizes.

INCLUDES:  Admission includes the Ritz's incredible famous finger food, and a chance to win prizes, including 1-2 copies of Final Draft. 
Extra tickets for the drawing will be available during the event for a cost of $5.00.  
Drinks are not included.

EVENT SCHEDULE:

6:00-6:30 - Check-in, Networking

6:30 - 6:45 - Introductions/org business

7:00 - 8:30 - Speakers Obstfeld and Selbo

8:30-10:00  - Networking

Do Facebook and Netflix have something big in the works? The Washington Post states that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has signed up with the board of Facebook, successfully melding the energy of the internet and through mail movie subscription service with the biggest internet social network on earth. Hastings joins Netscape founder Marc Andreesen, PayPal co-founder Thiel and Washington Post Co. chair Donald Graham on the Facebook panel. Article source: Netflix CEO Hastings joins Facebook corporate board

TV viewing experience changes

Puke in my mouth - and by that I don't mean that I puked in my mouth but that someone else did. I'm talking about this little gem I caught on the PR Wire:

In Investigation Discovery's new series DARK MINDS (wt), non-fiction crime author M. William Phelps and criminal profiler John Kelly revisit unsolved homicides believed to be the work of serial killers. Joining them in the hunt for answers is an unlikely and anonymous source: a convict serving multiple life sentences for a series of murders. Known only to audiences as "13," the source offers his "expert opinion" about potential motivations behind these chilling cold cases, using his own personal experience to formulate theories.  
 

I'm vomiting now.

Two people who would purport to know better, a profiler and a writer whose sister-in-law was reportedly murdered by a serial killer, are combining to work cold cases of serial murder with the help of a serial killer.

Oh? Really? Just like the movies?

Wrong.

I'm not against stories about serial killers - I've written them and explored their crimes quite a bit. In fiction they're smarter, more articulate and more clever than the real thing. And they have these over-arching "agendas" like in the movie "Se7en" when the killer has a manifesto he wants to deliver to the world and uses the murders to create notoriety. As we now understand, most actually aren’t

Characters Welcome - that's USA Network's catch-phrase and a good one it is too since they work hard to create memorable characters if not totally believable storylines.  "Suits" is the latest in that pantheon of memorable characters and unbelievable stories.

When I grow up - or die and am recycled I'd want to come back as Harvey Specter a character so cool (as played by Gabriel Macht) that he can turn down beautiful women and they actually lie to their husbands and confess to sleeping with him even if they didn't.  

Spector is the city's best closer - defined in this case as someone who can take a client and either charm or push their hand to sign the contract or agreement his firm is trying to win.  Now, this in and of itself would be enough to get most of us through the episodes because Macht's Spector is a charming and whip-smart S.O.B. and he is convincingly written and played.  But the show's creator (Aaron Korsh) has built-in another unique character in the form of Mike Ross (Patrick Adams) who has an eidetic memory - in other words, once he reads something he never forgets it.  Up to this point he's used his powers for evil taking LSATs for slacker law students. Now he has to put his potential to work for goodness and this cutthroat law firm.  Forget why he hasn't become a real attorney to this point  - it doesn't wash and may not matter to most so just shake your head, shrug your shoulders, and move on, citizen

USA Network is a true success story using a formula that seems to serve them well - unique characters in semi-comedic situations with some drama bits tossed in to keep things interesting - a true TV salad.

“Necessary Roughness” uses this same formula to good effect. Like predecessors “Burn Notice,” “Monk,” “Psyche,” and “In Plain Sight,” etc. NR works on many levels as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

The funny and sexy Callie Thorne plays Danielle (Dani) Santino who is a psychotherapist undergoing a life-changing moment when she discovers that her husband of fiftteen years (Craig Bierko) is cheating on her - again (“Six women in thirteen years isn’t a mistake, it’s a life style”.) She throws him out (the requisite tossing-clothing-out-of-the-bedroom- window scene - that’s how you know she’s serious,) begins a painful divorce and expands her practice through a series of (wink-wink) events that find her in bed with a trainer for a professional football team.

Maybe it's just me getting older and growing more curmudgeonly.  But as I watched the pilot ep for TNT's new series  "Falling Skies" I kept hearing and seeing the echoes of "V" (both versions) "War of the Worlds" (all versions) "Battlefield L.A."  "Battlestar Galactica" "Walking Dead" and a dozen other humans-on-the-run , post-apocalyptic invasion movies and teleplays.

Not that this was necessarily a bad thing.  But it's also not a good thing.

Summer in the city. Being on vacation in the nation's capital is a nice change from the Orange County scene. Of course the small streets and bad parking of D.C. reminds me of Venice or Santa Monica by the beach, but with a more Euro flair. Focusing on summer movies there are not that many I wanted to see this summer and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS was not exactly on that list. Like most movie buffs I'm partial to pre- 1980's Woody Allen but the heat and free time got the best of me so I took the plunge.

So what has Luke Perry of "Beverly Hills 90210" fame been doing lately?  Apparently running around an island off the coast of Sweden with some occasionally naked  men and women who have gathered to help one of their long-time friends propose to his  much younger girlfriend during the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  The soltice is also when the Swedes apparently used to and still celebrate a right of fertility so that particular time makes a nearly perfect premise for sexual hijinks.

ASMSC is currently making the rounds at film festivals all over the U.S.  And although I can't say I loved the film, I did like a lot of the parts of it -especially the naughty ones.

 It's been a good run kid... Famous words, if ever spoken, have never been so true to describe the latest venture of Jack Sparrow (sorry, Captain) and his merry crew of cut throats a thieves.

Summer equals heat (although less and less these days), fun lazy weekend afternoons and movies... Yes folks, summer movies. This is the time us writers see the plethora of super - mega - spectacular movies Hollywood throws at us to sustain their bloated budgets for the year. And every year we earnestly wait to see what our, sometimes envied and more successful brothers of the trade, have typed in their Macs for us to see, enjoy, pick apart or just gasp at the gall they have.

Studios, ever hungrier to get more and more cash from the dwindling movie audience, are pushing summer blockbusters earlier and earlier. "Thor" was the first salvo and the memorial weekend is the initiating battle.

Our subject for today is the well-used trend of the "reboot". For those a bit new to the term it means they're re-starting a series or franchise with a frensh new story. Why? Because Hollywood being a bit of a scary-Mary, when it comes to losing money, has been for the last year on a "sure bet" auto pilot when it comes to productions. Also not helping the matter is that the 78% of the movie going public are teens and young adults therefore comic book stories and action movies with loud colors, lots of action and few words are what these young beings digest the most. But anything that has shown previous success will get it's fair shot. But when the public says enought of ROCKY 16, PIRATES 13,  FAST and FURIOUS 9 and many others what is a lowly studio exec to do? The answer :  " Lets feed them the same story but with a new spoon! "   "Brilliant, J.D.!"  (mutters the side kick accountant.)