I did another rewatch of the two-part finale of #StarTrekPicard and between that and some things from Patrick Stewart's memoir swimming in my head, I'm left with some thoughts about Picard, both the man and the series.

When PS was approached for the new series, he was the one... ...who set down the mandates that distanced it from TNG. He didn't want any of the original cast. He didn't want to be in Starfleet or wear a uniform. If they were bringing back Picard, it had to say something new about him rather than re-explore old ground.

Twitter still suppressing that certain site, I see.

look, go over to @NonStopPop's feed for a great #StarTrekPicard interview with @TerryMatalas @NonStopPop @TerryMatalas favorite quote:
that also feels like a lazy criticism from a certain kind of bitter critic. If you go into somebody's house and they've lived there 56 years, it's pretty hard to point [what's inside] and yell, "Member Berry!" You're kind of just a jerk.

For #SupermanAnniversary, my Superman statue/figure collection It is somewhat ironic that it’s the 85th anniversary of both Superman and Lois in ACTION COMICS 1 today and there is no new episode of #SupermanAndLois #SupermanAnniversary

I realized with some sadness that this is about the time of year I usually offer what advice I can about applying to fellowships... and for the first time, there's no WB program.

Having said that, in the "spec eps vs. originals" I am still someone who says "write specs!" I saw a panel of writers at WonderCon tackle this question last weekend and many of them agreed that writing spec episodes of a show you like is valuable.

the real answer is "Write both." Some young writers argue against writing spec eps because they don't think they'll...

today it's been 30 years since Brandon Lee was accidentally shot on the set of THE CROW. I wish I could find the excellent PREMIERE Magazine article from a year later where they broke down EXACTLY how a bullet ended up in the gun and all the ways it SHOULD have been caught. It wasn't one error. It was several. And at multiple stages, just ONE person being a little more diligent would have stopped this before it happened.

They were shooting inserts of a gun being loaded but they didn't have dummy bullets. So they took real bullets...

One thing people inside the business implicity understand that doesn't often connect with those outside the business is how a movie or TV show is much more about execution than the idea... and that every idea has been thought of before, sometimes by many people Early in my career reading as a development assistant, I came across a script that was basically, "What if Little Red Riding Hood hunted monsters and the Big Bad Wolf was a werewolf?"

I thought it was a clever idea, but the writing was "meh." nothing inspired about it

Superman fashion Post-Crisis and beyond (1/4) #SupermanDay Superman fashion Post-Crisis and beyond (2/4) #SupermanDay

At the risk of ending up with a very long thread, here's an overview of what goes into writing an episode. When you see a writer credited with "Written By," that generally denotes the person who wrote the Story Area, the Outline and the First draft of the episode script.

https://twitter.com/judy_carrasco/status/1403093010137681926

That script is then rewritten, usually by the showrunner, but often one or more of the Co-EPs will be involved in this process. The higher up you are on the ladder, the less likely your script is going to be rewritten.

Before all that, we "break" the episode as a group.

so I have coped with my Dad's death this week by actually doing some writing. It's been a good release, but there's this surreal aspect to grieving and engaging with grieving people on social media. Me being me, I can't stop rewriting it all as a CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM ep And so I give you...

INT. GREENE HOUSEHOLD – DAY

Jeff and Susie Greene are holding a wake. Larry David grazes at the cheese platter, using the same toothpick to poke several successive cheese squares.

SUSIE: Lare! I got a bone to pick with you!

There's this thing I've noticed that happens when friends of my father reach out with sympathy over his passing - I almost get put in the role of consoling them more than they me.

(this is not a complaint. It is an observation.) It's like I become this proxy for them to say goodbye to him. And they want to become this proxy for everything he told them about me. They all want to make sure I know how much he talked about me.

And that helps, it really does. And I'm sure it helps them. But...

This was three weeks ago. Dad died this morning after six days on a ventilator.

Pursing herd immunity puts us all at risk of this. Please vote for Joe Biden tomorrow okay, eyes are on this thread so I want to give you an idea of what someone like my dad goes through.

hours after he sent that text, he collapsed at home in the bathroom and hit his head. He had to be taken to the hospital. They fixed him up, COVID symptoms weren't terrible yet