About those links...

Sept. 18, 2007

Just beneath my profile (upper right corner) is a link labeled "IDMB Glossary," leading to the Internet Movie Database. The film and television industry has its own unique jargon used on a daily basis by those of us who work there -- terms like "Best Boy," "A.D.", or "Abbey Singer." Any reader who comes across an unfamiliar term need only click this link to achieve instant enlightenment.

The next three links are well worth checking out by anyone interested in the television biz. “Martini Shot” is a four minute weekly commentary on KCRW (89.9 FM in LA) by veteran television writer/producer Rob Long. Long is a very funny guy with a highly developed sense of the absurd – and the television business is nothing if not absurd. His keen insights from the writer’s room and above-the-line perspective on the biz are often brilliant, and always worth hearing. Recent broadcasts and archives can be accessed via the link to KCRW's website.

Ken Levine is another industry pro: a writer, producer, and director of countless sit-coms who rounded out his education with a stint broadcasting major league baseball games over the radio for the Seattle Mariners. His blog covers the television industry, but also wanders into the realm of baseball and modern culture. Sit-com writers are very clever people, and Ken is at the top of his game. His blog is a great read.

As television critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Tim Goodman writes with a slash-and-burn style that offers no quarter and takes no prisoners -- but he’s usually dead-on target. Unfortunately for me, he unleashed his heavy artillery upon two sit-coms I once worked for, both of which subsequently sank without a trace. But I can't fault a man compelled to call ‘em as he sees ‘em -- and besides, he can flat-out write. Reading those painfully funny columns left me in the odd position of laughing (ruefully, of course) as he methodically torched my two shows -- first one, then the other -- thus helping put me out of work.

Thanks Tim. Now I’m back humping cable on the goddamned rigging crew...

Check out his rather cheeky blog, “The Bastard Machine,” then click on over to his more sober but wonderfully savage Chronicle columns on the SF Gate website. You just might learn something, and -- unless he's critiquing a show you happen to be working on -- you won’t be disappointed.

R.I.P “Good Morning, Miami” and “Four Kings.”