tv writer

So I was watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show this weekend. What does this have to do with Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Firefly mastermind Joss Whedon? Read on.

The episode I was watching was "Scratch My Car and Die," the one where Rob buys a new sports car and Laura accidentally scratches it while shopping. Watching the credits (I often watch the credits to see who was in an episode and then I run to the comptuer to check the IMdB to see what else they've done, if they're still alive, etc) I noticed that it was written by someone named John Whedon. Now, Whedon isn't the most common name, and he did work in television, so I checked and...yup, it's Joss Whedon's grandfather! He wrote another episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show and also wrote episodes of Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, and several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (though it's hard to figure out how many exactly with the IMdB's odd credits system).

Whedon died in 1991.

No, the former X-Files star isn't broke and having a yard sale, The TV Set is a new film starring David Duchovny as a TV writer. It follows the ups and downs of a writer in Hollywood, from pilot pitch to filming. The movie also stars Sigourney Weaver, Justine Bateman, and Ioan Gruffudd.

This is the type of movie I'm definitely going to see, because I'm a writer and have an interest in how Hollywood works, but I can also nod in agreement when the article says "Yup, it's the kind of inside Hollywood dark comedy that Middle America loves." Heh.

Rather interesting piece over at The Los Angeles Times, about Eric Monte, a writer who created such television classics as Good Times and What's Happening, wrote the 70s film Cooley High, wrote for Moesha and The Wayan Brothers, and even created the characters of George and Louise Jefferson on All in the Family.

He is now homeless and living in a shelter in Los Angeles.

Part of it is because of a bad crack addiction he had (he's clean now), but a lot of it was because of a series of strokes he had, plus a lawsuit he filed against Norman Lear, Bud Yorkin, CBS, and ABC for stealing his ideas for Good Times, What's Happening, and other projects (he got a million dollar settlement, years ago).

This is also, as Lee Goldberg says, a cautionary tale about the world of self-publishing. Monte spent thousands of his own money to publish and market a book, but no one was interested in it.