Watch Crosswords Tomorrow…

I wasn’t really sure, even as I signed into my blog, that I was going to tell anyone about this. Tomorrow, Tuesday November 20, my episode of Merv Griffin’s Crosswords airs. Watch as I embarass myself as only I can.

I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what time and channel it comes on, but I will give you these hints:

  • it will only air tomorrow in markets that show two episodes back to back
  • mine is the second episode

Enjoy!

How the WGA strike is killing my soul

So this WGA strike has me really bummed out. By way of explanation, let me back up a bit.

It’s not long ago that I came to terms with something that I was until then ashamed to admit: I love television. God, do I love television. I’ve loved it all of my life, as long as I can remember. I’m not just talking about any particular show, I mean just… television, the whole thing, the concept. I love it.

I used to not be able to say that. I would just huddle in my dark living room every night with the flickering television light comforting me like an old friend that nobody likes because he’s always causing problems, but I just can’t drop him by the wayside can I? Other people would talk about how they hate TV, how they don’t even have cable, they just have the TV there for DVDs and playing games (right, like that’s any better!), and I would just nod in noncommital implied agreement, though inside my heart would ache because they were impuning the character of my life-long friend.

Well I gave all that up. TV is a good, good friend of mine, and he deserves my praise.

Now right here is where you think you know what I’m going to talk about: PBS. Documentaries. BBC. I say, screw all of those things. I mean they’re nice and all, but really, who cares?

No, I’m talking about scripted television in all its brilliant and inane glory. Three’s Company, NYPD Blue, Lost, Gilligan’s Island, 24, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, I Love Lucy, Damages (dear God yes, Damages), Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Beans Baxter (look it up), Voyagers, Doctor Who… Jesus, I could go on forever.

The point is that television offers brilliant storytelling in many shapes and sizes. There’s a reason so many respected and established film actors are winding up on television shows, and it’s not (just) for the money. As a narrative delivery vehicle TV grants advantages over movies. Rather than the one-off nature of film where you develop a character in a vacuum, shoot your scenes, and then walk off the set never to visit that character again (obviously, there are exceptions); in television you get to develop the character over 22 hours of storytelling in a season rather than over 90-120 minutes of screen time.

Add to that the variety of shows, and the endless sub-varietes. You have not just comedy and drama, but any genre of storytelling available to any other narrative art form. Farce, horror, sci-fi, western, romance, action… you name it, television can do it.

Yes, there are absolutely worthless wastes of bandwidth floating around the TV airwaves, but there are equally worthless wastes of paper pulp available in any bookstore or library. There is no innoculation against mediocrity.

Anyway, the point is that I love the stories that are told on television, I love the characters that are developed, I love the ideas that are explored. Without the writers of the WGA none of that can happen, so I hope for a swift resolution to this strike.

Now go and watch Break A Leg.

The Night Before We Start Episode IV

So I just got the script for the next episode of Break A Leg (wow, that makes me feel like a real TV star!), and damn is it funny. I mean, it’s just funnier than anything I’ve read, and once we start shooting things only get funnier than that, so this script is going to end up being illegally funny. We’ll get arrested it’s going to be so damned funny.

Right, so if you don’t know what I’m even talking about you better head on over to the site and start catching up, much like my wife needs to do (sorry honey). I mean she may even be in this episode and she hasn’t watched most of the show! Sure she’s a stay at home mom, but what is that, a get out of jail free card?

So now for some details: we’ll be shooting at a [redacted] in Novato, where my character, Jimmy Scotch, [redacted] [redacted] and wishes he could [redacted]! A wild ride ensues, as Jimmy, [redacted], and [redacted] hop in the car and head [redacted], pursuing [redacted] and ultimately trying to [redacted] [censored]!!

Can’t wait? Neither can I, and I’ve read the thing! One thing’s for sure: nobody knows how this series of episodes will end!

Except me. I mean, I read the script.

Recap

A lot of things have been happening lately with Break A Leg, so I thought I’d sum it all up:

High Treason, Act III has landed!

The show is definitely going into a strange space, but I think it’s getting better. What do I know?

Check out the latest and greatest episode here.

High Treason, Act II

Just… here. Go here and watch. It’s still brilliant, but you may need to watch more than once.
http://www.breakaleg.tv/video/2007/10/8/high-treason-episode-3-act-ii.html

High Treason!

The latest episode of Break A Leg has… broken. Check it out here, then please pay a visit to the website and comment if you feel so inclined.

Don’t bother commenting here, no one reads my website anyway.

Also check out my blog entry over there.

Deal With The Devil Pt 2 – The Audition

I realized I need to sort of wrap up this audition account, since the shoot is this Friday and I have other news to report after that.

Damn, I just spilled the beans.  Oh well.

So I wake up bright and early and head north to pick up my headshots (saved a few bucks on shipping by picking them up myself!) then brave the south-bound 10a L.A. traffic and head to the studio for the audition.

I find the place and find a good spot, then wait where I’ve been told to wait. There are eventually about 20 people in line with me and we of course start to chatter. It seems some of these people are also actors (many, actually) and some are people who just love to try and get on game shows. I’m thinking what have I gotten myself into?

We’re led inside through a metal detector and gather in a room for a test. Yes, an actual test.

Oh, on the way across the lot our guide said “We have to be quiet going up the stairs because Hannah Montana is having a meeting.” Whatever.

So the test is like a word test, which I do miserably at, but their standards are apparently so low that they let me through to the interview round. We sit around again (only 10 left now!) and talk, going over the questions and answers on the test. I notice in this discussion that the test was designed so that no one would really know everything, since about half the room knew the answers to every question, but never the same half. It was a blend of history, pop culture, science, literature, etc. Some questions that were easy for me weren’t common knowledge to others, and vice versa.

At this point one of the really “actor-y” actors takes part in this exchange:

Actor Guy: Poor Merv, never got to see his show.

Staff Guy: He saw some rough cuts.

Actor Guy: Really? (beat) Is that what killed him?

Hilarity ensues, though not from the staff guy. I don’t know if he wanted to laugh and couldn’t, or just didn’t think it was funny. I actually thought it was pretty damn funny but tried to keep my laughter to a minimum. That really wasn’t necessary though, since everyone in the group was laughing hysterically, either at the joke itself or at the audacity and stupidity that someone had actually made it.

We all kind of agreed that actor-guy would most likely not make it onto the show.

We’ll just have to wait and see, though I’m not sure I can watch enough of the show to find out if he did.

I shoot this Friday, don’t know the air date yet. More to come on that later.