Dean Lorey (Creature Commandos)
He's running all of the cool shows.
Heads Up
Thanks so much to the paid subscribers who gave me feedback on the Q&As. Seems like the biggest roadblock to attendance has been the short notice. So, I’ll do my best to give you all as much notice as possible.
Mark your calendars! The next Q&A is on Saturday, Nov 23, 11am PT. It’s with the brilliant and very funny Gina Fattore, who’s written on everything from Dawson’s Creek early in her career to Gilmore Girls, Californication, Parenthood, Masters of Sex, and Better Things, among others. She’s the creator of the cheerleading drama Dare Me and co-showrunner of the upcoming Amazon show Off Campus.
If you want to do some homework, here’s Gina’s first appearance on The Writers Panel and here’s a really fun one we did at the LA Festival of Books about “teens on TV” with fellow guests Lauren Iungerich (creator of Awkward) and Dave Nadelberg (creator of the live storytelling series Mortified).
Get Out of the House
We’ve got a live Dead Pilots Society coming up on Sunday, November 17, 2-4pm, at the Elysian Theater in LA, and available to watch on demand as well! Get tix here.
Dead Pilots Society is the podcast I produce with Andrew Reich (Friends; Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story). In Dead Pilots Society, scripts that were developed by studios and networks but were never produced are given the table reads they deserve.
Our November 17 show features scripts by John Enbom (co-creator, Party Down) and Brendan Scannell (Loot) & Amy Reed (Diary of a Future President).
The cast is incredible as always, including Martin Starr (Party Down; Spider-man), Olivia Liang (Kung Fu), Maria Bamford (Kite Man: Hell Yeah!), Zoë Chao (The After Party), Ify Nwadiwe (Smosh), Ryan Hansen (Party Down; Veronica Mars), Ellie Reed (Diary of a Future President), Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra), Anna Seregina (The Civil Dead), Patrick McDonald (Smosh), and more to be announced.
Monster Talent
A really great Writers Panel episode today. Dean Lorey (showrunner of Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, Poppa's House, Creature Commandos, and Harley Quinn) discusses running multiple shows, writing drama so that the comedy shines, defining Harley Quinn as a solo act, shepherding James Gunn's vision for Creature Commandos, relying on his collaborators, when to stop fiddling, and more.
Get the podcast via Apple or Spotify or Acast or your favorite podcast app.
Calendar marked. I have my Better Things structure question queued up.
Amazing! Checking out your chat with Dean directly, Ben. And Gina is a great get. Really looking forward to the CREATURE COMMANDOS series … David Dastmalchian is writing some fun stuff in the comic presently … and enjoyed CALIFORNICATION and GILMORE GIRLS. Looking forward to the Q&A. Thanks!