Freaks And Geeks

The Freak: me in New York yesterday. After six years, had a new author photo finally taken. The guy from Milan who they hired to do the makeup (I am not kidding you) said to me as he was doing my eyebrows: to look beautiful and look natural, takes a lot of work. [insert Italian accent for maximum effects]

The Geek: me. Again. At the sales meeting for the new novel. Got to meet Paul Feig, Freaks & Geeks creator. Could NOT stop myself from gushing. Walked through every single one of my favorite moments from every single episode. Without question, as anyone who knows me knows, it is my favorite show ever on television. Very excited about his new young adult book.

Damon Lindelof - "Why We Write"

You all know we love Damon. And this is even more proof. I was asked about my heroes recently, and I keep coming back to one idea: that in everyone I admire, one thing is always true -- that they do what they love. Whether they love to sing or play cello or collect trains or write TV shows, that love is what's geniune. And being genuine is all.

And so, I'm so pissed I didn't write about this (though I did save the astronaut story when it came out becasue all of us writers are whores who use everything. Everything. Including, as you'll see in the next book, our own fathers).

"Why We Write": Damon Lindelof of 'Lost'

Sesame Street - Adults Only

Sesame Street - Adults Only

This saddens me so damn much. Are we really that sheltered?

Sweeping the Clouds Away

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

From the New York Times

Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

Nothing in the children’s entertainment of today, candy-colored animation hopped up on computer tricks, can prepare young or old for this frightening glimpse of simpler times. Back then — as on the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have wanted anything. As it was, he fed her milk and cookies. The milk looks dangerously whole.

Live-action cows also charge the 1969 screen — cows eating common grass, not grain improved with hormones. Cows are milked by plain old farmers, who use their unsanitary hands and fill one bucket at a time. Elsewhere, two brothers risk concussion while whaling on each other with allergenic feather pillows. Overweight layabouts, lacking touch-screen iPods and headphones, jockey for airtime with their deafening transistor radios. And one of those radios plays a late-’60s news report — something about a “senior American official” and “two billion in credit over the next five years” — that conjures a bleak economic climate, with war debt and stagflation in the offing.

The old “Sesame Street” is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper “Elmo’s World” started. Anyone who considers bull markets normal, extracurricular activities sacrosanct and New York a tidy, governable place — well, the original “Sesame Street” might hurt your feelings.

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

Which brought Parente to a feature of “Sesame Street” that had not been reconstructed: the chronically mood-disordered Oscar the Grouch. On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable — hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic. (Bert, too, is described as grouchy; none of the characters, in fact, is especially sunshiney except maybe Ernie, who also seems slow.) “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” she said.

Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained. As for Cookie Monster, he can be seen in the old-school episodes in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble (“om nom nom nom”). Originally designed by Jim Henson for use in commercials for General Foods International and Frito-Lay, Cookie Monster was never a righteous figure. His controversial conversion to a more diverse diet wouldn’t come until 2005, and in the early seasons he comes across a Child’s First Addict.

The biggest surprise of the early episodes is the rural — agrarian, even — sequences. Episode 1 spends a stoned time warp in the company of backlighted cows, while they mill around and chew cud. This pastoral scene rolls to an industrial voiceover explaining dairy farms, and the sleepy chords of Joe Raposo’s aimless masterpiece, “Hey Cow, I See You Now.” Chewing the grass so green/Making the milk/Waiting for milking time/Waiting for giving time/Mmmmm.

Oh, what’s that? Right, the trance of early “Sesame Street” and its country-time sequences. In spite of the show’s devotion to its “target child,” the “4-year-old inner-city black youngster” (as The New York Times explained in 1979), the first episodes join kids cavorting in amber waves of grain — black children, mostly, who must be pressed into service as the face of America’s farms uniquely on “Sesame Street.”

In East Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1978, 95 percent of households with kids ages 2 to 5 watched “Sesame Street.” The figure was even higher in Washington. Nationwide, though, the number wasn’t much lower, and was largely determined by the whims of the PBS affiliates: 80 percent in houses with young children. The so-called inner city became anywhere that “Sesame Street” played, because the Children’s Television Workshop declared the inner city not a grim sociological reality but a full-color fantasy — an eccentric scene, framed by a box and far removed from real farmland and city streets alike.

The concept of the “inner city” — or “slums,” as The Times bluntly put it in its first review of “Sesame Street” — was therefore transformed into a kind of Xanadu on the show: a bright, no-clouds, clear-air place where people bopped around with monsters and didn’t worry too much about money, cleanliness or projecting false cheer. The Upper West Side, hardly a burned-out ghetto, was said to be the model.

People on “Sesame Street” had limited possibilities and fixed identities, and (the best part) you weren’t expected to change much. The harshness of existence was a given, and no one was proposing that numbers and letters would lead you “out” of your inner city to Elysian suburbs. Instead, “Sesame Street” suggested that learning might merely make our days more bearable, more interesting, funnier. It encouraged us, above all, to be nice to our neighbors and to cultivate the safer pleasures that take the edge off — taking baths, eating cookies, reading. Don’t tell the kids.

Points of Entry

Caveat teletor: Volumes 1 and 2 of “Sesame Street: Old School” are available on DVD, which you can sample and buy on Sesameworkshop.org. With a few episodes, extras and celebrity appearances by the likes of Richard Pryor and Lou Rawls, “Old School” sounds harmless enough. But are you ready to mainline this much ’70s nostalgia?

The Way Old: YouTube is great for performance art. If 1969 is not far back enough for you, how’s 1935? The Oscar-winning short film “How to Sleep,” by the Algonquin Round-Tabler Robert Benchley, can be found here in sumptuous black-and-white; search for his name and the film’s title on YouTube.

Come of Age: Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the men of “My So-Called Life” and “thirtysomething,” have at last introduced their online-only young-adult series, “Quarterlife.” It started Nov. 11 on MySpaceTV.com, and it marks the first time a network-quality series — a long indie film, really — has been produced directly for the Internet. If the old times unnerve you, welcome to the new times.

Halloween & Green Arrow

Finally just sat down and watched the mini-documentary on Green Arrow that's in the new Smallville DVD set. Loved it (and not just because I'm yapping in it). Just seeing Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams talking about their approach...I was all goosepimply. There are times where comics/novels seem like nothing more than entertainment and rantings on message boards. And times where they remind you they're history. The latter is so much better.. Especially when compared to the guy from Germany who sent me back a copy of The Book of Fate (called Der Code there) with all sorts of curses and insults written on the covers, and telling me how much I suck.

Also, send in your best Halloween pics. I love seeing what everyone's going as. Like I told my wife, the Black Canary costume has BLOND hair with the fishnets.

She won't listen.

Smallville DVD

Smallville DVD is out today, so whoever sees the Green Arrow commentary/flick, let me know how it came out or if they reduced us all to two-second snippets of "Ollie's cool" and "Comics are wicked."

Tom Snyder Dies

I know he wasn't a staple of our generation, but when my very first novel came out, Tom Snyder was the one big late night talk show host to give me a shot (for The Late Late Show). It was for The Tenth Justice. I was the second guest, and when I came out, Snyder seemed unimpressed (to be honest, I think I was filling in for someone who canceled, but they were too nice to say it). Yet by the time I was done, Snyder was laughing, enjoying stories of my mom and insane family. It mattered. Today, so many interviewers couldn't give a crap once they have their mind made up. Snyder listened. And when it was over and the camera was gone, he shook my hand and said, "That was funny." Like I said, it mattered. And still does.

Sopranos and Fisher Price Peoples And Do The Right Thing

First, a note about the end of The Sopranos. Spoilers and shields up and all that...

No show had made me rationalize more than the Sopranos. When I hated Tony, I rationalized why I should love him. When the series dipped in quality, I rationalized it was Shakespeare and a brilliant character study (which it still somewhat is). And when it ends leaving me without yet another big death or revelation, I'm primed for more rationalizing. One minute after the ending, I was annoyed. Even pissed. But this morning, I'm settling... Part of me loves that he didn't do what we all suspected. But as always, different doesn't mean perfect. And so, as I mourn the end of one of my favorites, I again sit with my rationalizing self. I kinda like it more and more. And it kinda sucked. But in a good way.

Meanwhile, I'm kinda done with mash-ups, but this takes special attention -- simply put, I love my peoples.

B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-1s9MKDrmU

Brad On Smallville

Apparently, if you buy the new Smallville Season 6 DVD (available September 18th), you get to see yours truly commenting during a 30-minute documentary they've created on the character Green Arrow.

Haven't seen the finished result yet, but they clearly went all out -- getting interviews with all us new guys including Kevin Smith, Judd Winick, Phil Hester, Mark Waid, Dan DiDio, Mike Carlin, and Bob Schreck, but most important with the real heroes, Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and more.

I spent nearly an hour yapping about all things Ollie, so when it's all edited and done, I just can't wait to see just how bald I look.

I love Ollie.

B

Fall TV Schedule

Big week for the Jack & Bobby writer's room as Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone), Jonathan Lisco (K-Ville) and Greg Berlanti (Dirty Sexy Money) all have TV shows picked up in the new season. So we'll be watching those with all our Nielsen boxes going at once. And if you own a Nielsen box...cheat for them.

Below is an UPDATED list of all of the series that have officially been picked up for the fall 2007 and 2008 mid-season.

B

ABC DRAMAS

• Big Shots
  
• Cashmere Mafia
  
• Dirty Sexy Money
  
• Eli Stone
  
• Private Practice aka Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Pushing Daisies Women’s Murder Club
  

Officially renewed: Boston Legal, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Men in Trees, October Road, Ugly Betty

Officially cancelled: Daybreak, The Nine, Six Degrees

ABC COMEDIES

• Cavemen
  
• Carpoolers
  
• Miss Guided
  
• Sam I Am
  

Officially renewed: Notes from the Underbelly

Officially cancelled: Big Day, George Lopez-unofficial, Help Me Help You, In Case of Emergency, Knights of Prosperity-unofficial

ABC ALTERNATIVE

Officially renewed: America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Supernanny, Wife Swap

Officially cancelled: The Great American Dream Vote, Show Me the Money

TBD at ABC:

• According to Jim
  
• American Inventor-scheduled this summer
  
• Traveler-scheduled this summer
  
• What About Brian
  

---

CBS DRAMAS

• Cane aka Los Duques
  
• Moonlight aka Twilight
  
• Swingtown
  
• Viva Laughlin
  

Officially renewed: Criminal Minds-unofficial, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, NCIS-unofficial, Numb3rs-unofficial, Without A Trace

Officially cancelled: 3 Lbs., Smith

CBS COMEDIES

• Big Bang Theory

Officially renewed: How I Met Your Mother-unofficial, Old Christine-unofficial, Two and a Half Men

Officially cancelled: The King of Queens

CBS ALTERNATIVE

• Power of 10

Officially renewed: Survivor

Officially cancelled: Armed & Famous

TBD at CBS:

• The Amazing Race
  
• Big Brother-scheduled this summer
  
• The Class
  
• Close to Home
  
• Cold Case
  
• Ghost Whisperer
  
• Rules of Engagement
  
• The Unit
  

---

NBC DRAMAS

• The Bionic Woman
  
• Chuck
  
• Journeyman
  
• Life
  
• Lipstick Jungle
  

Officially renewed: ER, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Las Vegas, Law & Order, Law & Order Criminal Intent-moving to USA network, Law & Order SVU, Medium

Officially cancelled: The Black Donnellys, Crossing Jordan, Kidnapped, Raines, Studio 60

NBC COMEDIES

• The IT Crowd-midseason

Officially renewed: 30 Rock, My Name Is Earl, The Office, Scrubs

Officially cancelled: 20 Good Years, Andy Barker P.I.

NBC ALTERNATIVE

Officially renewed: 1 vs 100, The Biggest Loser, Deal Or No Deal

Officially cancelled: You’re the One that I Want

TBD at NBC:

• America's Got Talent-scheduled this summer
  
• The Apprentice
  
• Identity
  
• Last Comic Standing-scheduled this summer
  
• Poker After Dark
  
• The Real Wedding Crashers
  
• Thank God You're Here
  

---

FOX DRAMAS

• Canterbury's Law
  
• K-Ville
  
• New Amsterdam
  
• Sarah Connor Chronicles
  

Officially renewed: 24, Bones, House, Prison Break

Officially cancelled: Drive-unofficial, Justice, Standoff-unofficial, The Wedding Bells

FOX COMEDIES

• Back to You aka Action News
  
• Return of Jezebel James
  
• Rules for Starting Over
  

Officially renewed: American Dad, Family Guy, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, 'Til Death

Officially cancelled: Happy Hour, The War at Home

FOX ALTERNATIVE

NA

Officially renewed: American Idol, America’s Most Wanted, Cops

Officially cancelled: Duets, The Rich List

TBD at FOX:

• Hell’s Kitchen-scheduled this summer
  
• Nanny 911
  
• So You Think You Can Dance-scheduled this summer
  
• Trading Spouses
  
• The Winner
  

NBC Fall Schedule

NBC announced their new 2007 fall schedule. See below.

B

MONDAY

8pm Deal Or No Deal

9pm Heroes

10pm Journeyman

TUESDAY

8pm The Biggest Loser*

9pm Chuck

10pm Law & Order: SVU

WEDNESDAY

8pm Deal Or No Deal*

9pm Bionic Woman

10pm Life

THURSDAY

8pm My Name Is Earl

8:30pm 30 Rock*

9pm The Office*

9:30pm Scrubs*

10pm ER

FRIDAY

8pm 1 vs 100 / The Singing Bee

9pm Las Vegas

10pm Friday Night Lights*

SATURDAY

8pm Dateline NBC

9pm Drama Repeat

10pm Drama Repeat

SUNDAY

7pm Football Night in America

8pm Sunday Night Football

In January:

7pm Dateline NBC

8pm Law & Order*

9pm Medium*

10pm Lipstick Jungle

*denotes new time period

Mid-season shows: in addition to returning series Law & Order and Medium, the network has ordered The Singing Bee (unscripted), World Moves (unscripted), The IT Crowd (comedy), Lipstick Jungle (drama)

NBC COMEDIES:

The I.T. Crowd / Joe Port & Joe Wiseman / Moses Port & David Guarascio / Fremantle / NUTS / Joel Mchale, Richard Ayote, Jessica St. Clair, Rocky Carroll starring / Gail Mancuso directed

Logline: Multicam & single cam. Based on the British series about IT workers at a company.

NBC DRAMAS:

Bionic Woman / Laeta Kalogridis / Jason Smilovic / David Eick / NUTS / Michelle Ryan to star / Michael Dinner to direct

Logline: A reconceptualization of the 1970's television series about a woman whose body is mechanically enhanced to save her life. This version will incorporate issues such as nanotechnology.

Chuck / Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak / WBTV / Zach Levi to star / McG to direct

Logline: This drama follows an average joe whose life is thrown into disarray when he ends up downloading the CIA's database into his head.

Journeyman / Kevin Falls / 20th / Kevin McKidd to star / Alex Graves to direct

Logline: Time traveler SAM LAWSON is dispatched each week to recalibrate an event that's off-line in the past while trying to hold together his life, family and sanity in the present.

Life / Rand Ravich / NUTS / Damien Lewis, Sarah Shahi to star / Dave Semel to direct

Logline: A falsely imprisoned cop rejoins the force a changed man and uses a Zen-like approach to both temper his rage and to find the connections that help solve the crime – doesn’t employ traditional investigative technique.

Lipstick Jungle / Candace Bushnell / Heline & Heisler/ NUTS / Brooke Shields, Kim Raver to star / Gary Winick to direct

Logline: Revolves around a trio of power-hungry, rich women doing everything in their power to maintain their status in NYC.

Prom Queen

I usually hate these web tv shows. But this one's from a friend (or at least his company), so I'll happily shill for him. Go, Scoop, go!

Plus, a girl in semi-underwear will excite many for all the silly reasons. And so...Prom Queen.

B

The Black Donnellys

If you missed The Black Donnellys last night, go find it. It's that good. Paul Haggis rules me. And not just because I'm a sucker for brothers/friends racing headlong into a fistfight they know they can't win. Though I am. Worked for me in Saturday Night Fever, worked in Good Will Hunting, works here. Not sure how long Haggis is involved with the show, but if he is, I'll be there.

B

Sarah Silverman...

...is coming tomorrow night. And even though she's my age, I love the way she takes me back to that feeling of love for the girl in junior high that I was kinda afraid of, but kinda in love with, but more really afraid of.

Plus, Brian Posehn, who we must root for.

B

Heroes & Studio 60

Finally saw the pilots of Tim Kring's Heroes and Sorkin's Studio 60. And in my own usual I-love-being-the-naysayer-because-it-makes-me-feel-different, I was strangely looking forward to finding them overrated. But they're not. They're great. And let me say this: I'm the far bigger snob about Heroes. Heroes is a world I know far better. Heroes is a world I play in. And Heroes STILL exceeded my expectations. Yes, everyone will say Hiro is the best character. And yes, people will make the LOST comparisons. But by the end, you'll love it for your very own reasons. And you'll start wondering about it. And you'll start coming up with your own theories. And that's the sign of a good show.

Worst part? NBC sent me the shows to see early, so was even extra determined not to shill for them.

Brad