Holy crap that is awesome! That is still my favorite cartoon show after all these years, and I have read about Mike Judge bringing the series back. Is there anything new going on in that series from a creative aspect that you can tell us about?

Did you write any fast food segments where the boys worked at? And is the show still going to be shorts like how it use to be, or will the episodes be full length stories?

What was your spec pilot about? Any chance of that getting made? Did you approach is as more of "demo"?

Ha, I think I've actually seen this. Is it about 3 guys and 2 or 3 girls? There's a married guy, a guy with a gf, and a single guy that has like an australian accent or something? There may have been a 4th friend that died or something?

I did some focus group thing where we watched the pilot and had to discuss it, I wasn't a big fan

edit: suppose that could describe 90% of sitcoms

I don't know that much about it. We wrote two 15 min segments on a freelance basis. We pitched a bunch of ideas to Mike and the other two showrunners, all of whom we worked with on The Goode Family. They bought two of them. Neither involved the fast food joint. One involved Stewart. One is about Beavis and Butthead accidentally becoming poster boys for the "teaching creationism in schools" movement. The other is about B & B trying to get certified to give massages so they can grope chicks.

The show will be the same format as before - short segments interspersed with the boys watching tv and commenting on it. I'm not sure so don't hold me to any of this, but I think it's not just videos this time that they will be watching. Like, possibly they are watching MMA and reality TV... but again I don't know if that's for sure. When we wrote the episodes we just wrote the narrative parts, not the commenting on TV parts. But then we were sent a bunch of music videos and asked to write a bunch of joke pitches for B & B to say while watching them. I have a feeling Judge improvs a lot of that stuff too.

It's a workplace comedy set in a sweatshop. Slim chance of it getting made I'd say. We wrote it to be an out of the box sample that would stand out of the pile of specs that showrunners and agents are constantly reading. We wrote with a goal of getting repped in mind moreso than selling it. Although we've never been opposed to selling it obv.

That's the one. It's about three guys in different stages of relationships. One married, one with a gf and one dating around... I think. Been a while since I watched it. I think it was formerly called Traffic Light.

loving running wilde btw~!

cool job man! what comedy would be your dream to write for?

thnx op

I don't really dream of writing for an existing comedy. I mean, it would be amazing to write for Curb and to work with Larry David but at the same time I don't really want to join a show that's been around for a while and has already made a name for itself. I'd much rather create my own show or get in on the ground floor of an amazing show.

If RW doesn't make it (knock on wood) you should try to get in on the poker sitcom the Weeds creator is doing for Showtime.

You might have to lie in the interview though and pretend Weeds isn't horrible.

Funny you wrote this. The guy who wrote that show is actually a friend of mine and I was just emailing with him about it. It's called Whales.

That sounds like epic B&B! Can't wait til the show starts so I can see the massage scenes.

And thanks for the info about the couch gags. I was wondering if they would bring that back now that tv shows are getting home releases, and I don't believe the couch gags have made it into any of the "Best of Mike Judge Collections" releases because of licensing fees.

That was my favorite RW ep so far. I loved how Arnett didn't get what was really happening. He really reminds me of his character in Arrested.

love this show, just caught it on my free trial of netflix (ps3 ftw). i was hooked by the scene where Will Arnett is sitting sadly by the piano (seemingly playing) then gets up, only to go back to turn off the auto-player. brilliant. after watching all of the available eps, i was sad to read online that it's not doing too well ratings-wise.

what can people do to keep this show alive? do studios even take into account Netflix-type streaming revenue to determine if shows continue to get produced? i'd really hate to lose this gem after just seeing it for the first time today.

what non-comedy shows do you really find the writing to be stellar on? or terrible?

do you think you could come up with stuff like the wire, deadwood, etc?

did entourage jump the shark in your opinion?

did u ever watch carpoolers? i think it was awesome, but was only on for one season. curious what the pro thinks.

spread the word. if you know someone with a neilsen box put a gun to their head and make them watch it. I don't know that much about the ratings process. If they have a way to account for hulu etc viewing I don't know what it is. I believe they track dvr viewing of neilsen participants.

somewhat embarrassed to say that I hardly watch any dramas at all. catching up on mad men and love it. loved the first season of breaking bad and then didn't keep up with it. loved deadwood. I watched an episode of glee for the first time recently and found it horrendous. the wire is genius but i haven't seen all of it.

I have no idea if I could write something as good as the wire or deadwood. I'd like to try one day. I talked about this a little bit above. If I were staffed on a show like that I think I could succeed but as far as creating or running a show like that... no idea. Both of those shows are brilliantly written.

Imo Entourage jumped the shark as soon as it started. I'm not a fan and never really was. I guess the first season was tolerable and had some laughs. After that I couldn't get through it.

Fwiw, my favorite non-comedy on TV is a non-scripted documentary style show called "I Survived" on Bio channel. Check it out if you haven't. I also like Bizzarre Foods w/ Andrew Zimmern .

I think I saw about half of one episode and wasn't into it. I know that some of the Kids in the Hall guys had something to do with it and I love them. I should probably give it a shot.

Is there a formatting difference between a TV pilot, TV script and a movie script? Would your approach differ on a multi-camera or a single camera?

loved carpoolers

Single camera TV and movies are formatted pretty much the same. Multicam has a slightly different format. Among other things, it is double spaced instead of single and there is a page break in between scenes. Whether its single or multi, there isn't any formatting difference between a pilot and a regular episode of a series.

Not sure what you're asking in the second question. Can you be more specific? Would my approach differ in what aspect of the show?

Sorry. I meant the approach as far as dialogue between the 2. Long speeches and/or detailed conversations (ala Sorkin) don't seem to work as well in multi-camera. If you were to write an episode with same story and the same characters in both styles, how much would it differ?

I wasn't sure how much "hold-for-laughs" and the like is taken into consideration. Or is that the editors problem in post?

why is cable so much more awesome than network tv?