I've been looking back on my adventure in Hollywood, culling pages from my journal...
Mid-August 1991, word comes in from Hollywood. Kevin wants to know how the “Magic” script is coming. Again. Once that’s out of the way, he remembers to tell me that “Kringle” is being sent to the William Morris Agency, as well as a couple of other places. But mostly he wants the “Magic” script.
Bill, from “Party” calls to assign me some bits to write. I note in my log that this is a good sign because the writer meetings have generally been without form. I write that some “kid” on the staff seems to have made an impression on people and might wind up as an on-screen character (“Oh, well.”)
Bill, from “Party” calls to assign me some bits to write. I note in my log that this is a good sign because the writer meetings have generally been without form. I write that some “kid” on the staff seems to have made an impression on people and might wind up as an on-screen character (“Oh, well.”)
Shipped the computer out to be fixed, could take a month. Thinking of sending Kevin my “Wedding” script just to keep him busy. Instead, Kevin and I wind up spending the weekend getting the new “Kringle Project” up and running. We did a page-by-page review, catching typos, inserting some of the Pee-Wee material, moving some stuff around. Just how to do all this stuff? I call on my friend and frequent co-writer John Rawlins, who is the only person I know in the universe with an Atari work processor. He’s going to lend me his keyboard/PC and I’ll be able to plug it into my disc drive and printer. Now, John is not the liveliest guy around (my parents called him Digger O’Dell, which was some morose TV character) but talking with him about William Morris, pitching “Kringle” to Bert Reynolds (Bert Reynolds???), shooting it in Canada, doing it for TV, all the stuff Kevin must have been schmoozing me with, John was getting psyched for me.
I was busy and my spirits much improved. I even began to formulate salvaging much of the Pee-Wee related material I had concocted and build a script around that.
I was busy and my spirits much improved. I even began to formulate salvaging much of the Pee-Wee related material I had concocted and build a script around that.
Picked up the keyboard from Rawlins a few days later, letting it spill that Bill had a gig going on. Bill was a mutual friend and Rawlins wasn’t asked. But he took it in stride.
Through August I was writing the new “Jingle Bell Blues” script, cranking out “Where’s the Party” material and faxing that off to the writers meetings I was missing because of my day job. I was invited to join the tapings in New Haven. This was Labor Day weekend, we were at the tail end of ABC Summer Nights auditions.
Then Glenn from Style Without Substance called. A friend of his was putting together a pilot for HBO on movie parodies and wanted to meet with me!
It was all coming together, baby!
Through August I was writing the new “Jingle Bell Blues” script, cranking out “Where’s the Party” material and faxing that off to the writers meetings I was missing because of my day job. I was invited to join the tapings in New Haven. This was Labor Day weekend, we were at the tail end of ABC Summer Nights auditions.
Then Glenn from Style Without Substance called. A friend of his was putting together a pilot for HBO on movie parodies and wanted to meet with me!
It was all coming together, baby!
