Category: - Dan Fiorella: Writer @ large

Dan Fiorella

R.I.P. John Rawlins.

1/13/2022

I received some sad news recently. John Rawlins, an old college buddy and frequent co-writer, passed away last month. They posted his obituary here.

When I transferred to NYU for my junior year of college, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do...or rather admit to myself what I wanted to do. I wanted to write. But in my neighborhood writing wasn't considered a valid career. I went to the student advisor, to try to figure out what I needed to do to get to write. He really didn't have much to tell me, but he did pull out a flyer advertising a meeting looking to form a new student organization, a college humor magazine, and said maybe I should check it out. I did. And with that, I had found my college tribe. I've written about the Plague before. It really was a important time for me.

Barely Home Companion - The Old Storyteller 5/19/01

1/21/2019

From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things...

Frankly, after the heady rush of my first few months of submitting to PHC and getting four sketches picked between October and December 1999, the rest of the season was a bust! Not a single bit picked for the rest of the 1999-2000 season.

At one point I contacted producer Christine Tschida about the situation and she basically said that none of the material was striking Keillor's fancy. And to be honest, not everything I sent was a gem. There were a couple of bits I resurrected from other work to submit and they were weak. I couldn't get as biting as SNL would get on topical events (or as stupid) so my skits meandered around. But I kept at it. And at it. Although the time gap is about a year and a half, I was technically in the 2000-2001 season. To my way of thinking, that means I got something in the show for my first two season in a row.

This was a quirky sketch. PHC was on the road once again, this time in Laramie, Wyoming. We had gotten word that the show wanted site-specific material, so I did some research into Laramie and decided on two bits. One was ambitious; Garrison Keillor liked to do a kind of overview of the place they were broadcasting from when they traveled, so I decided to write up one of these whimsical histories about Laramie. I mean, it's one thing to write a sketch that GK is in, it's another to actually write for GK himself.

And the second bit was a more generic take on the Hollywood westerns which were inspired by towns like Laramie. Two, I thought, very solid pieces. So here's what happened...

GK combined material from each into a bit called "When Things were Different," hosted by the Old Story Teller. I have no idea if this was a running bit beforehand, but he took lines here and set-ups there along with dialogue and gags and came up with this.

On air credits were the usual group of joke names and "Russ Ringsac and...and Laura Levine." So, no mention of me at all. At this point I emailed Tschida the producer and asked her about that. Her response? Keillor misread the copy. She apologized. He just skipped my name. Now, listening to it for the first time in ages, I can hear it, he loses his place while reading. That's live radio. At least the online credits listed me:

© Garrison Keillor 2001, with material from Dan Fiorella

I'm including the original skits that I submitted here below. Once out of the 1999-2000 season, I have a copy of everything I sent all with limited title names because file names couldn't be that long back then.

To be honest, I didn't get too worked up about them merging these skits into one skit, because a lot of the Hollywood skit was pieced together from other things I had written. For instance, here's a bit of Galaxy Ranger trivia; the the Hollywood West skit ends with a song. I talk about westerns being make in space so I grabbed the lyrics from my Galaxy Ranger song, "Oh Tortuna." I redid the refrain to be "Cowboys in Space," but the rest of the song is the same.

That section about the Pony Express? I lifted the prose from my novel (then in-progress), "Novel Concept."

And "The Man Who Sued Liberty Valance" was one of my "Cold Draft" sketches that I had written years before as a follow up to my "It's a Wonderful Life" parody.

Which brings us to The Old Story Teller from the May 19, 2001 broadcast of PHC from the University of Wyoming in Laramie...

Dan Fiorella · PHC - The Old Storyteller

A Face for Podcasts: Series 6 Podcast part 2

12/12/2018

Galaxy Rangers Reviewed: Series 6 Podcast,
Episode 16.2

Part 2 has dropped, as they say in the podcast biz. The gang over at the Series 6 Podcast invited me to sit in on one of their sessions to explain and defend "The Ax," one of the episodes I wrote for "The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers" series. I'm the 16th episode they've reviewed so far.
I should point out this is part 2 of 2, and here's where we actually talk about the episode itself. They said they were going to "go easy" on it because I was there, but, hey, what's the point of that? It was a lot of fun.

Listen to Episode 16 of the Series 6 Podcast hosted by RD and Jay here.

A Face for Podcasts: Series 6 Podcast, part 1

11/11/2018

Galaxy Rangers Reviewed: Series 6 Podcast,
Episode 16.1 1 of 2

The gang over at the Series 6 Podcast invited me to sit in on one of their sessions to explain and defend "The Ax," one of the episodes I wrote for "The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers" series. I'm the 16th episode they've reviewed so far.
I should point out this is part 1 of 2, and the interview is made up of the main interview we did recently and another 30 minute "pre-interview" we recorded when they were teaching me how to get me and my PC set up to participate in the podcast. The first part of the interview is the newest part and the second half is from the earlier recording, just so you know because there's some overlap and repetition between the two. And yes, I did drop the mic at one point. I wasn't displaying swagger, I actually knocked the mic off my desk while we were recording.

Listen to Episode 16 of the Series 6 Podcast hosted by RD and Jay here.

A Face for Podcasts: Fun Ideas #7

11/2/2018

Hey, internet! I'm on a podcast! Mark Arnold, author and curator of pop culture, invited me to be on his Fun Ideas podcast! We talked about many things, but mostly me. We met online years ago when he was working on a book about Cracked magazine. So the podcast starts there and goes far afield. He posted it on Youtube. Also, I talked A LOT, so he broke it into two parts. What can I say, you get me wound up and that's what happens.

A Writer’s Journal Journey 35

11/23/2017

I've been looking back on my adventure in Hollywood, culling pages from my journal...

I didn’t write in my journal until half-way into January 1993. Heard from the agent Robbins. He passed on the second script I sent him, “Dashing Dan.” But he thinks it might make a good 2-part “Seinfeld.” Oy. I decide to send him my “Seinfeld” spec, based on my “Wedding” script, “He might get a kick out of that,” sez I.

I'm on a DVD!

9/8/2016

Another extra from the Galaxy Rangers DVD; writers Dan and John discuss their days as writers for the Galaxy Rangers.

Now on DVD!

9/1/2016

Here's a clip from the Galaxy Rangers DVD where my oft-time co-writer and I discuss the merchandising efforts on behalf of the animated series.

Memories of The Galaxy Rangers.

11/6/2011

Back when the Galaxy Rangers were still on the air, we were contacted by a fan who was putting together a fanazine about the show and contacted the producers. He was looking for the writers of the show to be interviewed or writer something for the 'zine. Just his luck my friend and sometime co-writer and I decided to submit something. Years later, fans of the show were creating website for the show so I pulled this thing out of the files and allowed them to post it online. Here's the interview between John Rawlins and Dan Fiorella.

Brushes with Celebrity! Jerry Orbach

6/23/2011

One of my first writing jobs right out of college was for the syndicated animation show “The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers.” That in itself is a story: I answered a want ad in The Village Voice newspaper and passed the interview. Okay, maybe not a long story...

comedy, writer, Dan Fiorella, Daniel fiorella, screenplay, sketches,radio,computer games, television writer