Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

When you gather up a roomful of talented but very opinionated writers and put them to work on a show, you’re bound to run into more than a few disagreements.  Often, heated debates ensue and, after much back and forth, consensus is reached – perhaps grudgingly on the part of certain participants.  There are those occasions, however, when writers will be presented with an idea so true and clear that support for the notion proves instantly unanimous.  To date, in our writers’ room, these are the handful  of ideas that have received general approval…

10:00 a.m. is a better time to start the writer’s room than 9:00 a.m.

Most of the tea sold at David’s Tea isn’t really tea at all.

Those flavored no-cal sparkling waters are fantastic.

Parenthood isn’t for everyone.

Cauliflower stew is a terrible lunch option.

And that, off the top of my head, is about it.

Thanks to everyone who offered their excellent restaurant recommendations and culinary offerings.  Looks like I’ll be criss-crossing the globe for gumbo, lasagna, and apple muffins!

Hey, anyone familiar with the beautiful Buffalo area?  Is there anything I should check out while I’m in town?  Something I absolutely, positively canNOT miss?  What is Bison City’s best restaurant?

Okay.  Good to know!

The bureaucratic ineptitude of the Canadian government is alternately sad and staggering.  I’ll save you the rant but suffice it to say the general apathy could be readily addressed – and customer service greatly improved – by replacing these indifferent civil servants with trained monkeys.  I so look forward to the day when they all lose their rubber-stamping positions to machines.

The robot revolution can’t come soon enough for this guy!

Oh, hey!  Look who’s been busy!

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/martin-gero-brendan-gall-cbs-spy-drama-1202954914/

To quote Akemi: “He is unstoppable.”

Speaking of unstoppable, week 3 of the writers’ room kicked off with a long and involved discussion of episode 3.  Tomorrow, we start breaking episode 4 and I expect smooooooth sailing through episode 10.  Then, all we have to do is write the scripts, build the sets, and shoot the show.  Oh, and assorted other stuff in between.  And…done!

After which I think I’ll take a well-deserved trip – and visit each and every one of you.  I’m going to need to know: a) your city, b) the best restaurant in your area, c) your availability, and d) what you’ll be cooking up.

Don’t worry.  I probably won’t be free until summer of 2019, so you’ll have plenty of time to prepare.

This, is exhausting.

I spend all day in the writers’ room, breaking episodes, then come home at night to flesh out the stories so that I can deliver outlines in the morning.  I know, I know, this isn’t how it’s done.  But, in all fairness, it saves so much time in the long run, allowing all of the writers to weigh in so that we can, ultimately, end up with a (hopefully) bulletproof outline ready to go to script.  And once this room is over and we give the writers the green light, those scripts are going to be coming fast and furious come November.  The plan is to have all ten scripts in play in October, and all final drafts in place by January.  The only variance I’m willing to brook is a possible delay on the finale – only insofar as a later version can be informed by any production developments.

Anyway, I’m off to complete tonight’s outline.

Tonight, I leave you with the insane medley of desserts we’ve been enjoying in the room including Italian cookies, fancy donuts, decadent chocolate chip cookies, custard-filled almond pastries, egg tarts, Akemi’s rum cake, Ivon’s brownies, and Sam’s grandmother’s honey cake (sadly, not all pictured, but believe me when I say they were all deeeeeelicious!)…