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Recent readers of this newsletter know that for the past year, I’ve been serving as the Head Writer on an animated show for Netflix I’ve referred to here as PROJECT VISTA.

But as of this Tuesday… not so much anymore.

Suffice it to say, I had no idea this was coming. Netflix was extremely happy with the work we’d been doing — or did an Oscar-caliber job indicating otherwise. With the benefit of hindsight, however, this development was not only predictable, it also had an air of inevitability to it. After all, Netflix has already replaced the Head Writer on four other shows. Heck, they’d replaced PROJECT VISTA’s Head Writer with me. This practice of Head Writers lasting less time than your average air freshener is so commonplace — and not just at Netflix — that another Netflix animation exec told me, “Oh yeah. That’s what [the executive who had me fired*] does.” It was just arrogance on my part to think that it couldn’t happen to me.

*Said exec wasn’t in the room for my execution. She was “sick” that day.

But don’t cry for me, Argentina. I’ve still got plenty on my plate. Next week, I’ll be turning in the first draft of the screenplay for Last Flight Out. And my editor on PROJECT SPECTRE (prose novel) needs revisions to the manuscript by the middle of next month. And next week will probably see the announcement of a new — and very cool — feature project. (It’s a shame that news didn’t break this week; it would’ve made for a fun illustration of how the Hollywood Gods giveth and taketh away.)

Consequently, I find myself not mourning lost employment However, I am grieving what’s become of television, a medium I was basically raised by, a medium I left a successful legal practice to work in. I’ve watched how the number of new shows hasn’t just diminished, but the quality of those shows as well. And because I stubbornly refuse to believe that television writers suffered a collective loss of talent, I’m compelled to conclude that what’s happened to television is the result of how television is made. After all, how can any writer do good work when they know they could be replaced like a roll of toilet paper on a whim — or, worse, a matter of routine? Members of Trump’s cabinet and military officers have more job security.

So, I’m sad. Not for losing a job, but for losing something dearer to me: My love of television.

LEVIATHAN FREEDOM

Yesterday saw the announcement of Leviathan Freedom, a new comic series I’m doing with Comixology, literal rockstar Tom Morello, and artist Szymon Kudranski. People.com had the exclusive announcement which you can read here.

This project — a sci-fi epic — was previously teased as PROJECT SMALLS, as it’s inspired by the true life story of Robert Smalls, an enslaved person who led a mutiny aboard a Confederate ship and sailed it to freedom during the American Civil War.

Here’s a sneak peek at Simon’s art from the first three pages of Issue One:

FEEDBACK

William N. Fordes writes:

A Harlan Ellison story:
I was working on Law & Order. Dunno if Guggenheim was on the show at the time — hell, he might have been in high school when I started on the show….
I was a regular visitor to Dutton’s Bookstore in North Hollywood, not far from the Universal Studio lot where [Law & Order production company] Wolf Films was situated….
I was browsing and the owner came over and we were chatting — he knew my literary tastes and would often hold a book for me without my having ordered it. Anyway, I was going on about some sci fi work when I mentioned Harlan Ellison and, naturally, Dangerous Visions, still the most important compilation in sci fi history.
I expressed my adoration for Ellison and the owner said, “Would you like to meet him?” I said, of course, should the chance ever arise. And the owner says, “He’s in the back office drinking coffee.”
So we go in and I am introduced as a Law & Order writer/producer — and this is at the height of the show’s fame; not that that would impress Ellison. So, eventually, I say to him, “You are the reason I wanted to be a writer,” and he slams back: “Don’t fucking blame me, pal!”
Perfect Ellison.

Pitch-perfect. That’s an awesome story.

Alex Dueben writes:

I thought Ellison wrote [the Batman ‘66 episode] Two-Face and Len Wein adapted it for the comic. But I could be wrong.

No, I think you’re right. Here’s how I made my mistake:

When I went to find the April Fool’s script of Arrow based on Ellison’s Batman ‘66 episode, I couldn’t find either the gag script or the Ellison script it was based on. I eventually found the gag script on — where else? — the Internet (guess I must’ve posted it at some point) but still couldn’t find the Ellison draft.

And, as you saw from the gag script, Ellison’s name isn’t on it. Now, I figured I’d changed Ellison’s name to protect his memory from being dragooned into my April Fool’s prank — but the name that I chose, Peter Rabe, doesn’t sound like a name I would make up. To my ear, it still doesn’t.

Anyways, sorry, Harlan.

And apologies to you folks as well. That was more information than anyone needed..

I’m also picturing Ellison in the [Arrow] writers room, talking about how plotting out year long and multi-year story arcs with events taking place in multiple time periods and connecting directly and obliquely, was so much more complex than what they were doing for decades. How this is so much what he hoped TV would become, could become. And you were using it to tell the story of some second-rate Batman knockoff?!...But he could have you a script before Thursday.

And it would have been awesome. I regret that I never got the chance to meet him.

HASTA LA VISTA

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