Making Movies with Andy Young

falcnpunch:

me mixing my tracks for tgs

levyontv:

makingmovieswithandy:

levyontv:

comedynerdsunited:

This is how I feel about NBC passing on Mulaney and, well, everything else.

Posted by Andy Young

OK, Look people, I love John Mulaney like the rest of us. BUT CAN WE PLEASE CALM IT DOWN WITH THE HISTRIONICS OVER IT NOT GETTING PICKED UP? I swear to God this is like the 80th post I’ve seen saying the same thing. Like, did all of you actually read the script? Because I did. And it was mediocre. At best. It was nowhere near as good as John Mulaney usually is, painfully middle of the road, underdeveloped characters, and you could practically hear the canned laughter in the line breaks. I haven’t seen the finished product, and even if I heard the taping went well (which, every taping was reported as having gone well pretty much so I take that with a grain of salt), performance can only elevate material so much. I was, in fact, rooting for it not to get picked up, so that Mulaney can come back next year with something far better. It’s not like people only ever got one shot to get a show made and if it doesn’t happen, they’re banished to an island never to be heard of again (flown there by Delta, obviously). In fact, I would bet that NBC didn’t pick it up because they know he CAN do better, either as head writer of SNL (an announcement I expect to be coming very soon) or with another pilot next year. NBC, for all of their faults, does actually recognize talent, generally. Do they put a lot of crappy things on the air? Yes. Do they cancel great things? Also yes. But, without having seen it, you have no way of knowing which this was, so can we please take it down about 50 notches? Thanks.

I usually don’t respond to these, but:

1) Wrote it in four minutes. Literally, clacked it out on my lunch break. It’s a goof. Would you mind paying the fee to submit this to AFF for me? Didn’t think so, I wouldn’t either. Not why I wrote it, chill out.

2) On my lunch break, I saw the quote that, “Though [Mulaney] was liked by “comedy geeks,” NBC executives didn’t like it. Why? Well, EW suggests because NBC is going for a “family theme” in its comedies and “moving away from smarter-narrower-snarkier titles.” …So am I the only one that remembers why we loved NBC comedies in the first place? I’m all for trying to go for a bigger audience but these days the smaller net is catching the most fishes, and it’s because of the quality of their content and even if they have a niche audience, it’s a reliable one that keeps coming back. But NBC can’t be FX. It’s a slow moving train that isn’t connected with its audience anymore. And that’s what I was responding to.

3) Yeah, he’ll probably become head writer (maybe host Update?) now that Seth’s leaving. Does that mean he couldn’t have done both? Remember, you’re mad at ME for assuming too much! (see #5)

4) Gotta swing back for a second: I’m the one that needs to take it down 50 notches? Jesus, sir, this is a brick. Those caps were so locked I had to wipe the digital saliva off my keyboard.

5) You’re right. I haven’t seen Mulaney. You haven’t either. In fact we probably never will, no one will get a chance to check it out. And that’s what disappoints me the most.

Oof. this shit took longer to write than that dinky script. My boss is gonna kill me…

Look, I didn’t intend anything personal by it. I actually thought it was decently funny (although BFF as a lost NBC gem? Really? To quote Burton Guster, “C’mon son”). It was more being fed up with how the collective internet has their panties in such a bunch of TV execs making a bad decision like this some sort of new phenomenon. Over something that most of them haven’t seen or read. The general consensus from people who have read it is that it wasn’t very good. My response wasn’t about the quality of the stuff that NBC picked up (it all looks pretty shitty except maybe MJF), but was about the presumption that this was somehow the second coming of [insert whatever comedy people think is the greatest ever and you’re wrong for disagreeing] and that NBC, by failing to pick it up, has made it so that the American people can never laugh again. Also, quite frankly, in point #2, it seems like you think that a comedy with a “family theme” can’t be funny, to which I believe most of the biggest hit and funniest comedies ever would disagree. Do I as a viewer think its ridiculous they are shying away from “smarter” titles? Absolutely. But can I fault them for trying to reach a broader audience who generally rejects those titles? No, because they are a business, and sadly, America likes crap. This is why I don’t get your fishes argument thing. Like, are the fish critical acclaim? It definitely can’t be viewership. The way Louie’s viewership stacks up against Big Bang Theory is David vs. Goliath if I’ve ever seen it. And are we supposed to fault businesses, because lets not forget that the networks are businesses, for prioritizing profit over accolades? To say that it’s not in touch with its audience is just kind of strange to me because you’re basically saying that only people who enjoy the snarky comedies that you love or tumblr loves are their audience which is clearly not the case or else those shows would be hits which they’re not. It’s the classic thing to me of Tumblr thinking that they are the only opinion out there. We’re not. We’re the niche. Middle America doesn’t care about snark or fandom or any of that stuff that we prize on here. I think we’re in agreement, NBC can’t be FX, so I don’t understand why the internet is getting angry at them for not being FX. In regards to part 3, um, there is no way in hell he would be able to balance being head writer of SNL, head writer of his own show, star of his own show (and potentially on Update). Each of those is a huge commitment. I don’t deny that my response was maybe more heated than it needed to be but it was after, at this point, five days of seeing people make the same posts complaining about this, for a pilot that was, at least in scripted form, really not worth all of the complaints. As I said in my response, I love Mulaney. I think he’s brilliant. But just because he’s brilliant doesn’t mean the show would have been, and in fact, the script really wasn’t. It’s The Mindy Project all over again. Great creative pedigree that didn’t end up being worth bubkes in the finished product. Maybe the filmed version of Mulaney worked much better than it did on paper. You’re right, I don’t know. But what I do know is that if Universal were hot on it, or saw potential, they would be shopping it to other networks, likeABC Studios is doing with Pulling. I mean, you mentioned FX earlier. They’re spinning off their comedies into its own network, so surely they need content. With Mulaney attached, I’m sure they could have found traction there. But the studio isn’t shopping it around, and the fact that they’re not tells me what I already suspected, it probably didn’t turn out too hot either. So I’m sorry you seemed to take my response personally, which it really wasn’t intended to be. Hell, I almost didn’t write this response, because I’m really not trying to start a tumblr fight. I wasn’t even trying to say that you’re not allowed to be upset about it, which I admit may have been unclear in my response. It’s rather, now five days after this news came out, I don’t get why people are still treating this like the death of comedy, especially considering that Mulaney is almost a shoo-in for SNL Head Writer (if he wants the gig). I’m sure we’ll all find something else to laugh at.

Yeah BFF really just hit the rule of three for the joke (Dan Harmon still stings though. Should’ve said Conan). I’m on your side with everything else, more-or-less. You seem like a cool cat. Beef squashed.

levyontv:

comedynerdsunited:

This is how I feel about NBC passing on Mulaney and, well, everything else.

Posted by Andy Young

OK, Look people, I love John Mulaney like the rest of us. BUT CAN WE PLEASE CALM IT DOWN WITH THE HISTRIONICS OVER IT NOT GETTING PICKED UP? I swear to God this is like the 80th post I’ve seen saying the same thing. Like, did all of you actually read the script? Because I did. And it was mediocre. At best. It was nowhere near as good as John Mulaney usually is, painfully middle of the road, underdeveloped characters, and you could practically hear the canned laughter in the line breaks. I haven’t seen the finished product, and even if I heard the taping went well (which, every taping was reported as having gone well pretty much so I take that with a grain of salt), performance can only elevate material so much. I was, in fact, rooting for it not to get picked up, so that Mulaney can come back next year with something far better. It’s not like people only ever got one shot to get a show made and if it doesn’t happen, they’re banished to an island never to be heard of again (flown there by Delta, obviously). In fact, I would bet that NBC didn’t pick it up because they know he CAN do better, either as head writer of SNL (an announcement I expect to be coming very soon) or with another pilot next year. NBC, for all of their faults, does actually recognize talent, generally. Do they put a lot of crappy things on the air? Yes. Do they cancel great things? Also yes. But, without having seen it, you have no way of knowing which this was, so can we please take it down about 50 notches? Thanks.

I usually don’t respond to these, but:

1) Wrote it in four minutes. Literally, clacked it out on my lunch break. It’s a goof. Would you mind paying the fee to submit this to AFF for me? Didn’t think so, I wouldn’t either. Not why I wrote it, chill out.

2) On my lunch break, I saw the quote that, “Though [Mulaney] was liked by “comedy geeks,” NBC executives didn’t like it. Why? Well, EW suggests because NBC is going for a “family theme” in its comedies and “moving away from smarter-narrower-snarkier titles.” …So am I the only one that remembers why we loved NBC comedies in the first place? I’m all for trying to go for a bigger audience but these days the smaller net is catching the most fishes, and it’s because of the quality of their content and even if they have a niche audience, it’s a reliable one that keeps coming back. But NBC can’t be FX. It’s a slow moving train that isn’t connected with its audience anymore. And that’s what I was responding to.

3) Yeah, he’ll probably become head writer (maybe host Update?) now that Seth’s leaving. Does that mean he couldn’t have done both? Remember, you’re mad at ME for assuming too much! (see #5)

4) Gotta swing back for a second: I’m the one that needs to take it down 50 notches? Jesus, sir, this is a brick. Those caps were so locked I had to wipe the digital saliva off my keyboard.

5) You’re right. I haven’t seen Mulaney. You haven’t either. In fact we probably never will, no one will get a chance to check it out. And that’s what disappoints me the most.

Oof. this shit took longer to write than that dinky script. My boss is gonna kill me…

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lolsofunny:

(lol here!)

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