Charles Rosin was the executive producer/showrunner for the first 144 episodes/five seasons of the original “Beverly Hills, 90210″, when it was happening and people watched it. Under his creative stewardship, the series received a People’s Choice Award, two Golden Globe nominations, and numerous citations and awards for its sensitive handling of contemporary issues such as substance abuse, race relations, and teenage sexuality.
In addition to “90210″, Charles wrote and produced numerous movies, pilots, and series for prime-time television including “St. Elsewhere”, “Remmington Steele”, “Dawson’s Creek” and “South of Nowhere”. As Supervising Producer for “Northern Exposure” (for which he received an Emmy nomination) Charles wrote “The Aurora Borealis” which TV Guide named as one of the 100 most memorable episodes in American television history.
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August 26, 2009
If you are an actor on an audition for an off-Broadway play with a lot of buzz, and your award-winning director asks you to perform a scene standing on one leg, chances are if you really want the gig you might ask which leg he would prefer you to stand on. Or imagine you are a young writer who has just been contacted by the producers of America’s favorite sit-com to write a sample episode on spec so that you could be evaluated for their writing staff, I seriously doubt you would decide to deliver a spec script for “CSI: Miami.”
So why, young bizzlers, when Janey and the crew invites you to “tell us your story” in the intimate, confessional, and humorous /ironic style of our show…so that we can evaluate your performance and consider paying you $$ to be featured on our Digital Showcase, why would upload a video of you riding skateboards? or singing in a talent show? or posting a trailer for a web-series you performed in two year ago?
Not to quibble or complain — we love that you have creative aspirations and really appreciate those of you who have taken the plunge by posting links to your past efforts — but for us to evaluate your work we need you to live in the present tense, not the past .
This doesn’t mean that we didn’t dig the smart, hipster poetry from Caroline, or the funny comedy reels from Julia that were featured on EOnline, but we are still hoping that the style of our main show would inspire you to use our format for self-expression to create some original videos for showbizzle — not for us to own, btw; our tos makes it very clear that you own whatever you submit to our Community Channel — but to give us a better sense of your range and sensibilities as we look for the next round of actor/writers trying to jumpstart their careers…
So… channel your inner improv actor by grabbing a face cam, creating an original character/persona that may or may not be like you, and then share that story/performance with Janey and the rest of TeamBizzle…
…nothing might ever come out it, but hopefully you’ll have some fun challenging yourself to come up with something original — and when all is said and done, it will confirm that you have that one crucial personality trait which all actors need to have if they are going to survive in this town and this business — which is the ability to take direction.
August 20, 2009
Virtually every time I venture out to attend local theater here in town I am almost always enthralled by at least one of the performances by a cast member — and this weekend was no exception.
I didn’t particularly love the direction of “Search and Destroy”, a revival of Howard Korder’s 1992 darkly satiric take on the meaning of success in a desperate culture full of self-help gurus, drug dealers, and would be filmmakers all chasing a twisted American Dream . But my qualms about the show faded once Thom Guillou stepped onto the stage near the end of the play for one memorable scene as the coke sniffing campaign manager for a conservative candidate who is running for a US senate seat from New Jersey.
The next night, a lot of us went to “One Night Stand”, the musical improv show whose triumphant LA run recently added new shows to keep up for the demand for tickets. Yep, it’s that good –usually. But last night’s show had some, uh, creative issues, but what still resonates this morning is the inventive way that cast member Jonah Platt morphed into a guru/seer called Know-ie (spelled No-ey?) which effectively brought all the loose strands together — and made for another satisfying show…
What Thom and Jonah have in common is that both of them play characters on showbizzle, the digital showcase and destination website for emerging talent I created with daughter Lindsey. Thom plays Luke, the hot young writer/director filmmaker whose autobiographical film is, in fact, about somebody else… while Jonah plays alongside fellow “One Night Stand” cast member Quinn Beswick as fledgling web series producers, David and Zak.
Now here’s something to consider: Jonah just finished a stint as a lowly office assistant for a TV show while Thom works as a waiter when he’s not being a counselor at a local day camp. That’s right — here are two incredibly talented young men doing whatever they can to pursue their artistic ambitions while dealing with the challenges and realities in life in the big city during the worst economic downturn in ages. Sound familiar? If so, read on.
We like to say that showbizzle was created to “put a little fun back into the business”, but it’s prime value for the emerging artist is to provide a performance space away from the immediate pressures of the marketplace so that our members can post original characters and original material on the site. And if we and other members like what we see, chances are so will the young agents and managers who are increasingly visiting our site. And once we start up with some contests next month, you might even get paid to perform of our Digital Showcase.
So the first step is to grab a face cam and tell Janey what has happened to “you” in the process of trying to jump start your career. And although not everyone reading this post is endowed with the same degree of creative talent — the dreaded “t-word” that ultimately impacts one’s chances for success and makes a Jonah Platt and Thom Guillou stand out during a weekend of local theater –we appreciate anyone willing to a take a creative risk and invite you and your chums to become valued member of our community and be treated with respect and compassion.
August 16, 2009
Art Imitates Life …and Vice Versa
Like virtually every other self-respecting writer in Hollywood, I got ripped off early on in my career. In my case, a story editor of a prestigious TV series rejected my spec story outline for his show because he said it dealt with a subject that neither the producers, nor the network was looking for. One year later, I watched this writer, who I never met, stand at a podium to accept his Emmy award for a script that had virtually the exact same story line. (And the script I submitted was sent to the show by an agent, no less!)
I bring up the story not to relive old war wounds but as a way to acknowledge the funny monologue on showbizzle’s Digital Showcase this week that stops being funny once our aspiring young writer who works as a PA on a network sit com, played by contest winner David Love, reveals that the story ideas he shared over beers with a prospective mentor/working writer, apparently found their way into a writer’s room without the young scribe getting any recognition.
Gabe Uhr, who wrote David Love’s material, purposely ended the video by asking Janey, our resident authority on all things showbiz, what he should do? Should he risk getting fired by confronting the staff writer who pilfered his stories? Should he relinquish his claims on the material in hopes that a solid relationship will develop somewhere down the line? Should he report the matter to the Writer’s Guild? Should he bend over and accept that this is how the real world functions in Hollywood?
One of the reasons we encouraged Gabe and David to give their story an open ending was so that we could invite you, our favorite bizzlers, to share your take on this all too common situation by either sending us an e-mail, or posting a video on the subject. And depending on what you advise, we will continue the story of the befuddled scribe in future weeks…
Oh, and in case you are wondering, the way I chose to deal with the guy who stole my idea was to move on and hope that someday kharma would intercede on my behalf. That someday happened ten years later when that same Emmy winning writer became unemployed and had his agent contact me about getting a staff job on Beverly Hills, 90210. As you might imagine, it was a very brief conversation.
August 5, 2009
Question: What is The Best Definition of a Producer?
Answer: someone who knows a writer
All right. I know this all makes me sound like a shill for The Writer’s Guild of America, and while I am a long time, dues paying member, believe me, union loyalty is not what inspired me to post one of my favorite Hollywood truisms this week. Besides, if I wanted to voice the party line, this post would be titled “It All Starts With The Word.” No, my reason to remind you guys of the value of the writer is much more practical than that — and, as you might expect, has mostly to do with showbizzle, the digital showcase and destination website I created with my daughter Lindsey.
One of the perks of being a member of our showbizzle community is that only members have the right to upload links to our new Community Channel where they have the chance to be paid $$ to perform original material on our Digital Showcase. So far some of the submissions have been worth a second look (see Favorites on our Community Channel and see if you agree), but that is mostly because the personality and sense of humor of the performer, not because the words or concept are off the charts (Caroline’s Rothstein’s fiery poem to Bernie Madoff being a huge exception).
Either way, those of us here in the bizzle thought that we might be getting more submissions on a daily basis at this point — especially from the enthusiastic crew that has come over from our showbizzle on MySpace group. Our irrepressible community manager, Miss Tina, wonders if part of the problem lies in the fact that the ordinary young actor/performer who might like to be involved with us might be just a little, well, intimidated by the quality of the videos in the main show because they are actors, not writers.
So for anyone who is gung ho to become a character/or persona but lacks a little confidence in their ability to tell Janey a story about what they are doing to jumpstart their career ambitions, my suggestion is to…find a writer to work with. That way you can become your own producer — which is kinda what showbizzle (and this business) is all about, right?
And if there are any emerging writers out there, here’s a thought: one of the most fun things you can do without breaking the law is writing material for an actor friend, literally putting words in their mouth. This is the what good buds Gabe Uhr and David Love did this past spring — and they (along with Jon Ray) were paid to perform on our showcase by virtue of winning our first contest. More about that next week. Until then…keep on bizzlin’
July 29, 2009
Welcome Bizzlers –
Here’s a shameless confession. The real reason I started blogging back in October ‘08 was not to give my readers a sense of what it was like to run Beverly Hills, 90210 when we were the most popular show in the world, or even to share my thoughts about the current (woeful) state of prime time, but to do whatever I could to draw attention to showbizzle. Not that every week, but, trust me, everyone ended with a plug for the bizzle.
Anyway, to celebrate the launch of our first newsletter, and to say thanks for giving us a chance to become whatever you’d like us to be — a diversion/an obsession/a launching pad — I’d like to re-published some of my favorite posts – with an update, of course.
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“Putting The Show Back in The Bizzle” was my mission statement, my Jerry Maquire moment. An affirmation of why we made all these videos in the first place…
Putting the Show back in the Bizzle
December 18, 2008
What I like about producing original content for the digital world is that if it doesn’t work out you get to throw up your hands and insist that your website/start-up/show was in Beta mode the whole time — and then, with one click of a mouse, poof, all is forgiven, and you get to start over again. Not cancelled, demeaned, and quickly forgotten which mostly happens when the network/studio/money guys pull the plug on a prime time endeavor. No. Showbizzle gets to have a second chance - a Beta-induced relaunch in the spring of ‘09. Early March. Our videos have been remixed, revoiced, repurposed, and broken down into 23 weekly 10-15 minutes segments. That’s a lot of ff****ing segments. That’s a full season. That a show. No wonder we have been asked to be featured as part of the Beta launch for Zillion TV this February. There’s that Beta word again. What a concept!
For months I have been describing showbizzle to anyone who would listen as “scripted entertainment that could pass as a reality show, in the form of a fictitious daily video blog - for the purposes of creating a social network.” We swapped out social network for community back in October once we figured out that providing services and opportunities for members were of more value than introducing them to their next bff.
To this end showbizzle ‘09 will have cool contests where members get paid to perform as well as an outreach to university theater and drama programs where cash prizes will be given to students performing our monologues in addition to performing their own material. But at the end of the day showbizzle is a show - not scripted entertainment — and I think we lost sight of that as we grappled with malfunctioning technology, unprofessional behavior from our techies from texas, and our own feeble marketing and publicity efforts.
Hopefully, in ‘09 showbizzle can hook up with a brand, and that we generate more traffic and that members start reading Janey’s blog and respond all her new voice-overs — but no matter what happens it’ll still be about the show.
showbizzle…not quite showbusiness…and a lot more fun…
Have a happy, merry, happy - and we will be back in January.
