THAT 70S SHOW THANKSGIVING
Written and Produced for FX Networks. Ah, That 70s Show. The vehicle that gave us Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher. This Thanksgiving marathon was especially fulfilling because I really liked the name “Jive Turkey Marathon.” but I was too gun shy to use it in the three script ideas I submitted. But I included a list of 10 other titles that came to mind. Jive Turkey was first on that list. Just goes to show ya. Go with your gut.
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DADDY DAY CARE
Written and Produced for FX Networks. Starring our man, Eddie Murphy. Grossed $164 mil worldwide. Whodda thunk in a few short years, he’d be back on track with Dream Girls and an Oscar nom. Lesson: You can’t keep a good man down. Part of the fun was watching the movie. It had a wealth of great clips and an abundance of soundbites to choose from. What’s better than kids laughing, playing and giving the Murphy Man a run for his money. Come up with a suitable play on words and you should be good to go.
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KING OF THE HILL
Written and Produced for FX Networks. Part of dialing in good copy and a good title for a holiday marathon is to find out what they did on the last versions of the marathon. To my dismay, every title off the top of my head had been used before. So I went with something a little adventurous and obscure that they hadn’t seen yet. Thankfully, they liked it.
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COPS STEAKOUT
Written and Produced for FX Networks. Cops is the longest running reality show on television. This was my first promo job for FX. We got to watch hours and hours of Cops. Joy of joys. After a few episodes, we began to realize two things: 1. Our lives are great. 2. If we lumped everyone together and graded intellect on a curve, we’d be considered geniuses. Yeah, Cops is the self-esteem wonder drug of the new millennium.
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NIP TUCK PRESENTATION-MALE SELL
Written and Produced for The WB. This was a tough one because they didn’t want a voice-over. We had to tell the whole story with nothing but cool clips, reviews from three seasons, and enticing sound bites. First I had to lay the whole project out in segments that addressed some of the areas that interest syndicators: premise, characters, storylines, tone, the performances, production value, and whether the episodes are “self-contained” i.e. not too serialized. Then I had to search for reviews that touched on these areas.
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THE BIG HIT
Written and Produced for FX Networks. A fun flick starring Mark Wahlberg and Christina Applegate. Marky Mark is a hit man with a fiancé, a hottie on the side, and a pantload of self-esteem issues. But he’s a stone cold whack master. Lots of shoot outs, car chases, explosions, etc. Great for the look of the promo. Drop in some cool sound bites and some kicking music and you’re off to the races.
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MARATHON MANIA
Written and Produced for FX Networks. A marathon of Stacked, (ill-fated Pamela Anderson vehicle), Fear Factor and Spin City (one of my favorite shows). Gotta love Michael J. Each of the shows had really good visuals. And if you can’t sell a spot with Pamela Anderson, you’re in the creek pretty deep. At the very least, she made you mouse over that thumbnail, n’est-ce-pas?
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COPS LABOR DAY
Written and Produced for FX Networks. Ah, how do you come up with cool copy for Cops and Labor Day? Good question. Again, the research paid off with good labor phrases and concepts. I decided to play against the tone of the show and go a little “high-brow” with the copy. We found the appropriate sound bites and all was good and bountiful in promo land. In short, they liked it.
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PACIFIC HEIGHTS
Pacific Heights - Written and Produced for FX Networks. A creepy flick starring Michael Keaton, Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine. This weird dude (Michael Keaton) moves into their house, doesn’t pay rent and won’t leave when they try to evict him. Insanity ensues and they wind up taking drastic measures to get him out. This one had some good scenes and sound bites for promo weaving.
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DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
Deep End of the Ocean - Written and Produced for FX Networks. A thought provoking movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams. Kid goes missing in a hotel lobby while under the mother’s (Michelle’s) care. Harrowing aftermath, strained marital situation, etc. All you need is two or three good outbursts, a couple furrowed brows and some running or fainting and you can cobble together a suspenseful 10-second story.
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WRONGFULLY ACCUSED
Wrongfully Accused - Written and Produced for The WB. This crazy little excursion starring Leslie Nielsen was a mile a minute, spoofy sight gagapalooza. Almost every scene was chock full of some visual craziness. Mr. Nielsen is the king of this sort of thing and we had tons of gags and sound bites to go with. Wild and crazy stuff.
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COP TILL YOU DROP
Written and Produced for FX Networks. The holiday marathon scripts are fun because you get to read up on the history of the holiday and do a lot of word play with rhymes, comparisons and contrasts. The research is one of my favorite parts of promo writing.
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DADDY DAY CARE-A-THON
Written and Produced for FX Networks. They wanted to show this baby back to back to back for hours during the Christmas Season. So they asked me to come up with some interesting copy. I went with a rhyming scheme thing. It worked.
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