I just finished reading Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay for NETWORK!!! Which is really cool for me!!!

You can't research Rod Serling without reading the name Paddy Chayefsky, because he and Serling were the benchmarks for what is called the Golden Age of Television. They're the cats that wrote TV movies that got all the critical applause and got viewers all stimulated and talking about that PLAYHOUSE 90 -- or whatever program -- that aired the night before. They were legendary for writing some of the best and most thought-provoking, socially eye-opening dramas ever to air on TV.

And because of this, they get compared to each other a lot by historians.
But none of my research indicated that he ever wrote science fiction or horror, so I was never compelled to try to watch any of his stuff. (Actually, he wrote ALTERED STATES, but the bits & pieces I caught on HBO when I was, like, 13 looked more like a drama thatn a sci-fi/horror flick, so I never bothered to catch the whole thing.)

Okay, but he is widely considered one of the all-time GREAT screenwriters, so there's this tiny part of me that was always curious what all the commotion was about.

At work tonight my friend Lothar insisted that I grab a copy of NETWORK at Walmart while it's still $10. Brian and I are kinda strapped for cash at the moment (one of the curses of being an "artistic type" is that we tend not to be great with money ;P) so even ten dollars seems pretty impossible for the time being.

BUT...

Creative Screenwriting Magazine has this EXCELLENT resource for screenwriters. It's CSWeb, and it has a section where you can read screenplays and teleplays online!!! (It's about friggin' TIME someone did this!!! I have paid ridiculous amounts of money over the last 14 years to purchase screenplays and teleplays to learn proper formatting! I already know it by heart, and my brother has me to reformat his stuff for him, but I'm glad that future generations of aspiring screenwriters will have this resource available to them for free!) And so I reasoned that, Chayefsky being one of the writers we are meant to strive to emulate and NETWORK being one of the screenplays we're meant to aspire to, CSWeb might have the script online for me to read! FREE!!!

And they did!!! :D

See, usually I choose my movies/TV shows for pure entertainment value. But every once in a while I'll brave the odd art flick or drama for educational purposes. But it's rare. So reading NETWORK tonight is one of those proud accomplishements for me, like eating all my spinach or brushing my teeth.

AND... It didn't suck! It was a good read! Like Serling, Chayefsky's all about the big ideas, and finding a way to get you thinking about stuff. I enjoy that. It's one of the reasons I love Crichton and Sorkin. In fact, a few years ago I read THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT just so I could experience it on the page (seen the flick a bajillion times), and it occured to me that Sorkin might have read Chayefsky when he was learning his craft. NETWORK and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT have some stylistic similarities. (Plus, Sorkin is/was a playwright, and so was Chayefsky, so it would make perfect sense that Chayefsky would be part of Sorkin's cariculum(sp?).)

Ooh! And before I went to sleep last night/this morning I watched 3 of the last 5 episodes of GILMORE GIRLS from last season. For whatever reason (most likely SecondLife) I dropped out of most of my TV shows, but I continued taping them -- knowing I'd want to catch up eventually. So for the entire summer I've had these 3 tapes of GILMORE GIRLS just sitting around the living room, waiting for me.

With my baby's computer down -- and therefor, little reason to go in-world -- I found myself with nothing to do before bed. So I got mostly caught-up.

One problem, though... Usually GILMORE GIRLS episodes feel like stand-alone stories, even when a protline continues through several more episodes. But the 3 episodes I watched last night all felt like almost a single episode. The end of the episode closes several story points, but one (or more) is left wide open, as though Amy Sherman-Palladino is BEGGING you to tune back in next week!

Dude! We love your show! We're devoted like Trekkies! We're NOT going anywhere!!!

It was SO easy to drop out of X-FILES after the 3rd or 4th season because it became mostly a series of mythology episodes. I always prefered the "Monster of the Week" episodes because they felt like mini-sci-fi/horror movies!!! GILMORE GIRLS stand-alones feel like mini-romantic comedies, or mini-family comedies!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE TV shows that are all about continuity! I remember being so impressed as a kid watching STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION when they'd actually reference something that happened in an episode 2 seasons ago!!! It was like "FINALLY! A group of writers that watch their own show!" And nothing makes a season more fulfilling than when the season finally answers a question that was posed 12 or 20 episodes back! It gives the show a sense of time and history and some root in its own reality!

But besides 24 and ONE TREE HILL, I tend to dislike soap operas. (Even in the case of ONE TREE HILL, the episodes themselves FEEL complete at the end of the hour, usually. Like if you missed next week's episodes, it's okay because you've seen all you need to see... Which, ironically, brings you back for next week's episode, lol.)

ANGEL was mostly a soap, and it was just so very easy for me to drop out of it after 2 seasons. (And that's a JOSS WHEDON CREATION!!!) And really, after Season 3, BUFFY became a soap. But I was just so hooked into that world by the time it happened that there was no way I could abandon it. (But by Season 6 I came awefully CLOSE to dropping out.)

But then, I get that this is probably just me and my finicky tastes. I guess if shows are turning into soaps on a regular basis, it's probably because the rest of the world enjoys it. And I guess I can understand that.

Blah. Whatever.

I'M OFF FOR 3 DAYS!!!

YEE-HOO!!!