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Because I read both books around the same time and they have quite a bit in common, I'm going to compare and contrast this book with Tina Fey's Bossypants.Both books deal with the lives of writers producing television shows, so it's easy to compare them.Fey's book is lighthearted, self-deprecating, and extremely funny. Gurvitz's book, on the other hand, is angry, bitter, and completely unfunny.Now, I'm not saying it's unfunny BECAUSE it's angry and bitter. I love angry bitterness as much as the
Not too bad except for a lot profanity. I think he could have gotten his point across without using it. As for the inside workings of Hollywood for television, it brought out a lot of how they choose shows for the upcoming season. He answered a lot of my questions on why it seems to be dumbing down a lot. There is a disconnect between the writers and the head bosses who think business and not creative. Anyway, it was a fast read. I blew past a lot of the magazine clippings because there was so
This is, more or less, a journal covering two and a half years in the professional life of a TV writer, pitching stories, meetings with know-nothings at the networks to "discuss" problems and rewrites, waiting to hear decisions, and more. There is also a good lot of explaining why some of these things happen, and a lot of side-opinions on people and situations, without naming too many names. Juicy and delicious, he half-apologizes for the way he writes, "this shit just slips out."Recommended for...
I listened to this as an audio book, part of research for a novel I'm writing. Didn't give me a LOT to go on there but was still informative about the writing gig in television. If you do the audio book as read by the author, beware, his timing is poor and his tone is flat.
I thought I had an idea of why most television is crap, and I was pretty much right. In "'Hello,' Lied the Agent" Ian Gurvitz takes the reader through the trying process to get a half-hour comedy show picked up by a network. Even before his steady gig on staff for "Becker" wraps up, Gurvitz is pitching ideas to studios and networks. On those occasions when he gets a nibble and is asked to produce the script for a pilot, nothing ever seems to be good enough. Rather, I should say that nothing is e...
Hello, Lied the Agent is a decent book about the everyday experiences of a Hollywood TV Writer. It's a diary of the writer's usually cynical thoughts and feelings as he goes through the drills trying to sell his work to the studios and networks. The book was somewhat entertaining but became a little tedious as he burned through a lot of time of pitching and getting notes or being rejected over and over. It wasn't a 'how to' or a memoir which is maybe what I was expecting. I sort of wanted to hea...
Becker and Wings are obviously not Seinfeld and Mash, but Gurvitz's time and experience in the business offers up a lot that any aspiring TV writer, or someone just interested in the inner function/dysfunction of network TV would find interesting. Rather than sugarcoat things or lure you in with the "here's how you make it in the business" approach, he lays his angst out on the table like the bleeding, wounded animal it is.His voice is a little Harvey Pekar-esque, and he walks through the 2003-2...
Gurvitz seems to think that his version of the "Hollywood is a hell hole full of liars and thieves and whores" whine is funnier and more interesting than everyone else's. It's not. The book itself is also surprisingly poorly produced -- for some reason, Gurvitz chooses to illustrate some of his points using unedited printouts of various websites, of all things, some of which actually have important text cut off by the margins! Shockingly amateurish. There's also quite a bit of filler, including
