The entertainment business has been in the throes of change since the advent of streaming wrecked media companies\u2019 traditional paths to making a reliable profit.<\/p>\n
The covid-19 pandemic, dual writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes in 2023 and the perpetual threat of one media company gobbling up another (leading to massive job losses and fewer buyers for prospective films and TV series) only added to industry instability.<\/p>\n
Given all that and the ability to have a Zoom meeting from anywhere, it\u2019s understandable that TV writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach opted to move from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh to take a job teaching at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University.<\/p>\n
Grillo-Marxuach, a veteran writer on \u201cLost,\u201d \u201cMedium,\u201d \u201cThe Witcher\u201d and his own creation, well- In a 2006 visit, he walked students through the collaborative writing process of the \u201cLost\u201d episode \u201cAll the Good Cowboys Have Daddy Issues\u201d and how the script changed from Grillo- In July, Grillo-Marxuach addressed his decision to relocate to Pittsburgh in a first-person essay for TheAnkler.com titled, \u201cI Gave L.A. 33 Years. Now I\u2019m Leaving \u2014 Here\u2019s Why.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFor the past 33 years, I took it as gospel that if I ever left Los Angeles my career would die,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI now know that if I stay, what will die is my will to create.\u201d<\/p>\n In a phone interview last week from his new home in Western Pennsylvania, Grillo-Marxuach said teaching screenwriting at CMU, which will begin in spring 2027, follows his \u201cshadow career\u201d of mentoring young writers on his visits back to CMU (where he endowed \u201ca modest scholarship\u201d for the English department), through the Writers Guild and on his educational podcast for screenwriters, \u201cChildren of Tendu.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI had reached a certain point in my career where I\u2019ve done some things that I\u2019m very proud of and some things that I\u2019m not so proud of, and I\u2019m kind of expensive at this point, and part of me thinks, \u2018Well, why not get out of the way for other less expensive people to get their shot?\u2019\u2009\u201d Grillo- He\u2019s quick to add, this doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to stop working in TV.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means that I can take a step back and dedicate myself to something like this while continuing to do what I really want to do in the entertainment industry, which is develop my own material,\u201d said Grillo-Marxuach, who explained he\u2019d become known as a \u201chelper,\u201d a frequent co-executive producer on others\u2019 shows.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m working with a showrunner who\u2019s more neophyte than I, it puts me in the position of being an educator,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a necessary role these days. Even though the industry disruption of the past 16 years has resulted in some welcome and necessary strides \u2014 more TV writing opportunities for people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community \u2014 there\u2019s also been a breakdown of the apprentice- During the first half Under the old network system, Grillo-Marxuach said, \u201cYou have a large staff of writers who are rotating in and out of the writers\u2019 room and taking part in things like production, in post-production, and who are being But with fewer episodes, that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n \u201cBecoming a writer-producer in television, becoming a showrunner, is a process that takes a long time, and you have to get a lot of at-bats to do it,\u201d Grillo- Grillo-Marxuach described meeting younger, high-ranking TV series producers who\u2019ve never been on a set during filming.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was not something that ever happened (in the past), because by the time you\u2019re made a co-EP you had produced dozens \u2026 of episodes that had your name on them that you\u2019d written,\u201d Grillo-Marxuach said. \u201cYou\u2019ve been on set. You know how to talk to directors. You know how to talk to actors.\u201d<\/p>\n As Grillo-Marxuach prepares to train a new generation of potential future showrunners, he\u2019s still working to get shows made. He has two projects in active development.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve both been going on for over a year, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve met a single person (other than through Zoom),\u201d Grillo-Marxuach said. \u201cTechnology and a lot of other things have made it possible for people like me to live in a place like this, and it\u2019s, frankly, a beautiful place.\u201d<\/p>\n If those projects come \u201cIt\u2019s understood that I\u2019m a \u2018professor of the practice,\u2019 and part of it is the practice,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the truth of the matter is that is a long way down the road for anybody. I\u2019ve had projects in development that were in development for three years (before moving forward or getting scuttled).\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Pitt\u2019 picks up Emmys<\/p>\n The big Emmy ceremony won\u2019t air until 8 p.m. Monday on NBC, but the creative arts Emmys given out over the weekend recognized \u201cThe Pitt\u201d for outstanding prosthetic makeup, casting for a drama series, original song and guest star Ernest Harden Jr., who played the patient Louie.<\/p>\n \u2018South Park\u2019 returns <\/p>\n Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cSouth Park\u201d returns for its 29th season next week with a new title: \u201cSouth America.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cInspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of \u2018South Park\u2019 to \u2018South America,\u2019\u201d series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced in a statement mocking President Trump changing The Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America. \u201cWe especially want to thank our parent company Paramount \u2014 a Skydance Capitulation.\u201d <\/p>\n The new season\u2019s episodes will air at 10 p.m. Wednesday beginning Sept. 16 with new episodes slated to air Sept. 30, Oct. 14, Oct. 28, Nov. 11 and Nov. 25. <\/p>\n In addition to \u201cSouth America,\u201d three new episodes of Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cDrunk History\u201d begin rolling out Tuesday on the channel\u2019s YouTube page, youtube.com\/comedy central<\/a>. <\/p>\n Kept\/canceled\/rebooted <\/p>\n Paramount+ renewed \u201cMobLand\u201d for a third season ahead of its Sept. 18 season two premiere. <\/p>\n Apple TV renewed \u201cSilo\u201d for a fourth and final season. <\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s Prime Video canceled Nicolas Cage\u2019s \u201cSpider Noir\u201d after a single season. <\/p>\n Netflix ordered a new version of \u201cLonesome Dove\u201d based on the Larry McMurtry novel previously made into an Emmy-winning CBS miniseries in 1989. <\/p>\n Channel surfing <\/p>\n WTAE hired Melissa Meyers, who grew up watching the station, as a weekday morning news reporter beginning the week of Sept. 21. She previously worked at WBTW in Myrtle Beach, S.C., before taking a two-year break from TV news. \u2026 WTAE will introduce another new reporter later in September: Kaye Paddyfote joins Channel 4 after two years at the Fox affiliate in Hartford, Conn. \u2026 ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d weekend team will grow with the addition of ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott as Saturday co-anchor and Rhiannon Ally joins as the Sunday broadcast\u2019s co-anchor beginning this weekend. \u2026 Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum hosts the second season premiere of \u201cSNL: UK,\u201d streaming Sunday on Peacock in the U.S. \u2026 CBS will air a 90-minute, 30th anniversary tribute show, \u201cJudge Judy: Unfiltered, Unforgettable\u201d (8 p.m. Sept. 22, KDKA-TV). \u2026 A six-episode docu-series about fandom around the American version of \u201cThe Office,\u201d \u201cFan Level Midnight: Devoted to The Office,\u201d is now streaming on Peacock. \u2026 Major media companies were too scared of retribution from President Trump to stream \u201cAsk E. Jean,\u201d a 92-minute documentary film about E. Jean Carroll and her defamation battle against Trump, so five smaller companies teamed up to make the film available for streaming as a VOD title at Kinema.com<\/a> for a $9 rental fee. \u2026 Norah O\u2019Donnell returned to be an anchor on \u201cCBS Mornings\u201d this week, rejoining the broadcast she co-anchored prior to becoming \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d anchor in 2019. \u2026 NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d will air four episodes this NFL season after \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d on Sept. 27, Nov. 8, Nov. 15 (Steelers vs. Bengals) and Jan. 10. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The entertainment business has been in the throes of change since the advent of streaming wrecked media companies\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-282862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nreviewed but short-lived \u201cThe Middleman,\u201d<\/a> graduated in 1991 from CMU\u2019s creative writing and literary and cultural studies programs. He\u2019s been returning to campus to talk with students ever since.<\/p>\n
\nMarxuach\u2019s original draft to the completed episode that aired.<\/p>\n
\nMarxuach said. \u201cBut more than anything else, it\u2019s really about teaching becoming a passion for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nto-master path that existed during the network era.<\/p>\n
\nof his 33 years in the business, when Grillo-Marxuach worked on broadcast network shows, he was guaranteed to be involved in making 22 episodes of a series each season. Some streaming series get as few as six episodes per season and many broadcast shows make only 13 to 18 episodes each season.<\/p>\n
\nactively guided in the process of becoming producers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMarxuach said. \u201cAs those at-bats start to get (fewer and fewer) for younger writers, it struck me that this would be a really good place to bring that passion for education that I have into a place where it\u2019s very much needed, because people aren\u2019t learning on the job the way that they used to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nto fruition, how Grillo-
\nMarxuach will juggle running a show with his teaching duties remains TBD.<\/p>\n