INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT

This has been in the hopper for a couple of months, but I feel I can now safely say I've taken the first steps to creating a tv series.

Back in August a friend of mine went in to pitch some show ideas to some producers, and the weekend before asked me if I had any ideas. I have had a show idea for a couple of years sitting in a drawer. I gave him the gist of it and he pitched it. The producers liked it, we all had a meeting a couple of weeks later. After a couple of months of meetings and some phone tag, last week I signed an option agreement.

That basically means for the next six months I've agreed not to show the idea to anyone else while this production company shops it around to networks to see if they're interested. So whereas before I was lazy to keep my idea in a drawer, now I'm getting PAID to leave it there. If you had told me I'd make money in this way when I was a teenager I would have been thrilled (actually, more likely I would have been a bit uncomfortable, as I was very mindful of work-ethic back then and might have had moral qualms about taking money without actively working for it. Thank heavens I've grown since then).

The show would be a half-hour sitcom sort of format in an environment I've never seen portrayed on tv before.

In other writing news, I've been hired on to write for the next season of "The Business", a series on IFC in the U.S., and The Movie Network in Canada. Its first incarnation was "The Festival", where I actually had a recurring role as Marshall Stack the unscrupulous, unco-ordinated tobacco baron. I'll be writing at least one episode and help with some story breakdowns. It's cool to be back with a franchise after over a year out of the loop. Funny where life takes you.

So basically, I've got some career prospects that will make me that much less dependent on stand-up one-nighters in Northern Ontario.

For now, I should probably go play ball with my doggie. That option money won't earn itself!