Desperate Screenwriters Season 2.5 starts this Thursday

The boys (and lady) are back this Thursday. We're cutting two episodes from the remaining fifteen of the originally planned 22-episode run and producing a truncated season. Thanks to everyone for their support and patience. Not long now.

Season One Now On VDVD!

After a long long delay for a lot of reasons I don't care to get into, season one of Desperate Screenwriters is now available to download on VDVD. Visit the Extras page on the main GVP website to download it today!

2x07 a day late

So I read 2x08 2x07 last night for a final proof and really hated about ten pages of it. Given it's a 26 page script, that's not good. Rewrote a chunk last night, so it and 2x09 2x08, which is proofed and ready to go, will go up this evening after I get off worked.

Change in airing

Given I need a few days to edit this batch of Creed episodes on my computer and the fact that I'm up to episode 10 of this show writing wise, I'm just going to run these all week until I hit 2x12, which is where I wanted to be by this Friday and go to the 3-times-a-week airings next week.

I WILL FINISH BY THE END OF JULY IF IT KILLS ME!

New Episodes soon!

Yikes, I didn't realize how long it's been! The two month bout with pneumonia combined with a sudden increase of my workload at the real life job left precious little time for writing.

Having just finished up my second season of Connor over at MZP, I'm now able to focus on Desperate Screenwriters and my other GVP series, Creed.

I'm determined to finish both before the end of July, so I'm just going to air them as they come. I want ten in the can so I can post half of those and start airing the rest on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Stay tuned. No guarantees I'll stick to that schedule, but expect new eps within the next few days.

Remaining Schedule Pushed One Week

Recovering from a two week work trip that turned into a three week trip and a five week bout with pneumonia has wrecked hell on the DS airing schedule. Looking at the remaining dates, 2x06 is scheduled to air next Friday, the 27th and to be honest, I haven't even started the episode yet. Rather than force an erractic schedule for 14 more episodes, I'm going to push the rest of the season back one week to allow myself and my staff a little breathing room. So the rest of the schedule goes like this:

2x06: March 6th
2x07: March 13th
2x08: March 20th
2x09: March 27th
2x10: April 3rd
2x11: April 24th
2x12: May 1st
2x13: May 8th
2x14: May 15th
2x15: May 22nd
2x16: May 29th
2x17: June 12th
2x18: June 19th
2x19: June 26th
2x20: July 3rd
2x21: July 10th
2x22: July 17th

2x04 and 2x05 should be up in the next couple of days.

2x04 and 2x05 snafus

So, in the proofing process, I ran into a plotting gaffe with 2x04 that's holding things up. I got it worked out last night, so I should have that and 2x05 up in the next day or so. After that, we're back on schedule, starting with 2x06 next Friday, February 27th.

Slowly getting there...

Now that I'm finally back in town (albeit still sick), we're playing catch up with the show. Expect 2x04 tomorrow (or Friday, depending on editing) and 2x05 this weekend.

Sorry for the delays. My job, quite frankly, sucks.

Also gonna try my damnedest to get the s1 VDVD out this weekend.

Episode 2 Delay...

Hey all,

Should've posted this Friday, but it's been weird couple days. I'm currently in San Antonio, Texas (I live in Atlanta, Georgia) for work. I'm the Web, Media, & Design Manager for a restaurant concept I used to be a server at when I was still in school. Part of my job, since I've done every job in the restaurant (I've been a cook, server, bartender, kitchen manager, front of house manager, expeditor) is to be a member of the training team for new store openings. This means 14-18 hour days for two weeks straight.

Friday was travel day, followed by "get lost going to the store, then back to the hotel, then back to the store" day. My boss has the directional sense of... something... that's bad with directions.

Anyhoo, that's why 2x02 has been delayed. I've had zero time to do the final proof and air it. It'll be up in a few hours. Apologies to everyone for the delay.

To any Creed fans out there, it'll be up as scheduled tomorrow night.

"Remastered" Season One

In preparation for the release of the season one VDVD, we went back and did some actual proofing to season one. Anyone who has already read all fourteen episodes won't get anything new. We didn't delete, add, or change any scenes. Mostly, it was about removing the old BVC stuff and cleaning up the SPAG.

I was supposed to have my part of this done months ago (Amy Rees did half the season already), but lack of free time... etc. etc. real life sucks.

Anyway, season one's been updated with these fresh edits.

Keep an eye out for the season one VDVD, being released soon!

Season One Episodes Online

First, I'd like to apologize for the delay in getting the first season of DS up on the website.

See, the proofing in season one, quite frankly, didn't exist. And I say this as the guy who was responsible for a sizable chunk of it. We wanted to clean it all up for a release of the first season VDVD, but work on that has taken much longer than anticipated. I didn't want to start season two this Friday without having the first season available, so right now, we've got the originals up.

When all of the episodes (only 3 left now) have been what I'm calling "digitally remastered" and uploaded, another news item will be posted.

Don't miss the season premiere this Friday, January 9th.

Season Two Schedule

Here's the schedule for Season Two. Dates are subject to change, but we'll post about any delays as they happen.

2x01: January 9th
2x02: January 16th
2x03: January 23rd
2x04: January 30th
2x05: February 6th

::TWO WEEK HIATUS::

2x06: February 27th
2x07: March 6th
2x08: March 13th
2x09: March 20th
2x10: March 27th

::TWO WEEK HIATUS::

2x11: April 17th
2x12: April 24th
2x13: May 1st
2x14: May 8th
2x15: May 15th
2x16: May 22nd

::ONE WEEK HIATUS::

2x17: June 5th
2x18: June 12th
2x19: June 19th
2x20: June 26th
2x21: July 3rd
2x22: July 10th

Q&A w/Michael Jay

Thanks to reader Aaron Driscol for providing the questions.

1. What was your favorite aspect of the first season?

Probably the friendship between Mike & Paul. Of the core four, these are the most unlikely two to be as close as they were. They got less and less time together as the season wore on and Paul got involved with Rich and Mike's health continued to worsen and that sucked, but I always enjoyed writing those two together.

2. If you could only change one aspect of the first season, what would it be?

Wow, that's a loaded question. Probably how the Tony/Stacy thing ended. I don't think Tony's character ever really recovered from that and he sort of treaded water for the rest of the season.

3. Was there anything that you really liked about the first season that readers didn't respond to as positively as you hoped?


I was a little irritated that people didn't see Arc's posturing for just that, posturing. Admittedly, it was overdone in places, but everyone seemed to write it off as Arc being one dimensional instead of putting on a front because he had so much other shit going on that he was internalizing. His moonlighting as a stripper and the visit from his Dad shined a light on just how vunerable the character was and I think people responded to that well, but noone really caught onto that until we blatantly spelled it out.

4. Who is on staff for the second season?

Myself, Arcadio Reyes, Amy Rees, and Matthew Latham.

5. With Paul's departure, will his character be departing as well?

Unfortunately, yes. I'm not happy about it, but that's the way the chips fell. The whole process is a pretty interesting story. Paul and I were discussing what to do with the show after season one concluded because the idea of trying to run a second season in 2008 wasn't feasible due to our other commitments. So we talked about doing a movie to pass the time until we could both devote ourselves to the show for 2009. Then there was Paul's well publicized departure and that changed the movie into being a medium to wrap up Paul's story and write him out of the series.

The Blackster Virtual Community was gearing up for a return just after Paul left the show and we set a date both for the movie to air and for BVC's grand return. Then that return date that pushed back beyond the planned airing date of the movie. So I dropped the movie altogether and worked out a way to incorporate the plans for it into an extended run of episodes. So the first four planned episodes of season two, which I'm okay with saying will be Paul's swansong, were actually the plans for the movie. It wasn't too hard to split up.

And I've already worked out plans to bring the character back should the real Paul Robinson allow it. This is way down the line however, well after season two is completed.

6. Will anybody be filling the role that Paul (the character) vacated?

Well, before he left, Paul wanted Amy Rees to become a regular on the show because she'd contributed so much behind the scenes. So those plans haven't changed. We've altered bits of her character to fit some necessary changes in light of the Paul character's departure and I'm excited to see how well she fits into the dynamic of the show.

7. Tony got a new job at the end of last season, but (from what I can remember) we never got a chance to actually see him in the office. Tony's job provided a fair amount of story for him last season, can we expect the same thing from this job?

You'll see Tony's new job within the first ten pages of the season premiere. Paul wanted each character to be set on a new path when the first season ended and aside from Stacy and an underused Matt Latham rivalry, we didn't get much mileage out of Tony's job other than the shitty pay being fodder for a few jokes. Tony's entire arc for season two centers on his job. I think it'll be a fun story to tell.

8. Mike's drug storyline last season was built up so well, but (in my opinion at least) didn't really pay off as well as it could have. Will Mike's storyline this season have much to do with this angle or is he getting a fresh start?

Fresh start. In hindsight, that whole thing was a bad idea because there wasn't any humor to be had with it. I wanted to lighten MJ up and give him some fun things to do. Drug and stress related trauma aren't exactly laughing matters, so yeah, he's getting a fresh story to run with.

9. Has Arc made any progress on locating his father in between seasons?

He's hired an investigator. To be honest, and Arc himself mentions this in the audio commentary for the s1 VDVD, that was literally a spur of the moment idea because that episode didn't have much more of a story beyond 'Arc's father comes for a visit' so we had to figure out what to do with the story from there. It's not a major part of the season, but we will address it.

10. Last seasons plot about "Project X" seem to be pushed to the background for a lot of the season. Will that central idea be revisited?

The first four episodes of the season are completely centered on Project X. We all realize that cornerstone of the series was largely ignored for season one and that will be rectified this season.

11. How many episodes are you planning for the second season?

Twenty two. The earlier story about the movie provided the first four eps. Then after that, Arcadio and I had planned on running a series of short episodes between the movie and the season to bridge the gap and have a bit of random fun. Those shorts were expanded into full episodes to bring the number from the originally planned fourteen episodes to a full twenty two.

12. And just for my own personal knowledge, when's the premiere date for the season?

Friday, January 9th, 2009.