Halfway Home
Yes, that’s Oscar-winning Octavia Spencer. In retrospect, I’m sorry I convinced her to put snails on her face.
TV Nation: The Oppressed White Male
I’ve worked with Michael Moore on many projects — why single out this small, unassuming piece? I guess because having the inspiration to turn a bunch of interview footage nobody knew what to do with into a nature mockumentary was one of those exciting moments that makes being a writer worthwhile. And I enjoyed channeling my inner “Masterpiece Theater” host for the voice-over. Also, the piece is even more relevant now than it was two decades ago.
Strangers with Candy: Captain Stack
When writing and producing became more reliable sources of income than acting, most of my parts came from the shows I was writing/producing on.
Fahrenheit 911: The Coalition of the Willing
I was brought in to work on “Fahrenheit 911” with editor Kurt Engfer while Michael Moore was shooting elsewhere. The movie changed substantially after my tenure, but this is one small piece that survived intact (as did Kurt’s scratch VO).
Don’t Just Sit There
Here’s a small sampling of the roles I played on the Nickelodeon show “Don’t Just Sit There” from 1989-91. I began as an actor in bars, performing sketch comedy for people more interested in drinking and eating. This partly explains a style that could be charitably described as “attention-getting” and less charitably as “scenery chewing.” It only took two decades to tone this down (an ongoing process).
Warning: Parental Advisory
For years I was trying to write a comedy that explored the true motivations behind political power (see the play “Death in a Landslide” in Writing for Pages for another example). This is the VH1 version of that: The story of how the PMRC tried to censor music in the mid-80’s. Starring Griffin Dunne as Frank Zappa, Dee Snider as himself, and Jason Priestly as a lobbyist (for more on Jason, see the cover story I wrote on Beverly Hills 90210 in Writing for Pages).
Cartoon in Blake Shelton’s Christmas Special
This gleefully subversive cartoon was cut from the special after its first showing, but was included in the script that won all the show’s writers WGA Awards. Blake and Larry the Cable Guy go deer hunting and accidentally shoot Rudolph.
Escape from “It’s a Wonderful Life”
My idea was to recut the holiday classic as a kind of Truman Show, in which George Bailey is trying to get out of doing the movie again. The Upright Citizens Brigade (their first TV gig) was hired to help me write it and do the voices. (I’m George.)