Chad sold a spec
Yesterday’s post was the first mention of New Assistant Matt, which naturally begs provokes the question: What happened to Chad?
Well, by the headline, you can probably guess he sold a spec. Written by Chad and his wife Dara Resnik Creasey, B.F.F. is a high school romantic comedy, roughly Hughesian in nature. Rogue bought it, with assurances of a R-rating. Many congratulations to them on the sale, and for not messing up my master plan of ruling Hollywood with my pack of former assistants.
While the spec sale is great, that’s not why he left.
Eight weeks ago, Chad and Dara got a call to meet with Aaron Sorkin, and four hours later, they were staffed on Studio 60. That’s how Hollywood works. New Assistant Matt came to me through the Stark program at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, which cranks out 25 vastly overqualified people each year.
I’d previously mentioned that Chad and Dara had a movie in production. That’s still going, plus another movie they’ve signed on to write. It’s going to be a busy year.
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April 17th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
For Chad and Dara’s sake, I hope Studio 60 stays on the air, although it seems unlikely. Still, congrats to the pair — that is certainly exciting news.
April 17th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
They were still staffing Studio 60 eight weeks ago? Does that mean the show might return and be picked up for another season? Or should Chad & Dara just enjoy the experience while it lasts?
April 17th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Chad and Dara were brought on for the remainder of the season — 6 or 8 episodes, I don’t recall. Whatever the fate of Studio 60, they apparently had a good experience on the show.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:03 am
I read about this on Variety yesterday, didn’t put two and two together. How many screenwriters can there be called Chad?
April 18th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Nice one, please send them congratulations from your fellow readers! They´re a pretty young bunch (born ´79 and ´80) for selling a spec and being in business big time like that, so I guess they´ll inspire quite a lot people here.
Cheers!
April 18th, 2007 at 2:01 am
The pressure is on Matt. Good luck!
April 18th, 2007 at 8:59 am
This is a bit of tangent, but what happened to your revised answers to Walter Scott’s Personality Parade? Have you forsaken Parade magazine? How/Why are you letting these valid questions go to waste? Recently, Lee Martin of El Segundo, California wrote in with this: “Reese Witherspoon looked fabulous at the Oscars. What’s her beauty secret?” So John- what is her beauty secret?
April 18th, 2007 at 11:43 am
You must be an easy boss to work for given your charges ability (read: time) to complete sellable specs.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Much as I love this site, please don’t resurect the Personality Parade.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
That is fantastic for them. Congrats.
Of course, my immediate thought was whether they’ll work for long on Studio 60. I hope it gets renewed, for their sake but also for the sake of proponents of good television everywhere. It seems unlikely, though. Still, I’m glad to hear they had a good experience and are making some headway.
And, of course, that John is one step closer to ruling Hollywood with an iron fist. Soon every child in the city will be writing papers in Courier instead of Times New Roman. Gooooood.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Hi people. Regarding Studio 60 we still don’t know, but are so happy to hear that people are watching. We’ve wrapped for the season. In theory the final episodes will air in late May or June (that’s the rumor but we don’t know for sure) at 10 pm on Thursdays once ER finishes its season. Thanks for all the good wishes. We got in Variety, but making John August’s blog has been the highlight of our week.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I’d like to be the first to dub them Chara, much to my own chagrin.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Congrats Dara and Chad. So tell us, what does an assistant for Mr. August do on a regular basis? Shred incriminating evidence? Write his blog entries for him? Straighten used brass brads for reuse? Just curious.
April 19th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Congrats Chad and Dara. If possible, I’d love to hear a bit more about the events leading up to your invitation to meet with Sorkin.
ZAK
April 20th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Yes, I too would be interested in hearing about that, and about your experience on the staff, if possible.
It really is a very good show. Its poor reception is yet another example of the rigours of TV production- you just never know when something good is going to find an audience so it can stay on the air. So many good shows struggle in the poorly constructed ratings system (Arrested Development, anyone?). If I wore a hat, it would be off to you for braving the land of good but unappreciated television.
April 20th, 2007 at 9:48 am
OK John August.
This is strike 2. (Strike 1 was in the Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Press Junket post).
“which naturally begs the question: What happened to Chad?”
“Begs the question” doesn’t mean “raises the question” or “poses the question.” And don’t give me that “well, it’s such common usage nowadays, it might as well be correct.” Don’t. I won’t have it.
I busted you before, John August, and I’ll bust you again. And I’ll keep busting you, until the world is again safe for the rhetorical fallacy known as “begging the question.”
Good day, sir.
I said GOOD DAY SIR!
April 21st, 2007 at 8:04 am
To answer your question about how we ended up working for Mr. Sorkin, it was a fortuitous set of circumstances. Chad once interned for Mark Goffman, who ran the writer’s room at Studio 60 for most of this year (when Chad interned for him he was coming off a sitcom called “Daddio.”) Studio 60 lost a writer mid-season and Mark called Chad to ask if we were available to start work ASAP. We interviewed with Aaron, which was awesome, and got the job extremely quickly. Since Mr. August is a saint, he let Chad go immediately, and hired Matt to take his place. I guess the moral of the story is that staying friends with former supervisors and employers is key out here. We owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to Mark Goffman and John August for being two of the most supportive employers and mentors anyone could ever ask for. As for the S60 ratings, they really aren’t bad (they’re actually exactly the same as 30Rock!), they just aren’t West Wing numbers. So fingers crossed on getting renewed, but either way, the experience was priceless and unforgettable.
April 21st, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Craig Ugoretz is right, and the inappropriate use of “beg the question” is not a harmless error. Because most people don’t actually understand what it means to “beg the question,” the incorrect usage (= “raise the question”) now predominates over the correct usage (= “to assert as a conclusion something that is assumed in a premise”). Moreover, there is no commonly understood substitute phrase that adequately captures the correct meaning of the phrase, except possibly “circular reasoning,” which is significantly more vague.
April 22nd, 2007 at 11:43 am
Craig (#16):
You’re being obnoxious.
You are right, though. “Raises” or “poses” would work, though “provokes” or “demands” would be better substitutes.
With a different construction, “begs the question” could have worked, pointing out the overlapping premise and conclusion of there being a new assistant. But that would have meant further burying the lead.