Joe M. O'Connell: My generation

Showing posts with label My generation. Show all posts

Friday, December 3, 2010

'Meet Jane' says howdy to Austin shoot

The good news to come out of the quick cancellation of Austin-shot My Generation? One of the producers took notice of the Capital City--and specifically the Capitol--as a great location. The result is the Lifetime series pilot for Meet Jane, a Washington D.C. set story (thus the allure of the Capitol) starring Molly Parker of Deadwood.

Here's the description of the show via Deadline.com: "centers on Jane Bilinski (Parker) whose stale life as an unhappily married mother of two daughters in the Washington, DC area is suddenly re-energized and empowered when the FBI enlists her to spy on her husband, a computer technician the government suspects is selling top-secret information to Russia."

The show is from Andi Bushell who was a co-executive producer on My Generation. Bushell wrote the Jane script and will executive produce the pilot.

The series looks to have some clout behind it. The other executive producer is Mark Pedowitz, former prez of ABC Studios.

For my potential extras out there, On Location Casting is handling those chores and is sending you to their Facebook page.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Unaired 'My Generation' episodes to show up on Web

Noah Hawley, the creator of Austin-shot My Generation finally announced the fate of the rest of the eight completed episodes of the short-lived ABC series--the Web. Here's his Tweet about it:

Off to the final sound mix on #MyGeneration. You'll be able to watch all eight episodes starting next week on iTunes, Hulu and ABC.com.

Friday, October 29, 2010

TV series (even the failures like 'Lone Star') bring bucks to Texas

Here's my latest SHOT IN TEXAS column from The Dallas Morning News with the scoop on television in Texas and its economic impact.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

'My Generation' adds to Texas TV jinx

Austin-shot My Generation became the second show of the new TV season to be canceled. The first was Dallas-shot Lone Star. Do we have a Texas TV jinx? At this point Dallas-shot and Texas-set The Good Guys and Chase survive, but neither is pulling in great numbers. It's more likely networks are too quick to pull the trigger and viewers rely on their DVRs and are thus less likely to latch onto a new show.

For my taste, Lone Star was a keeper, but I haven't yet been able to make it through an episode of dull, dull, dull My Generation.

While Dallas-shot Chase is looking like a survivor, The Good Guys (also shot in Big D) is in clear danger. Consider the week two ratings for My Generation: 3.9 million viewers and a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating (whatever that means). The Good Guys' in its second week on Fridays is way down from its summer numbers with 3.2 million, 0.7. Danger! Danger! Warning!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Extras for Austin-shot 'My Generation'

I get a lot of questions about how to become an extra on Austin-shot ABC series My Generation. The answer these days is almost always, go to Facebook. On Location Casting is handling extras chores for the series (and a lot of other shoots) with info there first. For instance, they've got a rush call for TODAY for 9-11-year-old extras. Yes, you're probably already too late!

Speaking of My Generation. Here's the cast: Michael Stahl-David as Steven Foster, Jaime King as Jacqueline Fox, Keir O'Donnell as Kenneth Finley, Kelli Garner as Dawn Barbuso, Mehcad Brooks as Rolly Marks, Daniella Alonso as Brenda Serrano, Julian Morris as Anders Holt, Sebastian Sozzi as The Falcon, Anne Son as Caroline Chung, and Elizabeth Kenner in a recurring role.

Friday, May 14, 2010

My latest SHOT IN TEXAS column

Most of this has been covered already in the blog, but here's my latest SHOT IN TEXAS column in the Dallas Morning News about three TV series shooting in Dallas, one in Austin and True Grit in Granger. Enjoy.

ABC picks up Austin-set show 'My Generation'

It was called Generation Y until some boomer got ahold of it and retitled it My Generation for the Who's song. The pilot was shot in Austin and it certainly appears the show will, too, since the story itself is set in Austin. This means the lovely Jaime King will be all over the place.

Quots from show creator Noah Hawley's Twitter account:

As you may have heard the show has been renamed "My Generation." off to celebrate. More soon.

Generation Y has officially been picked up to series by ABC. I am thrilled and humbled. Thanks to all who helped. Let's make TV history.

That makse four, count 'em, four major network television series soon to be shooting in Texas. The other three are all in Dallas.

What they're saying about EVACUATION PLAN

"Tales alternately gentle, dramatic, surrealistic, that collectively affirm the beauty of being alive, even as they acknowledge that all of us face the necessity of making our own 'evacuation plan.' "
-- Brad Buchholz, Austin American-Statesman

" The chapters about Matt and the short stories demonstrate O’Connell’s ability to develop sympathetic, true-to-life characters using intriguing details and compelling dialogue. The stories remind us of those times when a brief encounter with a stranger left us wondering about that person’s past. In Evacuation Plan, O’Connell satisfies that curiosity. "
-- The Texas Observer

"It was very hard for me to put this book down. It carries us through the deepest meaning in life and most painful, most hopeful memories for a wide range of fascinating characters. Based in a hospice, this book could have easily resorted to cheap sensationalism, or whacked us upside the head with stereotypic melodrama, but instead it was respectful, honest, and tender. The characters will stay with you - you may even recognize some of them within your own life. "
-- Award-winning author Carmen Tafolla

"An excellent, thought-provoking diversion from our own inevitable plummet toward the grave, and we highly recommend it to you, the living."
-- Wayne Alan Brenner, The Austin Chronicle

"O’Connell has drawn some colourful and believable characters. The material relating to the hospice and terminal care rings true, all the way to reconciliation and forgiving."
-- Dr. Roger Woodruff, International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care

"The tales are nicely written, and some are quite compelling; “The Male Nurse,” for one, is a dreamlike reverie."
-- Texas Monthly

“Evacuation Plan: A Novel From The Hospice by Joe M. O'Connell is nothing short of remarkable … a novel that walks hand-in-hand with death and yet, somehow, the reader finishes the book feeling inspired to live.”
– The Paisano

"A wonderful blend of lives ordinary but with sometimes extraordinary elements. We all share these stories of life in some way, despite moments of harshness or unforgiving pain. There is always a common thread of humanity and ultimately forgiveness to be found, even if it's in the last moment of life."
-- Elaine Williams, author of A Journey Well Taken

"Reading Evacuation Plan is akin to unwrapping a series of small perfectly-chosen presents. Both human and humane, The book resembles a modern Spoon River Anthology with its vivid, touching glimpses into the lives of those in and around a hospice."
-- Tim McCanlies, screenwriter The Iron Giant, writer/director Secondhand Lions

"In Evacuation Plan Joe O'Connell does for the process of dying what Sherwood Anderson did for middle America in Winesburg, Ohio--he shows us in brief flashes the aching beauty of the grotesque, and shows us how extraordinary small lives and quiet deaths can be."
--John Blair, Drue Heinz Literature Prize winning author of American Standard

"Here's a book so rich with stories of the living, so filled with people's bountiful problems, as well as incidents of wry forgiveness, one realizes over and over the circling forces of life's completeness. It's not a sad tale nor a needless feel-good account but a balanced, sometimes comic, affirmation of what is here and what we all know is waiting."
-- Carolyn Osborn, award-winning short story writer

"The broken, the hopeful, the frustrated, the clueless, and the forgiving touch one another with words, remembrances, and hands. Inevitably, readers will quietly wonder about their own evacuation plan."
-- Will's Texana Monthly

O'Connell's protagonist skillfully navigates under the guise of a writer seeking raw materials for his craft in the stories of the dying, but mines and refines instead the stuff we're all made of. In this finely crafted novel, we come away with much more than the astute observation that many of the best stories begin at the end. But, then again, that notion is also worth a lot.
--Jesse Sublett, cancer survivor, rocker and author of Never the Same Again

"Joe O'Connell's Evacuation Plan--this Decameron of the hospice--encompasses a paradox. Death comes for everyone, but death is the only human universal because everyone dies, and witnesses dying, with private, unspeakable shame. Yet there are a few minutes left to speak. As people die, they tell stories which spawn new stories, which remind us that death is agony, a violent struggle, but so is living."
-- Debra Monroe, Flannery O'Connor Award winning author of Newfangled and Shambles

Joe M. O'Connell