My Journal #2

TV Show Revived

What show from your childhood would you love to bring back?

When you've lived as long as I have and seen many great TV series, its hard to pick one.  I gave this a lot of thought. Many TV shows can be watched on the RETRO TV station. I haven't seen this one and it was one of my favorites, even though it scared me most of the time. 
FRIDAY THE 13TH SERIES This TV show was the best! It had great writers and fantastic story lines. Each week they would hear about some crime or some odd event they would check out. It always turned out to be from some cursed item stolen from the shop. The three would have to find it and remove it before it did more damage or killed again.
There was a tea cup with the handle fashioned like a vine. The vine would kill the person who drank from the cup. Now that is the pitch. Its who had the cup in their possession and why they wanted the person dead in the first place that was the story.  There was a "Chuckie type doll, a jack-in-the-box that lets a girl see her dead father for a short time, an antique pen a father uses to test his children to see who is worthy of his fortune and many more. 
Here is the link to the episodes. Many would make great plot starters. I know I've used a few and made up different stories based on the article or the storyline.  http://www.tv.com/shows/friday-the-13th-the-series/episodes/ 

I would like to add a HBO series that started out with a great plot line, had fantastic characters and creative writers that kept me hooked.  The casting in this series was flawless.  As weird and twisted as this storyline was, as a writer I couldn't stop watching.  It premiered 9/14/2003.
I am fascinated by plots and characters that twist, intertwine and have back stories that aren't boring.  Carnivale is a series that has the ability to drag you into a freak show and keep you there.  After the second season the writer went off the deep end, in my opinion. Maybe he get a little crazy and tried to push the envelop too far. I read a lot about the writer and his ideas for this show. I felt he pushed it too far. His personal beliefs and concepts crushed this series.  It had to end, because he wrote it with the end in sight. To continue would have stepped into the bizarre. He'd already crossed the line.
I know we have watched many distorted movies and series that portray the fight of good against evil, but there are some lines that even though its HBO should not be crossed. When the writer began to touch on the unbelievable and bizarre, he lost his audience. 
I suggest you put your writer's cap on and watch this series from that point of view. You will be amazed at his creativity with the characters and their story and the plot line. Get a pen and pad out and write down what you think about each character. I know there were times I would have written it differently.  This is a must see for anyone who had trouble with characters or wants to see how to write paranormal with a twist. I would have loved to read this as a book with more detail. Having the actors in mind when I read it would make this book a hit!

Here are a few links to check it out  http://hbowatch.com/a-look-back-at-carnivale/
Here is a link I found interesting as Daniel talks about Characters. His concept is spot on. You will be inspired by the story of his father and how he wrote his characters. http://www.avclub.com/article/daniel-knauf-tells-us-his-plan-for-the-end-of-icar...