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It's important to remember that the four lead characters of the popular sitcom "Seinfeld" — Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards) — are not good people. Most of the plots of "Seinfeld" episodes stem from their petty grievances, neurotic complaints, and unsophisticated discomforts. The central quartet were insensitive, callow, rude, self-indulgent, and weak-willed. They weren't ever presented as aspirational or even admirable. This spring from a mandate laid out by the series' co-creators Seinfeld and Larry David, namely: the show was to feature no hugs and no lessons. It was to be about nothing. This was to be a sitcom completely devoid of morals and sentimentality.

As such, it made perfect sense for the star characters to end the show in prison. In the two-part finale, called "The Finale", the four of them witness a man getting carjacked at gunpoint and choose to mock the victim's weight rather than help.

Veteran film and television lit agent Lee Stuart Cohen (aka “The Hammer” and “The Moose”) died peacefully at his home the morning of October 8 after a long illness. He was 78 years old.

Cohen began his career in the legendary William Morris Agency mailroom in the early 1970s. He went on to became a motion picture and television agent known for discovering new talent and for his loyal, joyful, passionate, and unwavering advocacy for his clients. After decades at Wma where he did stints running TV lit and motion picture lit, Cohen ended his career at Paradigm.

Over the years, Cohen represented such top writing talent as the team of Tom Gammill and Max Pross, known for their work on Seinfeld and The Simpsons, and Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah, who penned such features comedy hits as Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s The Man.

In addition...

Pixar will be breaking tradition in a big way with the release of its latest movie Onward. A new The Simpsons short will debut in front of the lastest from Disney/Pixar titled Playdate with Destiny. Historically speaking, Pixar movies have featured shorts from the acclaimed animation studio ahead of its theatrical releases. But a lot has changed at Disney in the past year or so, and the citizens of Springfield are shaking things up.

Disney purchased most of 21st Century Fox's media assets for $71.3 billion in a landmark deal that effectively reshaped the media landscape. With that, Disney was put in control of The Simpsons. Seemingly to create some synergy between two of its biggest brands, this short will be released alongside Onward next month. Taking to Twitter, the short was announced with a first look photo featuring Maggie Simpson and a new character named Hudson.

"Maggie Simpson is speechless.

  When I was 22 I was trying to be something in show business.  I hadn't really narrowed it down.  An actor, a writer, an agent, a coke dealer -- all viable occupations in 1986. I was in what seemed like my 80th semester of UCLA, and still floundering when I got the chance, through a family friend, to work as an "apprentice writer" on It's Garry Shandling's Show.  I had never heard of that job, but it was better than trying to spend hours trying to find a parking spot at UCLA so I jumped at the chance.  It was a new sitcom on Showtime, a place that didn't really make sitcoms or shows.  Well, when I showed up for work in my suit, I was told to get the producer a bagel and cream cheese. I realized immediately there was no apprentice writer job. I was a runner, a production assistant.

Netflix's critical hit "Orange Is the New Black" picked up four nominations for the 2014 Writers Guild Awards -- where it's entered as a comedy series.

The show (and its cast) is entered in the drama field for some other upcoming awards shows, including the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. It's a bit of a tweener show, mixing both comedy and drama, but as there are no "dramedy" awards anywhere, it's a comedy for writing purposes.

Other multiple nominees for the WGA Awards include "Breaking Bad," "Modern Family," "30 Rock," "Masters of Sex," "The Simpsons" and another Netflix series, "House of Cards."

The full list of series nominees is below. You can go here to see all the WGA TV and radio nominees, including those for news and children's programming. The awards are scheduled for Feb. 1.

Drama series

"Breaking Bad"

"The Good Wife"

"Homeland"

"House of Cards"

"Mad Men...

Nominations for the 2014 Writers Guild Awards were announced Thursday, and AMC’s Breaking Bad and Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black (which entered as a comedy) led with four nods apiece.

Netflix’s other freshman entry, House of Cards, also fared well with three nominations, tying Modern Family, Futurama and The Simpsons.

Scroll down for the nominations list…

Related | Awards Shock: Orange is the New Black to Enter Emmy, Golden Globe Races as a Drama Series

Drama Series

Breaking Bad

The Good Wife

Homeland

House of Cards

Mad Men

Comedy Series

30 Rock

Modern Family

Parks and Recreation

Orange Is the New Black...

Teaming up with Saturday Night Live's Alan Zweibel, Shandling ‘put on a fourth grade play’ every week for four seasons. With a crew of talented young writers including Tom Gammill. Max Pross, Al Jean, Michael Reiss and David Mirkin, who would go onto to Seinfield and The Simpsons and Ed Solomon who wrote Men In Black, television history was made. Over the years, guest stars (playing themselves) included Tom Petty, Rob Reiner, Vanna White, Red Buttons, Dan Akroyd, Martin Mull, Gilda Radner ( in her last TV performance), Carl Reiner, Chevy Chase, Jeff Goldblum, Don Cornelius, The Turtles and many more. From its unforgettable theme song to its closing credits, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show was award winning, mind bending television for four seasons and its influence is clearly seen in the best TV comedies through the decades to follow. Enjoy all 16 episodes from the first of four seasons...

Gary Shandling: 2 for 2. Two TV shows, two masterpieces. But where more people are familiar with his later Larry Sanders Show, It’s Gary Shandling’s Show has not received the same posthumous praise or attention, partly because it was a Showtime show in the mid to late 80’s, and then began playing on the just-starting Fox network. The show aired for four seasons, and then was out. And to be fair, it ran out of steam, but when it was on, it was one of the most dazzling formalist TV shows to ever air. My review after the jump.

The premise is that Gary Shandling plays himself, and has a platonic female best friend in Nancy (Molly Cheek) and a married best friend in Pete Schumacher (Michael Tucci). Pete’s wife Jackie (Bernadette Birket) eventually gives birth to a second child, who gets named by the audience, and they have...

Gary Shandling: 2 for 2. Two TV shows, two masterpieces. But where more people are familiar with his later Larry Sanders Show, It’s Gary Shandling’s Show has not received the same posthumous praise or attention, partly because it was a Showtime show in the mid to late 80’s, and then began playing on the just-starting Fox network. The show aired for four seasons, and then was out. And to be fair, it ran out of steam, but when it was on, it was one of the most dazzling formalist TV shows to ever air. My review after the jump.

The premise is that Gary Shandling plays himself, and has a platonic female best friend in Nancy (Molly Cheek) and a married best friend in Pete Schumacher (Michael Tucci). Pete’s wife Jackie (Bernadette Birket) eventually gives birth to a second child, who gets named by the audience, and they have...

Chicago – A lot of classic TV comedies are often pointed to as being “ahead of their time”. The quirky, weird, and memorable “It’s Garry Shandling Show” wasn’t really ahead of its time because there’s nothing quite like it on the air. The groundbreaking cult classic is now available in a gorgeous 16-disc set from Shout Factory and it’s just what Shandling fans deserve.

DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0

Between his stint as the heir apparent to Johnny Carson (Shandling guest hosted “The Tonight Show” an incredible number of times) and the pioneering television he would do on one of the best sitcoms of all time, “The Larry Sanders Show,” there was “It’s Garry Shandling Show,” which ran for 72 episodes from 1986 to 1990. The program was the first ever broadcast on Showtime and would later be rerun and more widely seen on Fox.

Showtime had given Shandling and his co-writer...

With The Simpsons 12th Season arriving in-stores on DVD today, Fox sent Starlog a trio of clips from the new box set.

See the clips below the jump, along with the full specs on this massive Mint Condition set that is Comic Shop Guy Approved!

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie return for more outrageous adventures when “The Simpsons” The Complete Twelfth Season arrives on DVD August 18th from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. The longest running animated series in television history, the latest DVD collection features all 21 classic episodes from the 2000-01 season including Bart’s boy band odyssey in “New Kids on the Blecch” featuring pop sensations N’Sync and a hilarious less-than-ordinary day for Homer, Bart and Lisa in “Trilogy of Error.” The season also boasts an impressive line-up of talented guest stars including Drew Barrymore, Edward Norton, Justin Timberlake, Stephen King, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Roger Daltry and many more.

Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Garry Shandling, has announced the start of DVD production on a spectacular new complete series collector's set of Shandling's groundbreaking first TV series It's Garry Shandling's Show. For years, fans and critics alike have been anxiously waiting for the DVD release of the show, which has never been available on home video. It's Garry Shandling's Show: The Complete Series DVD box set is set to debut for the first time on DVD and digital distribution this October 20, 2009.

The DVD box set will be comprised of 16-DVDs, featuring the complete 72 episodes from the entire four seasons, a payload of bonus content and much more - all collected in a lavish package. Garry Shandling and Shout! Factory are currently developing a wide range of in-depth bonus content, including extensive featurettes, commentaries, outtakes and much more!

Before the Internet and reality TV, no one saw the true...

"The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "Doubt," "Frost/Nixon," and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are among the nominees in the Adapted Screenplay category for the WGA's (Writers Guild Awards) 61st Anniversary awards show.

Winners will be announced February 7th, and will be held simultaneously between two ceremonies -- West Coast at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, and the East Coast at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.

What about "Milk" or "The Wrestler?" Click Read More to see full list of nominees!

Original Screenplay

Burn After Reading, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Focus Features

Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black, Focus Features

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Written by Woody Allen, The Weinstein Company

The Visitor, Written by Tom McCarthy, Overture Films

The Wrestler, Written by Robert Siegel, Fox Searchlight Pictures

Adapted Screenplay

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Screenplay...

GoComics.com as added The Doozies, a new strip from Tom Gammill. Dean Doozie will be the focal point, a “lovable boob” married to Dana and father to Eve. The new strip will update three times a week and is now live.

"What I meant to say was I'm a lovable boob," the Emmy Award-winning TV writer/producer said in a release. "Dean Doozie is a dynamic new character and a welcome addition to any comics page. He'll be tackling hard-hitting topics like the importance of flossing."

Additionally, Gammill and writing partner Max Pross will produce Learn to Draw videos. "When I was a kid I bought a lot of "How To Draw" books by famous cartoonists who nobody had ever heard of, and weren't very good artists," Gammill says. "I'm proud to be following in that tradition."

Gammill has written episodes of Seinfeld, The Critic, and The Wonder Years,...

Machinima.com, flush with cash after recently raising $3.85 million in capital, has announced the Machinima Comedy Lab, where the site is bringing on fifteen traditional TV writers, each to develop a comedy web series pilots. The series will be greenlit for up to four episodes each before they decide whether to further produce the series. Amongst the list veteran writers selected are Writers Guild of America West president Patric M. Verrone, Family Guy scribe Mike Rowe and a number of former staffers on The Simpsons. The full list: * Chris Cluess: Mad TV, The Simpsons, Cheers * Bill Freiberger: Drawn Together, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The Simpsons * Eric Horsted: Boondocks, Knights of Prosperity, Futurama * Ken Keeler: Futurama, The Simpsons, Wings * Stacie Lipp: King of Queens, Roseanne, Married With Children * Christina Lynch: Wildfire, The Dead Zone, Unhappily Ever After * Peggy Nicoll: WordGirl, Daria * Bill Oakley: Mission Hill,...

Genre vets Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone), Drew Goddard, Brian K. Vaughan (Lost), Marti Noxon, Zack Whedon, and Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) have been nominated by their peers. The Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East announced their nominees for outstanding achievement in television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2008 season to be honored at the upcoming 2009 Writers Guild Awards on February 7, 2009, in Los Angeles and New York.

Television Nominees

Dramatic Series

Dexter, Written by Scott Buck, Daniel Cerone, Charles H. Eglee, Adam E. Fiero, Lauren Gussis, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, Tim Schlattmann; Showtime

Friday Night Lights, Written by Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Brent Fletcher, Jason Gavin, Carter Harris, Elizabeth Heldens, David Hudgins, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, John Zinman; NBC

Lost, Written by Carlton Cuse, Drew Goddard, Adam Horowitz, Christina M. Kim, Edward Kitsis, Damon L.

Bob Hoskins is becoming a god. The British actor will play Odin, king of the Norse gods, in New Line Cinema's Son of the Mask. Mask carries on with the premise of a character-altering mask that was established in the 1994 hit starring Jim Carrey. This time around, it follows an aspiring cartoonist (Jamie Kennedy) who is not ready for fatherhood but finds himself raising a baby endowed with the powers of the mask of Loki, the god of mischief. Loki is played by Alan Cumming. Currently shooting, Mask is being directed by Larry Guterman from a script by Lance Khazei, Rob McKittrick and the team of Tom Gammill and Max Pross. The production is being overseen at New Line by production execs Kent Alterman, Michelle Weiss and Janis Chaskin. Hoskins, whose career spans three decades, is probably best known for playing Eddie Valiant in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit? His other credits include Brazil, Super Mario Bros., Maid in Manhattan and the upcoming Vanity Fair and Stay. He is finishing shooting Beyond the Sea. He is repped by CAA.

Traylor Howard, who last appeared on the big screen in the comedy Me, Myself & Irene, has landed the female lead role opposite Jamie Kennedy in the New Line Cinema comedy Son of the Mask. Howard will play Kennedy's wife in the film, which carries on with the premise of a character-altering mask that was established in the 1994 hit starring Jim Carrey. This time around, it follows an aspiring cartoonist (Kennedy) who is not ready for fatherhood but finds himself raising a baby endowed with the powers of the mask of Loki. Scheduled for a summer production start, Mask is being directed by Larry Guterman from a script by Lance Khazei, Rob McKittrick and the team of Tom Gammill and Max Pross. The production is being overseen at New Line by production execs Kent Alterman, Michelle Weiss and Janis Chaskin. Howard most recently appeared in the CBS comedy Bram & Alice. In addition to Irene, she has appeared on the big screen in the comedy Dirty Work. She is repped by UTA and manager John Carrabino.