"The other thing is that I shifted careers, so when I started doing standup… I was 40 when I started going on the road. Not that I didn’t go crazy during that time period. It was like, “Really? We can sit in the bar until 5?” But I was really spending all of that time learning another skill. I didn’t have time to fuck around. All of a sudden I was making a living. I was broke until I was 40. Really broke. I could get by, but I had nothing. No health insurance, so if something happened I was screwed. I was lucky my parents had money and my [...]
Before Joss Whedon convinced an absurdly large number of normal world citizens to see a movie about Norse gods, frozen past-men, and Robert Downey Jr.’s goatee, he was the nerd-worshipped creator of cult hits like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and (the author begrudgingly included) Dollhouse. Even before that, however, Whedon was a sitcom writer. At the tender of 24, he was a story editor and staff writer for Roseanne, securing the writing credit on five episodes in the second season: The Little Sister, House of Grown-ups, Brain-Dead Poets Society, Chicken Hearts, and Fathers and Daughters.
Staff writing on a television show typically isn’t a place for individual flair; [...]
Fresh off SNL, Jason Segel continues effortlessly riding the gale-force winds of The Muppets promotion by taking us through his past roles. He even reveals the true goals behind Judd Apatow's movie making career:
[Undeclared] was really good, and they canceled it the same way they'd canceled Freaks and Geeks, so that was the moment when Judd was like, "All right, watch this: I'm single-handedly going to make all these people movie stars. You think you're so smart, network? Watch what I'm about to do." And from that show being canceled, Judd went on a Count of Monte Cristo-style revenge mission to make every one of us famous. [...]
