BLOG
Heavily Penalized Stories Lacking the Flawed Alter Ego Shazam - The Fury of What Could have Been
Spoiler Warning for Shazam Fury of the Gods
Hey story fans, it’s your old pal the Writing Ref back with part two of “Stories Lacking the Flawed Alter Ego” series. This time, thanks to the opening weekend of Shazam: Fury of the Gods, we will be taking a hard look at the character, define what makes his alter ego special, and then go through how modern Hollywood writers earn penalty flags by getting the alter ego wrong. And oh man, do they get a lot wrong about Shazam.
Who is Shazam anyway? He looks pretty generic. Just some guy in a red super suit with a yellow lightning bolt on the front and a white cape. The look kind of gives the impression of a kid who put on his red pajamas one day, grabbed a white pillowcase, and then cut out a lightning bolt out of yellow construction paper. Bam! Superhero.
In actuality, Shazam was created in 1939 and first appeared in Whizz Comics #2 under the publication Fawcett Comics. Captain Marvel, as he was known, defended Fawcett city. Artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parke brought the new hero to the page as a direct competitor to Superman. The main difference between the two heroes lay in the fact Captain Marvel was a young boy named Billy Batson, granted his powers via magic by a wizard. We will not focus on why the name Captain Marvel entered a trademark dispute which resulted in the character being called Shazam, but rather focus on the alter ego, Billy to explain how writers of the Shazam character can often earn themselves a big penalty.
There have been many iterations of the Shazam Character in comics, cartoons, and even a television show starring Michael Gray from 1974 to 1976. But the most recent in the public conscious are the recent films Shazam from 2019 and Shazam: Fury of the Gods 2023. Both of these films unfortunately earn a penalty against the alter ego because this version of Shazam can be described as the 1988 movie “Big” starring Tom Hanks, except a Superhero movie. Or maybe it is more accurate to say “Big” took inspiration from Shazam. The 1988 Tom Hanks movie even had a poster inspired by the long time comic.
It is worth noting how comparing the Shazam films to Big misrepresents some key aspects. These films are also the story of a jaded orphan finding a family and they also push the boundaries of family fun with some seriously terrifying horror-inspired moments sprinkled in. However, the comparison works well for purposes of this blog.
There is nothing inherently wrong with making the superhero a powered up version of the teenage alter ego. It makes for an entertaining and emotionally engaging story. However, this hero to ego relationship cannot be sustained indefinitely. There are several reasons why.
The difference in critical and audience reception between the 2019 movie and its sequel Fury of the Gods will go down in history as a classic example of not what to do with your superhero alter ego—assuming Hollywood writers or executives ever realize the mistakes outlined below.
2. The Alter-Ego cannot be more competent or mature than the Hero.
In both films, Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel) is very down-to-earth and dealing with a lot of emotional trauma. Contrast this to Zachary Levi’s Shazam, who acts like a thirteen year old fanboy of superheroes. In the first film, this dynamic nearly works, because the audience believes the superhero persona sets Billy free of his trauma. It also works because his new best friend Freddie Freeman (Played by Jack Dylan Grazer) is the epidemy of a superhero fanboy. It is almost as if Shazam in the first film is actually the hero version of Freddy even more than Billy, but the audience suspends its disbelief because we feel like Billy wants to see the world through more optimistic eyes.
However, in the second film Billy is even more even keeled. Asher Angel is not in the film as Billy much, and we do not get to see if time has made him loosen up to be more like Shazam. Instead, Zachary Levi does most of the lifting and he still plays it the same as a thirteen year old. They even turn the lack of dynamic into a joke, remarking about how Shazam lacks the Wisdom of Solomon he is supposed to have. The joke is cleaver, but it highlights the essential problem in the ego to hero dynamic.
In otherwards, the Hero should always be the more mature, confident, and capable version of a dual-identity character. The best version of the alter ego.
1. The Alter-Ego must in some way aspire to be the hero he or she transforms into
This dynamic is often very subtle. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are actually the mask covering up the hero beneath. The ideal self of these two heroes already exists. Spiderman is the responsible version of Peter, but Spiderman is NOT just peter in a mask with powers. Peter parker is perhaps the most interesting and complex of the alter egos we will cover in this series. (We will get into more detail in a future entry). In contrast, Shazam is the most on-the-nose when it comes to this rule.
Billy Batson has always been the superhero fan boy in the comics, and he aspires to be just like them. In the second film, the writers actually get closest to this hero-worship than the first with how he dreams of going on a date with Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, it comes across of course as more about the sexual nature of the fantasy rather than the hero idealism it should have been. It is a shame he could not also admire Superman more as Billy does in most comic runs. The reasons Superman is suddenly absent (yet again) is a sore spot for DC fans, and worth its own essay.
As I pointed out earlier, throughout the two films they accidently give Freddy the correct alter ego for Shazam. Freddy should have awakened the fanboy in Billy more, not just in Shazam. Billy being a rejected orphan, rather than an actual orphan with his twin sister Mary, changes the simple dynamic and complicates the trauma Billy must overcome, but it was not insurmountable to achieve. The issue is the thread of the theme got lost for the second film and did not hit as hard.
Conclusions: There are many other penalties I could call on the second film in particular. Shazam: Fury of the Gods seemed doomed to fail, and most of the reasons seem to be because the studio was between a Rock and a Hard place.
But moving all that aside the Alter-Ego to Hero relationship is critical to get right. The first step any writer must realize is they cannot be the same person. The hero is either the mask or the ideal for the alter ego. In the absence of the hero, the alter ego can struggle to reach the ideal and either succeed or fail at this journey—but it must be attempted, and it cannot be abandoned.
This has been another Heavily Penalized, and I’ll see you all at the next entry. Would love comments and discussion, so please sign up for notifications and leave your thoughts!
How NOT to Write Your Superman - Forgetting the Meek Alter Ego
In the last ten years, we have had two supermen—three if you count Brandon Routh’s return to the role for the CW television event “Crisis on Infinite Earths. (The Flash Season 6, Episode 9). And I do count him because, although his appearance was short, he alone avoided the Alter Ego Holding penalty. To be fair, his Clark Kent in the 2006 film Superman Returns was meant to be a direct emulation of the Superman GOAT, Christopher Reeve. And by the time Routh reprised the roll as a nod to the Kingdom Come Superman, he had nailed the meek personality of Clark.
Incredibly, every other incarnation of Superman has done away with the key ingredient to Clark Kent—meekness. I could penalize every version, but this essay would become a novella. Tom Welling’s Clark on Smallville, and even the Dean Cain version of Superman in 1993’s Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, made Clark sexy and confident in dangerous situations. Don’t get me wrong, those Clark Kents still felt like a man who grew up in a small town, but they were still missing an essential bumbling clumsiness and naivete to Clark.
Even though there have been some incredible Superman stories over the years; the juxtaposition of the meek Clark Kent versus the ideal persona of Superman has been missing. The conflict of being a god versus being human has been done decently, but the meek version of Clark Kent goes beyond this theme. Writers have either forgotten its importance, or perhaps the thought is a meek Clark Kent won’t attract audiences.
To simplify this discussion, I am throwing the penalty flag on the last decade of Superman—played on the big screen by Henry Cavill and on the small screen by Tyler Hoechlin in Superman and Lois. They both are guilty of failing to capture the proper demeanor of the alter ego.
I would not be surprised if I get a lot of Red Challenge flags thrown my way on Tyler Hoechlin’s portrayal of Clark / Superman, and to be fair his show gets a high score on the Super-meter. The writers of the show clearly know what makes Superman unique, and sometimes Hoechlin’s Clark even seems out of his element. But the intrigue here is this particular Clark is in a different place in his life than we have ever seen him before. He’s learning to be a parent of teenagers. As a result, the human side of Superman is tested in ways we have never seen.
However, I would not call this Clark properly meek. If anything, when he isn’t struggling with being a father, he is even more confident as Clark than either Dean Cain or Tom Welling. And yet, I still find it hard to penalize the Superman and Lois show because most of the time Clark is around people who already know his secret. This means the main offender of the Alter Ego Holding Penalty is Henry Cavil and the Snyderverse Superman.
The Snyderverse Superman reigns from the 2013 film Man of Steel, to yes, even his ill-fated cameo at the end of the recent Black Adam film. And this Superman gets a lot right, especially if his story arc includes the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League. However, it also gets a lot wrong, and it has been discussed to death for a decade. I am very late to the party here. However, I don’t see a lot of discussion concerning the lack of meekness from Cavil’s Clark. Mostly the penalties of this Clark concern the decision to have him hide his powers from the world to such an extent he would let his father get killed by a tornado. The Man of Steel Clark is shown dealing with bullies, discovering some of his powers in a traumatic event, then using his powers to save a bus full of his peers, but the idea of wearing glasses to disguise himself as Clark Kent is sort of given to us only as a tongue-in cheek moment at the end of the film.
The extended cut of Batman v Superman shows us Clark with good investigative journalism skills, but he is also a confident Clark who stands up to his boss in front of his peers. Popular culture often jokes about how silly a pair of glasses seems as a disguise, but when Clark Kent acts as confident as Superman, the disguise becomes even more laughable. The glasses aren’t really the disguise. It’s the demeanor. Christopher Reeve showed us brilliantly in a single moment in Superman 2, and nobody else has ever come close to a performance showing audiences how important meekness is to the persona of Clark.
But the meekness isn’t merely important as a disguise. And, no, Bill’s speech about Superman in Kill Bill Part Two is not correct either. Clark is not how Superman sees humanity. Rather, it is how we see ourselves, and Kal El knows this about humanity. Deep down we all struggle with our imperfections. We are goofballs, weaklings, and unsure of ourselves. Confidence comes with practice, even for the most skilled extravert. We all face the struggle to be accepted. Clark Kent isn’t simply a mask. It is a declaration that Superman knows what we are going through, so that when he takes his God-like form and dons the red cape, we know he is someone to be trusted.
A friend.
And that’s why Snyder’s Clark Kent gets a big fat penalty flag for dismissing the alter ego as less important than the question of Superman’s humanity. Let us hope James Gunn’s Superman will restore the meekness to Clark. When audiences fill theaters to watch Superman: Legacy, we will likely meet his Clark Kent first. If that Clark has a bumbling slouch to him, then we will know we are probably in for a treat. But if the Clark is sexy and confident . . . it will be a red flag bigger than Superman’s cape.
Heavily Penalized – Stories Lacking the Flawed Alter Ego
Introduction
Hello Story-Fans. This blog series will cover a major penalty of modern story telling.
The Alter-Ego Holding Penalty.
In 1903, in a small theater in Nottingham, England a stage play opened which would launch a new mythology into the mind of popular culture. Set in the early stages of the French Revolution in 1792, the play is about a daring English swordsman who rescues individuals sentenced to death by the guillotine. This hero is a master of disguise, an imaginative planner, and a quick-thinking escape artist. With each rescue he taunts his enemies by leaving behind a card showing a small flower—a scarlet pimpernel. To hide his true identity, as the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sir Percy Blakeney presents himself in everyday life as a dim-witted, foppish playboy. Sound familiar?
That’s because Baroness Emma Orczy’s play (and later series of novels) would go on to inspire heroes like Zorro, The Shadow, Batman, Superman, and so many other heroes with an alter ego. These “Super Heroes” would not only capture the imagination of popular culture, they would time and again find ways to break or even reverse the patterns of classical mythology. Thus, this discussion assumes some knowledge of Joseph Campbell’s model of the hero’s journey as outlined his famous work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
It is important to disclaim; scholars agree the superhero has become in many ways our modern version of mythological figures. A few of them, like Marvel’s Thor, are even lifted directly from those ancient poems and legends. In Campbell’s model, the hero of myth could cross the threshold of the normal world into the supernatural world and would never return until the journey was complete. Marvel’s Captain America fits this mold nicely.
But Baroness Orczy added something special to myth. Now a potential “Hercules” could hide and live as a regular man. A Prometheus could escape his punishment from the Gods by disguising himself so no one would know where to find him. Plenty of Gods had disguised themselves as mortals before, but hardly ever to live two different lives for long. Usually it was either to manipulate some poor soul as a trickster, or to get busy with a mortal woman and then ghost her. (Looking at you, Zeus).
In this new mythology, the hero could cross the threshold into the supernatural and return to the normal world at will. Arguably, the best “Superhero” stories explore the consequences of breaking the Campbellian mold—the conflict created by attempting to find balance between the ego and the alter-ego. And many authors, from those seeking to debut to big budget million-dollar modern superhero movies, get this conflict terribly wrong. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at the right way and the wrong way to create a juxtaposition between the hero and his alter ego, and there is no one better to begin with than the last son of Krypton, Superman.
Week 3 – She-Ra and He-Man - The Naïve and the Lazy
Week 4 – Spiderman – The Jerk
Rolling the Dice in Storytelling
Some say writer’s block doesn’t exist—it’s a made-up phantom that authors use to get out of writing. Yet when our imaginary friends won’t speak to us, the frustration is real. Throw in imposter syndrome, where the story we are working on never feels good enough compared to the dream we first envisioned, and an author can easily stagnate on a page for days. The little black cursor where the next word should go blinks on repeat, taunting us with our lack of creativity.
May I suggest rolling the dice? The storyteller is but a mouthpiece for an entity with a life of its own. Every story has a destiny even before you put it to the page, so believe in that destiny.
Ask anyone who has ever been a Dungeon Master. When the fantasy role playing game Dungeons and Dragons hit the shelves in 1974, the tradition of the oral storyteller who used to lead campfire tales returned. In the game, Players create their own character and then role dice for everything from fighting legendary monsters to opening a door. Every role of a twenty-sided die can change the direction of a story completely.
I can imagine some of you readers saying to yourselves,
“But I am a planner and outliner. My storytelling doesn’t rely on dice rolling!”
Well don’t take my word for it, then. Take the example of voice actor and storyteller, Matthew Mercer. Matt made a career of voice acting the English versions of many Anime dubs, but in 2015 he began a podcast with a group of other voice actors called Critical Role. Little did they know how large their following would become, or that their gaming adventures would turn into a critically acclaimed animation series called Vox Machina.
Although Matt outlined and planned the course of his story, his friends would come up with some outlandish ideas. Fate always played a role, but never was it on display more when one of his players activate a trap in a dungeon. The trap killed the character of Vex, played by voice actress Laura Bailey. Here are a few alternating photos. Some from the group of gamers as Laura is told her character has died, and they are somewhat paired with the same moment playing out in the Amazon show.
As Dungeon Master (or king author) in control of the fate of his players, Matt Mercer now had to make a decision. One of the other players had the ability to pull off a resurrection spell, and he succeeded. Mr. Mercer could have let the resurrection happen and continued the story as if nothing had happened. He no doubt did not plan on killing off any of his characters/players. If this were a trilogy of novels, it would only be the second book, or act two of a very large story. However, as a storyteller, Matt understood a death must have consequence and meaning.
Liam O'Brien, who plays the elven rogue Vax and brother to Vex offered his life in exchange for his sister on a whim. Mercer took this offer and ran with it, crafting an entire story arc involving Vax becoming the champion of the Goddess of Death – the Raven Queen. It was a captivating tale the storyteller did not see coming, but it now captivates audiences, and they cannot wait for more. Make sure you check out Vox Machina on Amazon Prime for more twists of fate.
More than that, if you find yourself stuck in your story, maybe try rolling some dice and letting fate decide. Kill off a character unexpectedly. Have two lovers become mortal enemies. Have a hero fall to the dark side. Have a villain redeem herself. You don’t always have to make up all the rules. Not even we authors are masters of fate, not even over our own characters. We merely respond to the will of the story and build something beautiful from it.
How I Got My Agent
On January 3, 2022, I signed with a literary agent. Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary decided around two weeks prior to take a chance on my fun, high concept, but campy espionage novel. Yet even two days prior to signing, I still could not quite bring myself to believe it. We spent four hours on the phone on New Year’s Day discussing the near future and she reassured me this was no dream. After more than fifteen years of trying, my foot had finally managed to wedge itself past the threshold of the literary industry. How did this happen?
A little bit of luck, the will of God (or connected energies of the Universe if the reader prefers), and a lot of perseverance.
The story begins in 2003, when I started writing my first book. It took me three years to finish with my own editing and re-drafting, of what was still a monstrous, near 500-page behemoth. I didn’t know any better, as I had seen large science fiction novels on the shelves all the time. I learned I was supposed to find myself an agent to get published, so I queried off and on for two years. There were a few online articles and blogs on how to write a query, and it seemed easy enough. Two years later I allowed myself to become discouraged, and decided to self-publish.
Self-Publishing back then wasn’t like today, where it’s easy to throw a book up on amazon. This isn’t to take anything away from the glorious journey if the Indy author, but I was active-duty Air Force. I didn’t have the luxury to sell my brand properly, nor did I have the connections or the means. And so, I fell victim to the Template Agency, iUniverse. I paid around 4,000 dollars to have my book edited and published. One can still find Fortress Earth online. Beware the Template Agency. Whether you try to go the independent route or tough it out like I did to find an agent and get traditionally published, no one should go bankrupt trying to publish a book. I never truly comprehend my mistake until I attended my first writers conference.
At the Alaska Writers conference in Anchorage, Alaska, I learned the importance of word count for a first-time author in different genres. I learned the thought process an agent goes through on a query, and what they find cliché. I learned market trends, but more importantly, I learned how to hook, how to edit the first page, and how to write a log line. I would attend many conferences through the years as I wrote more books, and I got better at the face-to face pitch. I even got a few full requests from conferences, but none ever panned out.
Armed with new knowledge, I sat down in 2008 to write a new book about a CIA Agent infiltrating a game show called Prime Time Spies. When I completed it more than a year later and sent out the first round of queries, it got a handful of requests which all later came back as rejections. I continued to query through the years and wrote three more books. I learned the value of finding critique partners and joined a forum of tough-love authors who would not let the small mistakes pass. Several members of the group went on to be published, and one is now an agent herself. All but one of my books received periodic manuscript requests, and after months of hope each agent declined. Prime Time Spies fell out of date and was shelved, absent from my query list while I concentrated on science fiction and fantasy titles.
Cut to 2020 and I decide I need a new book to query while I tried my hand at a fantasy novel. I gave Prime Time Spies a complete overhaul, updating it from the technology of 2008 to something more modern. A network television show becomes a program to binge watch on a fictional streaming service, and the changes flowed from there. I send out a round of queries, to include Terrie Wolf. She rejected the project.
I am usually thorough at tracking my queries. I use a website called duotrope.com which is helpful in staying organized. Since 2017 I have sent 527 queries on four different projects. Somehow, I forgot I had already queried Terrie and did not double check my history. With some agents this will get you an immediate rejection or a no response, but in this case, timing was everything. Terrie responded in an email that she was “smitten” and wanted to schedule a phone call.
This is highly unorthodox, I thought to myself. She didn’t even make a request to see more of the manuscript. Instead, she explained on the call how she would like me to cut ten to fifteen thousand words and resubmit. At the time, Prime Time Spies sat at around 103,000 words. I knew it was a bit long, but there were many speculative elements to the story I thought would excuse a few more words for an adult project. Besides, the book had a history of at least getting full requests. I worked for four to six months to get the book into shape, the longer I took, the more I was certain Terrie would lose interest. At the start of 2021 she had a lot on her plate, and indeed it seemed I had taken too long, but when I resubmitted, I got a partial request.
Three months later, I was told to go ahead and send the full. The partial and full requests both came via phone conversation, where she revealed more and more about how she was trying to figure out where she could sell my unique premise. I was encouraged, but after so many let downs, I didn’t get my hopes up. But the call did come, and I remember being so breathless after I received the good news I almost fainted and had to lower myself to the ground. My wife, hearing the excitement in my voice, ended up on the floor next to me. The moment we had waited for was finally here.
So friends, there is a long journey ahead, and a lot of work to do. But I never lost faith. All it would take is for one person to believe in me, and now it feels as though the sky is the limit. It takes time to figure out our talents when we are young. It takes more time to decide which talents to pursue and make our bliss, but I believe where talent and perseverance collide, we find our destiny.
Top Ten Cancelled Reality Television Shows
In my premier project with the working title Prime Time Spies a fictional streaming giant called SuperFlix gives sixteen contestants the chance at winning big money by eliminating the competition in an espionage-themed stunt challenge show called Spy Games.
The show and its rules were inspired by reality television legends like Survivor, The Amazing Race, and The Mole. However, not every reality show is a hit, and some of them are quite controversial and sketchy. I admit I didn’t catch a single episode of some of these shows, and yet they all intrigue me. Here is a list of shows that didn’t last more than a season, and in my world Spy Games would far outshine.
10. Mr. Personality
First Aired by Fox in 2003
The start of the new millennium saw a lot of strange shows as we tried to redefine ourselves as a nation. Not many years before, Monica Lewinsky had been at the heart of a scandal, but here she was host to a Bachelor style television show where all the men wore masks the entire time. We should have heeded this warning on how the political world and the world of entertainment are not too far separated.
9. Proving Ground
First Aired by G4 in 2011
The first stunt show on the list, and the program most likely to have tried to pull off some of the best action sequences in Prime Time Spies, proving ground starred Ryan Dunn of Jackass fame and Jessica Chobot, the acclaimed video game journalist. The show used stunt technology and a group of experts to recreate moments from movies and games, but tragically Dunn passed away in a car accident. The show had filmed nine episodes, but could not continue. Perhaps a reboot would honor Dunn?
8. American Candidate
First aired on Showtime in 2004
Built to mirror the 2004 election, American Candidate pitted eleven amateur politicians against each other. They came from a diverse range of political backgrounds, to include Independents and Libertarians. The two contestants with the least online popular votes had a debate each week and then one was eliminated. Again the theme surfaces of how the line is blurred between entertainment and real life politics. The show only lasted one season, but I would venture to say in 2016 and 2020 it had the best ratings. Huge and very “bigly” ratings.
7. Stylista
First Aired on the CW in 2008
Pitched as the Devil Wears Prada meets reality television, this show took The Apprentice formula and applied it to the world of fashion. Produced by Tyra Banks and Hosted by Elle’s Fashion News Director at the time, Anne Slowey. The winner was awarded an entry level position at Elle and fashion prizes amounting to 100,000 dollars. Considering the popularity of Disney’s Cruella, maybe they should give it another try but this time involve a few dalmatians as mascots.
6. Anchorwoman
First Aired by Fox in 2007
After the success of the first Anchorman movie, maybe someone at Fox thought this would be a good idea. The simple premise is to take a model with zero qualifications in journalism and see if she can become a successful news anchor. The show was panned by critics and real journalists as being an insult to journalism. But could this have worked? I think it could have using The Apprentice model, where a group of people train with real intent to succeed, rather than make a mockery of a profession. America loves an underdog, and any show which takes the unqualified and has them learn on the fly is at the heart of Spy Games. Maybe they should have at least made her cover a hurricane to experience some real danger.
5. The Hasselhoffs
First Aired by A&E in 2010
There are a lot of sub genres in reality television. So many I don’t cover them all on this list. Cooking Game Shows, House Flipping Shows, and plenty of strange shows in between like Pawn Stars and Duck Dynasty. But I can’t skip over the “follow the celebrity family” type of show. Even back before we had “reality” television we had “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” The western audience loves to obsess over their celebrities. So why wasn’t “The Hoff” and his family as intriguing as say The Osbornes, or the Kardashians? My theory - they were a little too normal in comparison. For a Hollywood family, that’s saying a lot.
4. Farmer Wants A Wife
First aired on ITV in the UK in 2001, then on the CW in 2008
Bachelor style reality television shows are not my cup of tea, but they are a popular trope networks like to experiment with. If I had known about this show, I might have tried it out for a few episodes just to see women who have never lifted a shovel struggle to do farm work to impress a man. As much as we here in the United States boast about our farmers and even have dedicated farmer dating sites, it came as a surprise the British beat us to this premise. And then the Australians rolled with it in 2007. It was finally picked up by a Canadian network (The CW) which then broadcasted to US audiences. A hugely popular show in more than ten countries only got one season in the nation with a famed breadbasket. Guess our farmers would rather have a woman who knows how to work.
3. Capture
First Aired on The CW in 2013
Recently, Youtuber Mr. Beast managed to put on a live action version of Squid Game. He got more views for his version in a week than the actual show received in a month. In 2013, the craze of the day was Hunger Games (of which Squid Game was compared to in limited capacity.) A real life Battle Royal where teams compete for limited resources sounds rad, but Capture only got one season. Teams were eliminated for failing challenges and getting “captured”. Maybe if there were ways the contestants could directly fight and eliminate each other, the show would have had better ratings. There are plenty of ways to do this safely. Just sign the complicated waiver for any bodily injury.
2. Splash
First Aired on ABC in 2013
The success of Dancing With the Stars launched a series of copycat shows for celebrities to try their hand at different talents, to include ice skating. Splash was one of them, a high high diving competition for famous people. This premise may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but half the contestants got injured or had to withdraw for fear they would be hurt. The celebrities pictured were coached by Olympic high diving champion Greg Louganis, but in such an erratic and potentially dangerous sport, one needs years of training. It is worth repeating how I love the idea of teaching amateurs to take on interesting, difficult, or challenging professions, but this one probably should have been left dead in the water. Make the celebrities do The Floor is Lava instead.
1. Pirate Master
First Aired by CBS in 2007
This was the show to truly inspire the fictional television show of Spy Games and the story of Prime Time Spies. Most of us only saw half the season. Only by researching for this blog have I discovered the rest of the one and only season can be found online. What a grand premise developed by Mark Burnett of Survivor, Voice, and Shark Tank fame. This show was wrought with tragedy when one of the cast members committed suicide a week after being eliminated, and the cloud hanging over the show remained. In the end, the ratings didn’t justify the cost. Still, the idea of someone being elected leader of a crew and then cast aside if they fail is a premise which could work in a multitude of genres, and I would love to see another attempt at something like this.
New Website Look
This website is getting a makeover! I have some exciting news which will have an official announcement within the next few weeks. In the meantime, I encourage my followers to join my fantastic critique partner group. We’ll have to let the administrators know after you send me an email or @ me on Twitter (see contact or biography page). Right now is a great time to join, as we just kicked off our winter chapter-by chapter critique marathon last week. We each submit about 20 pages of our current work in progress a week, and give each other feedback. This group is responsible for improving my writing by a magnitude of at least a hundred. See you there! (Link Below)