Ricky Manning
@froonium.bsky.social
TV (mostly sci-fi) writer/producer (Farscape, ST:TNG, &c.); consultant; instructor @ UCLA Extension & ifs filmschule köln. WGA+WGC. He/his. Avatar by Arne Ratermanis.
Superb. Let me know if Childe would like a bit for their very own (or a script, or questions answered, or whatevs)!
November 11, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Superb. Let me know if Childe would like a bit for their very own (or a script, or questions answered, or whatevs)!
Ah, I barely remember s4.
November 11, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Ah, I barely remember s4.
Well, this totally makes my day. Please pass along a Froonium-powered "Welcome and enjoy!"
November 11, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Well, this totally makes my day. Please pass along a Froonium-powered "Welcome and enjoy!"
Or, as (bowling alley owner) Lou said in the ep: "Okay, kids--get to work. And never forget-- when you're facing a seven-ten split, you still got a second ball."
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Or, as (bowling alley owner) Lou said in the ep: "Okay, kids--get to work. And never forget-- when you're facing a seven-ten split, you still got a second ball."
The moral of the story, I suppose, is "Yea, though the studio and/or the network will do their best to screw things up, don't let them suck the joy out of the process, even if it means seemingly endless rewrites."
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
The moral of the story, I suppose, is "Yea, though the studio and/or the network will do their best to screw things up, don't let them suck the joy out of the process, even if it means seemingly endless rewrites."
-- FOR Outstanding COSTUME DESIGN For A Series (1987)! A first nomination and award for the brilliant Nanrose Buchman, who would go on to nab 4 more noms (most recent: "Perry Mason" 2023) & 1 more award ("The Queen's Gambit" 2021).
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
-- FOR Outstanding COSTUME DESIGN For A Series (1987)! A first nomination and award for the brilliant Nanrose Buchman, who would go on to nab 4 more noms (most recent: "Perry Mason" 2023) & 1 more award ("The Queen's Gambit" 2021).
The cast, the costumers, the composers, the art department--everybody completely got into the spirit of the thing & it worked GREAT. (Special shoutout to Carrie Hamilton & Michael Cerveris, who had AMAZING chemistry!) And -- THE EPISODE WON AN EMMY --
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
The cast, the costumers, the composers, the art department--everybody completely got into the spirit of the thing & it worked GREAT. (Special shoutout to Carrie Hamilton & Michael Cerveris, who had AMAZING chemistry!) And -- THE EPISODE WON AN EMMY --
...even though NOW, for no apparent reason, our characters were firing off slangy 30s dialog & wearing 30s costumes! (& director Win Phelps made so sure to keep up an appropriately lightning-fast 1930s pace that the ep needed two added scenes + a song + a title sequence to fill its running time!)
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
...even though NOW, for no apparent reason, our characters were firing off slangy 30s dialog & wearing 30s costumes! (& director Win Phelps made so sure to keep up an appropriately lightning-fast 1930s pace that the ep needed two added scenes + a song + a title sequence to fill its running time!)
MGM decreed we couldn't do it. Much depression. Then Ira saved the script AGAIN with an idea: "Okay, lose the bookend scenes, put it all BACK into present day, change the character names BACK--but don't change anything else! Leave all the dialog alone." And we did! MGM had no problem with THAT...
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
MGM decreed we couldn't do it. Much depression. Then Ira saved the script AGAIN with an idea: "Okay, lose the bookend scenes, put it all BACK into present day, change the character names BACK--but don't change anything else! Leave all the dialog alone." And we did! MGM had no problem with THAT...
The new 1930s-set draft worked great & everybody loved it--well, everybody EXCEPT the MGM suits, who hated the idea of our cast playing different characters. "It'll confuse our audience" and "our audience doesn't like fantasy." (Fantasy on a series where everybody routinely burst into song & dance!)
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
The new 1930s-set draft worked great & everybody loved it--well, everybody EXCEPT the MGM suits, who hated the idea of our cast playing different characters. "It'll confuse our audience" and "our audience doesn't like fantasy." (Fantasy on a series where everybody routinely burst into song & dance!)
...why not SET the ep in the 1930s & tell the flashback story of the first play the School of the Arts ever put on, with our cast playing their predecessor characters? We loved the notion, changed all the character names, let the 30s dialog FLY, and added present-day bookend scenes so it made sense.
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
...why not SET the ep in the 1930s & tell the flashback story of the first play the School of the Arts ever put on, with our cast playing their predecessor characters? We loved the notion, changed all the character names, let the 30s dialog FLY, and added present-day bookend scenes so it made sense.
Our first draft script was positively received, but producer Ira Steven Behr thought it needed to go further; we'd tried to incorporate some sassy, breakneck, 1930s-ish dialog without going too overboard... and it just didn't sparkle as much as it could've. Ira had a dynamite idea...
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Our first draft script was positively received, but producer Ira Steven Behr thought it needed to go further; we'd tried to incorporate some sassy, breakneck, 1930s-ish dialog without going too overboard... and it just didn't sparkle as much as it could've. Ira had a dynamite idea...
It was the sixth and last season of FAME; Hans and I were invited in to pitch. One of our stories was a "42nd Street" homage; we almost didn't pitch it, because we figured they MUST've already done something like it already. But they hadn't, and they bought it! (And shot it!)
November 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
It was the sixth and last season of FAME; Hans and I were invited in to pitch. One of our stories was a "42nd Street" homage; we almost didn't pitch it, because we figured they MUST've already done something like it already. But they hadn't, and they bought it! (And shot it!)
"A salt-free meal"
November 7, 2025 at 12:18 AM
"A salt-free meal"
Watching or ficcing?
November 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Watching or ficcing?
Two words: Pet Tardis
November 6, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Two words: Pet Tardis
Not to quibble (okay, yeah, totally to quibble, sorry), but Pilot and Rygel are Creatures (from the Henson Creature Shop), not Muppets. Brian Henson would rap us on the knuckles with a yardstick if we ever referred to them as Muppets...
November 6, 2025 at 3:57 AM