Bob Goodman and Drew Greenberg join David Simkins in this edition to discuss writing for Deep Space Nine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, Dexter, Batman Beyond, The Zeta Project, Warners Bros. Animation (to name a few endeavors). Oh, and we’re currently writing for SyFy’s Warehouse 13 (shameless plug: catch the premiere on July 7th, 2009 on SyFy).

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Jennifer Yale is off to a fast start. Her first job in Hollywood was working for Mel Brooks helping to shape the filmed remake of The Producers and the musical of Young Frankenstein. Along the way she’s won an Emmy, pitched pilots, written screenplays, been on the team for the TV shows Day Break and Dexter and broken new ground on webisode stories for CBS’s Harper’s Island. Oh, and she almost died at 16. After that, the rest is easy. Listen in. It’s a good one.

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Let Del Reisman take you back to the Golden Age of Television. When he was a kid hanging out on the Universal backlot, or later in the midst of 35 missions as a bombardier flying over Germany during WWII, Del had no idea he’d wind up smack in the middle of one of the most creatively fervent periods in the history of American Broadcasting. When TV drama was in its infancy and young men like John Frankenheimer, Franklin Schaffner and Paddy Chayefsky were telling the country all about itself with live television productions, Del was there. He was also there with Rod Serling when a little CBS show called The Twilight Zone hit the airwaves and changed television forever. Listen in.

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Trey Callaway sits down with David to talk about creating a sci fi series for UPN, working with Tim Burton and the Rubik’s Cube of writing and producing for CSI: New York.

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Lee Goldberg’s resumé reads like a TV what’s-what for the last twenty years. His television creations are legion not only in the U.S. but he’s dabbled a bit in Europe as well. And if that’s not enough, he’s also a published novelist. Next up: splitting the atom. Listen in.

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Joe Dougherty is a playwright, novelist, director and Emmy Award winning writer for television. Currently penning plots and dialog for Holly Hunter on SAVING GRACE, he took some time out from his big deal successful writing career to talk with us pikers. Listen in and get your Joe on.

Joe Dougherty links: corporate HQ, original fiction, radio drama, his novel, another novel and radio scripts.

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Barbara Nance (X-Files, Blade, Army Wives) and Dan Truly (Blade, Law and Order: SVU) have been slogging it out in the TV-Writer trenches for years. In this week’s discussion they unload a lot of personal history, insights and advice for anyone interested in the current state of dramatic television.

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Saul Rubinek chats it up with David Simkins on the set of WAREHOUSE 13, a pilot for the Sci Fi Channel shooting in Toronto during June, 2008.

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PS: The episode of Ray Bradbury Theater we discussed is “Gotcha”.

Neil Johnson is the writer, producer, director behind a slew of homegrown science fiction films and countless rock videos. Determined to make films his own way he found himself in unlikely company when his tradition-breaking foray into digital moviemaking attracted the attention of George Lucas. George, just about to break ground on THE PHANTOM MENACE, had a few questions about how (digital) movies get made. You can check out Neil’s site here.

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Daniel Myrick, co-director of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and Jackson Douglas, one of the stars and directors of the hit tv series THE GILMORE GIRLS, are the guests this week on The Zicree Simkins Podcast. Join us in the airlock for a discussion about the art of starting with nothing to create something phenomenal. Check out THE OBJECTIVE online at objectivemovie.com.

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Boomers will be familiar with the late Ross Martin as the actor who, in the mid-1960s, played Artemus Gordon on tv’s THE WILD WILD WEST. But before that Ross acted in THE TWILIGHT ZONE. In 1978 Marc Zicree was 22 years old and just beginning the research that would lead him to write the book on Serling’s masterpiece, The Twilight Zone Companion. Marc conducted this interview (©2008 Marc Scott Zicree) with Ross Martin 30 years ago. It takes you backstage into the 1960s world of the working actor, and into the mind of Rod Serling who did more to define the world of television science fiction than anyone else before or since.

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In a break from tradition The Zicree Simkins Podcast reaches out to fellow podcasters and writers Jim Dunn and Sam Ernst and swipes their podcast. Well, actually, we borrowed their 40th episode with their permission. Sam and Jim were restaurant owners in Minneapolis when they decided to chuck it and become writers in Hollywood. You can follow their exploits over on their site. Or you can sample their infectious (in a good way) goodness by listening in right here.

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Mark Fergus, one-half of the writing team sharing credit on IRON MAN, talks with Zicree/Simkins about what life is like working with legends.

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Laurence Walsh and Jack Bernstein were writer/producers on the Sci Fi Channel’s short-lived cult favorite THE DRESDEN FILES. But who cares about that? Jack is the comedy stud behind ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE and for a while there Laurence made sure John Woo didn’t leave the house without his wallet, car keys and genius. Jack continues promulgating his offbeat sense of humor with MONK and, in this podcast, Laurence suffers through it.

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Writer/Director Michael Nankin, one of Battlestar Galactica’s favorite directors, tells us how the series ends. Well, not really, but he does tell us how he threw out a script causing Ron Moore, David Eick and Mary McDonnell to love him forever. Really.

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Henry Myers, co-executive producer for UGLY BETTY and Curtis Kheel, supervising producer for EUREKA, spend an hour with David and Marc talking about work, life and the need for an office with a window.

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Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander are screenwriters, film producers and directors. If you’ve seen ED WOOD, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, MAN IN THE MOON, MARS ATTACKS, AUTOFOCUS or 1408 then you’ve seen their work. In this episode Larry and Scott chat it up and laugh it up with David and Marc. Note: This repost fixes a publishing error.

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Mark Altman and Steve Kriozere have been writing partners for almost ten years. They’ve written and produced horror, action and comedy for television and film. In this episode they add podcast hotshots to their resumes.

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George Noory is the host of the top-rated late-night radio show COAST TO COAST. He’s also a friend of Marc’s, a fan of sci fi and a purveyor of the strange who spends his nights navigating the sometimes bizarre world of America after dark. In this episode George tells us how it all began.

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Yesterday George Noory put a link to the Zicree Simkins Podcast site on his Coast to Coast web page. As of this morning we’ve seen visitors dropping by from all over the world. We hope you’re enjoying the podcasts and found George’s conversation with us interesting and good.

Sincerely,
Marc and David

John Wirth and Brad Kern have been writing for television and producing top-rated programs since 1980. They’re still at it. They’ve got experience, opinions and stories to tell. And they’re telling them here.

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Robert Hewitt Wolfe, writer and producer on DEEP SPACE NINE, THE 4400, THE DRESDEN FILES and ANDROMEDA, joins David Simkins and Marc Zicree to talk about golf. Just kidding. Hear Wolfe let loose on TV, sci fi and The Powers That Be.

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There are plenty of topics of discussion with Carr D’Angelo, former writer for Starlog, ex-movie exec, film producer and award winning comic shop owner.

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Rockne O’Bannon joined us in the airlock this week. His story is pretty much the story of CBS’ attempt to revive THE TWILIGHT ZONE, the feature and tv series of ALIEN NATION, SEAQUEST, the cult tv classic FARSCAPE and few more items of interest including a few original pilot scripts that, with luck (Lord knows the guy’s got talent), we’ll be seeing on tv next year.The AAC podcast this time is enhanced (as will be all future podcasts) in addition to also being available in mp3 format. It was made with Apple’s GarageBand software which allows for imbedded images and links to websites of interest if watched on a computer via iTunes. A word about the audio quality: Rockne was mic’d well. David and Marc, however, slugged it out with cheap headsets again. Rest assured those headsets have been burned and future podcasts will be properly mic’d with Samson CL8 Condenser Mics and an M-Audio MobilePre USB Mobile Preamp.

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John McNamara sits down with Marc and David to discuss tv, the strike, the internet and John’s surefire idea for a hit reality tv show. Be warned: it’s bloody.

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In this first episode (plagued by technical difficulties forcing David Simkins and Marc Zicree to kick it old school… with a phone) the discussion ranges from J.J. Abrams’ new vision of Star Trek to Marc’s old/new vision with George Takei, the Dave School for special effects, The Twilight Zone, and the ongoing attempts to crack the code.

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J.J. Abrams and Marc.