pilot
Subject: pilot
From: Jonathan Farley <lattice.theory@gmail.com>
Date: 11/18/09, 04:38
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

Hi,
That's great.  Congratulations.  I like your writing.

There are good visuals with the Vanderbilt story, because you can film the statue (and it really is an ugly statue), and the dormitory has in huge stone block letters the name "CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL HALL."  (You can get lots of good interviews of Vanderbilt administrators looking silly, hemming and hawing once they are on TV about the name of the building.  Some will claim the name of the building is "Memorial Hall," and then you can cut to the facade of the building.) 

I have met Bob Fitrakis in Columbus, Ohio (where Gordon Gee, former head of Vanderbilt, now resides).  We spoke at an anti-war rally there in September or November 2002.  He is a great investigator and I saw one humorous program he did that aired in the UK.  Maybe he could contribute to the pilot, since he is on-location.

If there are any episodes involving scientific issues
www.hollywoodmath.com
my colleagues and I would be happy to help.  I'd also be interested in working as a researcher generally, even if that meant starting at the ground level.

Regards,
Jonathan

2009/11/18 Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Hi, Jonathan-

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but wanted to wait until I'd gotten more details. I've been asked to serve as the head writer on a pilot that's been offered to two people with whom I've worked a bit in the past. The show would be a public policy/politics/humor/investigational program whereby we'd do each episode on a particular story that hasn't been reported enough or at all. The two folks had already run a couple of ideas in front of the execs in question to no avail, so now they're going to try to use your story as the pilot (or a later episode if another topic is chosen). Although there's no guarantee that anything will come of this, even if the show is not picked up or we are asked to compromise we are capable of producing it ourselves and then shopping it around, as we have a great agent, etc. So, I'll find out more soon after they meet with everyone again regarding this Vanderbilt story. And even if for some reason the TV thing doesn't work out, I'll definitely be able to get it placed somewhere prominently in print in addition to my usual huffpo/trueslant outlets.