Networking

I went to an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences function last night honoring women in television. It was a panel of lead actresses of television shows, women executive producers, and Angela Lansbury. (A classier woman you will never meet!) They talked about the positive changes that have come about in the last two decades. They highlighted the increased number of women in the industry both in front of the camera and behind it. For example, during all the years of Murder She Wrote, Angela Lansbury's writers were all men. She tried very hard to get women into her writing staff, but the general feeling at the time was that women couldn't write about a woman detective as well as a man could. Things have changed a lot. Several of the executive producers had staffs of writers that were composed 50/50 of men and women. They also said the age of their writers is from thirty-four to fifty and up. Great news for me.

I also secured two women to write magazine articles about; Diane Burroughs, Executive Producer of "Still Standing, and Laura Innes, Dr. Kerry Weaver, from "ER," who is also a writer and director. I will be talking more about upcoming articles as soon as I secure them. Hint, I am setting up an interview with one of TV and movie's top male stars. I'll let you know his name as well as the names if the magazines as soon as I confirm everything.

I took pictures with a couple of my favorite actresses; CCH Pounder, currently starring on "The Shield", and Holland Taylor, currently starring on "Two and a Half Men." Both of them terrific, and they have done groundbreaking work during the course of their careers.




My demo reels are finally online where you can look at them. You can view them at jimtroesh.net/media.htm.

I have no news yet about "Special Unit," or any of my other projects. I have met with ABC again about my TV pilot "The Outsiders". Basically, it needs a great deal of rewriting before it is Network ready. I am fast discovering in my rewriting that it is vastly improved over its previous version. "I guess these network folks actually know what they're doing!" Sometimes it's hard to believe if you base your viewpoint on what you see on television.

Until Next time. By the way, I'll soon be making updates weekly, so be sure to check back often.

Skydive!

Yes, it's me. Sitting in the wide-open door of a twin-engine plane at twelve thousand five hundred feet seconds away from plummeting toward earth at one hundred eighty miles an hour! What was I thinking?! Actually it was very cool! Skydiving was one of the highlights of my life. I did it back in 1989 and as far as I know, I am the first quadriplegic skydiver. We jumped out at California city which is in the middle of the Mojave Desert. I do have a video of it which I recently edited and soon will be putting up on my website jimtroesh.net.

I was completely fearless. I thought I would either live and have a terrific story, or die a terrific death. It never occurred to me that I might end up more injured. If I had thought of it I'm not sure if would have done it or not. Thank God I had the presence of mind to have it videotaped.