Eric Estrin writes the weekly column "Hollywood Breakthrough" at TheWrap.com. His own Hollywood breakthrough included writer/producer jobs on such series as "MacGyver," "Outer Limits" and "V.I.P." and freelance episodes written for "Miami Vice," "Cagney and Lacey" and "Earth 2." As a journalist, he wrote a monthly TV column for Los Angeles magazine and worked as special sections editor for the trade paper Television Week. He is the creator and producer of the LA Observed Script Project and its resulting script, "Right of Way." Eric lives in the Ventura County community of Oak Park. Email
On Writer Action, a computer chat-board for Writers Guild members, anything goes. Well, not anything. That's where I come in.
Until recently, the Los Angeles Times was a perfectly good name for a great metropolitan newspaper of record. These days, not so much. It's time for us to come up with something new.
Scott Ritter warns we're on the verge of nuclear war. History says we ignore him at our peril.
Our correspondent does battle with a robot at BMG Music — and appears to win in the end. Or does he?
I hate telemarketers. No matter how many you tell Do Not Call, there’s always another one to interrupt your work,...
My daughter ran into the house the other night screaming that there was a tarantula on an outside window near...
The first time I tried to surf I was 12 and had recently moved to South Florida from one of the fly-over states. It all came back recently during family day at Malibu Makos surf camp.
First of all, let me apologize to the Dodgers and their fans. The team rarely wins when I’m in the...
We’ve traveled a lot this summer, or at least it seems that way. First up was Israel, which my Florida...
Two years ago, in the summer of 2004, my friends Kerry and Deana hosted a party centered around a MoveOn.org...
Let me say at the outset that I have mixed feelings at best about so-called “reality TV.” I was putting...
| Artist Lauren Bon has won approval from the LA City Council to build an enormous water wheel on the LA River near downtown. Bon will be discussing the project in a public conversation on March 22, World Water Day, in Lincoln Heights.
| Misty Copeland, the only black female soloist dancing with the American Ballet Theater, will be back home in Los Angeles this week talking about her new memoir. The book explores her rise from a vagabond childhood to stature in the ballet world, where she found a surrogate family.
| Dr. Frank Jobe saved the careers of hundreds of pitchers, but many top arms continue to break down. It's not good for baseball, and MLB needs to look into better injury prevention mechanisms.
| Wooster Group definitely has its fans and followers and many were in the Redcat audience--at least until intermission.
| Take My Picture Gary Leonard is a regular Thursday feature of LA Observed.
Many great memories of my boss and friend, the former Los Angeles Times editor William F. Thomas.
Before I lived in Echo Park, there was a tiny 1920s bungalow-cottage-standalone house on N. Occidental in Silver Lake. I...
