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...
| It might seem inconceivable that a spoiler is possible for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at The Broad Stage. Also "Rest" at SCR.
| Gary Leonard on the first day of street sales for the Los Angeles Register. Take My Picture Gary Leonard is a weekly feature of LA Observed.
| The question 'how hot is it?' once again will be answered by the landmark thermometer in the desert town of Baker.
| With the Lakers worst-ever season in Los Angeles ending this week, it's time to look ahead. What should the Lakers do next to reverse their fortunes?
| LA mayor Eric Garcetti has a narrative problem. The two stories he is telling about Los Angeles don't line up. Winning an Olympic bid could provide the deus ex machina the city needs in the absence of a heroic storyline.
It’s not easy to figure out Mayor Eric Garcetti’s grand plan for Los Angeles, or even if he has one. His state of the city speech Thursday didn’t help. "It starts with modern technology,” the mayor said, and then sort of left us hanging.
Before I lived in Echo Park, there was a tiny 1920s bungalow-cottage-standalone house on N. Occidental in Silver Lake. I...
Remember this, the mobile home in need of so much repair that one of the metrics I used to interview...
