New Media

In response to media outlets widely picking up the Modern Family post from this dumb-dumb blog yesterday as a story:

The Modern Family document I posted yesterday was an attachment to the widely-distributed 2008 pilot script and was simply character shorthand (for executives to quickly “see” what the writers were going for) and not a “wishlist.” Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd did not, as far as I know, wish for Sara Gilbert to get in a time machine and become 13 again.

I only posted the one-sheet because I thought the document held informative value and insight into a common writer practice. (The character sheets for the pilot I’m currently writing have photos of Matthew McConaughey and Artie Lange pasted onto them; I do not intend to try to actually cast Matthew McConaughey and Artie Lange.) But as usually happens with anything I write on the internet, I am now slightly embarrassed by the whole thing and sorry for any confusion it has created.

But media: blogs are terrible sources! Don’t cite us, or at least, you know, maybe read closely or, gasp, contact us to verify. I could have doctored that document! I could make that shit in like 10 minutes in Photoshop!

To illustrate what a bad source I am, the last time this happened to me, I called Jessica Simpson “functionally illiterate” as a joke in a TWOP recap, and it was so covered she even had to come out with a statement refuting the charges.

Anyway. Sorry. Take away lessons: Be clear. Check your sources. Jessica Simpson can’t read.