The Point Radio: THE BETTER HALF Slices Up Real Life

The Better Half is a successful web series that this summer moves to the newly launched Pivot Network. Real life couple Lindsay Hicks and Amy Jackson Lewis, talk about their quest to make their relationship work, and how they love sharing it on the series. Plus the Tony Award Winning Jersey Boys hits theaters this week, and director Clint Eastwood (yep) talks about how he decided to helm this one.

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Transcript

The Point Radio It's Mike Raub, there are real life situations that just happen to be pretty damn funny. It's the better half making its way from a web series to cable and we'll tell you all about it. Plus Clint Eastwood talks a bit about working in the world of the four seasons and directing Jersey Boys. Plus in the comic stores in May, not a great month unless you're DC.

Let's get to the point. This is the point, the point radio, get the point radio. The Better Half is a successful web series that's making the move to cable networks. It follows the story of a lesbian couple through the day-to-day hurdles that come with making the relationship work. And it's co-created and written by real life couple, Lindsay Hicks and Amy Jackson Lewis.

As co-writers, I was curious as to how much of their real life makes its way into the show. I was doing a pretty decent portion. I mean, a lot of it is also drawn from our other side, their relationships and things that we see going on that are really funny and interesting. And it happens a lot when we'll be out with friends and something funny will happen between us and we'll be like, my God, it's not in the show. It's become like a fun joke between us and our friends.

But now, we start noticing things between us and Amy and I. And Amy and I will have a conversation or something will happen one day and then I'll write a script. And she'll be like, okay, you're just wrong-serving life now. It's hardly even creative anymore. But no, it's really, really fun and it's kind of, it gives us a new view on our own relationships here.

It makes everything seem, it's easier to make a lot of things now. So does it make it easier working day-to-day with your life partner or is it hard to go home and shut work off? Yeah, well, we actually really love it. We, for a while, before we started this project, we were kind of almost not even having enough time together to hang out. So we figured it would kind of kill two birds with one stone and make work and hanging out the same thing.

But it started out when we were writing together was a bit difficult. It took us a little while to figure out how to actually write together without wanting to break up. But we sort of figured it out now. We reached a point where Lindsay writes the first act and then I feedback and Lindsay's more of the main writer and I'm more of the script editor. And it's been really fun.

We really enjoy each other's company. So we love any excuse to hang out and be creative at the same time. One credit compared the show to the classic 90s sitcom Mad About You. I was curious as to how both Amy and Lindsay felt about that. Well, that was really funny.

That really pickled us, the thing. That if you like that, you would like that. I mean, it was definitely flattering. And what we wanted from the beginning was a show like to really show that we are a couple just like any other couple, straight, gay, whatever. So it was a compliment for that couple that was so like, I don't know, how did you decide that couple?

Well, I think what they were saying is just like a slice of life comedy about a couple of neurotic people being neurotic and like going through the ups and downs of just every day couple of them, which I think is a compliment. I mean, that show I have been that I have not watched in a very long time. I remember just thinking, you know, just one of those shows that just focused on how fun it can be to just be boring and normal. So that was kind of nice because we did want everything we made to just be kind of slice of life. We don't want any high drama or any crazy, you know, a lot of lesbian film and TV is very, you know,

the straight girl who gets seduced by the big scary lesbian and the cheating and the sex and the drama and the fighting. And we really just wanted to make something about waking up and going poop. So from web series to TV series, was there anything that had to be re shot or changed? No, everything's taken directly from the web. However, when we first put them up our because we shoot it with just Amy and I there working on the script and asking and then Christine and Laila would do everything.

So there was moments where Christine was holding a camera and a boom, like at the same time, because it was like a two person crew, essentially, you know, like there were times I'm like asking, we would be holding a boom, like underneath the table with our hands while, you know. So it's like the sound was not on point. So we actually had to have someone come in and read master the process. But we put it on air. Sure. Yeah. But besides that, we just say just take exactly what we had, which was really flattering. Because like we said, it started out as a passion project, a small crew and for them to think that it was good enough for broadcast TV was I think the biggest compliment because totally see more of Amy Lindsay on the better half on pivot. Check your local listings for times and don't forget pivot on demand as well. And also check out the better half the series.com.

Here we go with the latest in pop culture. When you compare comic sales and comic stores to where they were in 2013, it was a little bit of a down month in May, 2% difference over the two years, but a bigger drop for graphic novels, almost a 10% decline for them. However, some good news there. DC picked up a ton more market share, part of what they lost earlier in the year. And we'll give you the entire rundown, including your top 10 best selling comics and comic stores in May coming up. There's a new name in the Guinness Book of World Records, and that is Alex Trebek, who's now in there for hosting the most game show episodes by the same presenter. About 6829 altogether episodes of Jeopardy have been under Alex's watch since 1984. Trebek commented on the whole thing, saying even though he has been around for a long time, he plans to stick around for at least a few more years. NBC is producing an event series about the Beatles attached to it so far as Michael Hurst from the tutors. And should the project keep moving, it'll tell the story of the Fab Four in a total of eight episodes in a special event more than likely in the spring of 2015.

The folks at Deadline have released what they say is a top secret list of Warner Brothers film plans for the next few years. Some surprises on there as well, but also some things that we all knew about. For example, Batman vs Superman, set for 2016. A Shazam movie also set for July of that same year. And a Sandman film set for the Christmas season of the year as well. For 2017, there's a Justice League movie on the list and a Wonder Woman movie as well. Both during the summer and then the end of the year has a Flash Green Lantern team up movie. And for 2018 in the spring, the follow up to Man of Steel. Of course, no comment from Warner Brothers about whether any of this is actually real. However, a lot of it does have some validity, including the Sandman movie, which has had David Goyer and Joseph Gordon-Levitt attached. And it wasn't that long ago that Geoff Johns said he was working with Bill Birch on the Shazam movie from Warner's as well. Fox has both the series I Want to Marry Harry and Riot from their weekly schedule.

And interestingly enough, they both racked up the lowest ratings ever, not only for Fox and Primetime, but for any of the big four networks so far in ratings history. Both will be replaced with repeats of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl and Mindy Price. Seems like everybody's waiting to see what the next Walking Dead will be. And there's a big reminder of that when you walk into the comic stores this week. The Strain premieres on FX as a new series just a few weeks from now. And to get you in the mood, there's a one for a dollar edition of Strain number one from Dark Horse. Good place to start and good place to decide if you're on board for the new series. Also from Dark Horse, a familiar tale I have new number one, tells the story of a young apprentice wizard embarking on a perilous quest. DC gives us a second printing of Sandman Overger number one and a really cool showcase volume this week featuring the great disaster and stories with the atomic knights, Hercules and a lot more. Most of which have never been reprinted to this day and all for just under 20 bucks.

Speaking of reprints, Archie's daily newspaper strips from the 60s get a beautiful packaging from IDW and something called Archie's Swingin' 60s Daily Newspaper Comics 1963 to 65. Hardcover available for just under 50 bucks. And from IDW, Star Trek's City on the Edge of Forever finally hit stores. It's a much talked about un-revised version of the original script Harlan Ellison wrote for that classic Star Trek episode. And it's going to be adapted into a comic series and it starts right here. New Turtles series 2 this week called Turtles in Time from IDW. From Image, Invincible number 111 gets a second printing and Karen Gillian and Jamie McLeavy who you know from Young Avengers have a new series called Wicked and Divine that begins with a couple of different covers this week from Image. From Marvel, Original Sin continues in both Avengers 31 and Nova number 18. And it's a reprint of Palooza here from Marvel this week. Miles Morales, Alderman Spider-Man number one gets a second printing. Moon Knight number one gets a third printing just like number two does. And Moon Knight number three gets a second printing. Ms. Marvel number two gets a third printing. And She Hulk number one, third printing there. Silver Surfer number two, second printing. And Superior Spider-Man number 31, a second printing from Marvel.

And finally it's a game everybody's played. Now it's a comic doodle jump. It jumps into the comics world with a first issue and a bunch of different covers as well this week including a blank one you can take to conventions this summer and get your own cover from your favorite artist. All these and more in a comic shop near you find a comic shop.com is a good place to start on the web looking for the stores in your area. There's the comic book locator service at 1-888-COMIC-BOOK or we've got a link for you right up on the front of our website ComicMix.com. Sales action in the comic stores in May saw a good month for DC. But overall for comics at 2% decline when you compare it to where things were back in May of 2013. Without the help of having a seller like Amazing Spider-Man number one Marvel lost up the market share down from 39% to about 34% but DC took a jump from their big low last month 23% of the market to a little over 30%. And IDW jumped into the top four pushing Dark Horse out for the first time well in quite a while.

All that being said here's your top 10 best-selling comics in stores in May. It starts at number 10 with Batman Eternal number 5 from DC the new 52 Futures End number 1 gave it a number 9 Walking Dead number 127 at number 8. Justice League number 30 at number 7 Original Sin number 2 at number 6 from Marvel. Number 5 best-selling comic Forever Evil number 7. Number 4 was Batman number 31 Amazing Spider-Man number 1.1 gave it a number 3. And then Amazing Spider-Man number 2 came in in the second place and the best-selling book in comic stores in May again from Marvel this time Original Sin number 1. The point, the point. The Tony Award winning Broadway hit The Jersey Boys is headed to the big screen. The story of the four seasons stars John Lloyd Young reprising his Tony Award winning portrayal of Frankie Valli and also includes Oscar winner Christopher Walken.

But the most interesting part is the guy who sat in the director's chair and that is Clint Eastwood. With no disrespect it is a big change for what Clint has done in the past. And I ask him how the whole thing came about. It seemed like something to do. It's funny because I hadn't seen the play but I'd heard a lot about it over the years. And somebody said would you be interested in doing that? And I said I'd certainly be interested in looking at it. And then they sent me a script. And it was by a very good writer and it was, but it, and then I found out later through a series of events that that wasn't the script of the play. So then I asked him what was this script the play where can I find that and a friend of mine, an agent said, well, I represent the guys who did that.

Mr. Ellis and Mr. Rickman. And so I said, maybe I better look at that because I figured only in Hollywood would somebody give you a script on something else when it's already when they have a script that's a hit. So I looked at that and I liked it very much. And then I went and saw three different versions of the play in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas and saw all these wonderful actors and thought what a nice project to be doing. And so I said, yeah. Of course it helped that Clint was a fan of both Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons. I met him over the years and I did like the Four Seasons a lot. I thought they, their music was far superior. I think they, you can't take your eyes off of you. You're too good to be true. It's one of the real classic songs of that era and would have been a classic song in the forties, fifties or thirties or any time in history.

And all of their stuff was very energetic music and great fun. I mean, it was a pleasant challenge to do, I guess. And then work with the actors that had actually formulated, had a great influence on the play on its run throughout the country. It was great to be using the original people. So taking a stage play and turning it into something that's cinematically interesting, was that a big hurdle? No, I didn't think it was too much of a challenge. You can open it up much of the stage play is, I mean, it's a wonderful play and it had a lot of excitement in it. But I could approach it more from a realistic angle. In other words, when you watch the play and you watch John Lloyd and you watch them having a scene at a table and then all of a sudden you cut to one of the other, you walk, cut.

Not quite. I mean, they see another actor come over and they start talking about something else and you have the actor who's in the scene has to put the chairs up on top of the table and run it off of the stage. And there's a lot of things that you can do in a movie that you can't do that in a stage that they have to make, keep things moving and be very practical. But so just try to open it up and give it a certain realism, maybe. Warner Brothers, the Jersey Boys in theaters right now. As a rapper right now, we've already begun our countdown to Comic Con and the news starts happening fast. Follow it 24-7 to get to the point radio.com and you can take us along anywhere with any mobile device, Apple or Android with a free app called iNet Radio.

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