John Ostrander: Political Television Theater

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

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5 Responses

  1. Mindy Newell says:

    I love NEWSROOM.

    And I love Jeff Daniels, too, ever since I saw him waaaay back in SOMETHING WILD, with Melanie Griffith.

    I think his take on a somewhat more sane Keith Olbermann is brilliant!

  2. mike weber says:

    I’ll back New Orleans city politics against Chicago politics for theatricality…

    …and i come from an old Chicago family – my great-grandfather owned a saloon in Cicero and once re-opened it after the brief period on Sunday he was required to close … to find that his dog had found Anton Cermak passed out in a back booth and treed him on top of the bar.

  3. George Haberberger says:

    You’re right about Political Animals; it is a soap opera in political drag. I’m only watching it because Carla Gugino is in it.

    I’m watching The Newsroom because I liked West Wing so much. And Sports Night before that. And even Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip after that. Sorkin in a clever writer but his preaching is very obvious in his new series. I think he used to be more subtle. He had a single line, without any artful commentary, that it was Bill Clinton who signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in the episode about the banking. crisis. I think if it had been a Republican, that little fact would have generated a bit more dialogue.

    Boss is a soap opera also but I like Kelsey Grammar and this character is 180 degrees from Frazier so I find it interesting.

  4. I watch both THE NEWSROOM (love Aaron Sorkin’s writing) and SUITS. The latter is my favorite new show of the past couple years –in particular because Gabriel Macht’s Harvey Specter is like a Howard Chaykin hero come to glorious life. Somebody brilliant in Hollywood should cast him as Reuben Flagg quick.

  5. mike weber says:

    Dunno about “All politics are personal”, but Tip O’Neil said “All politics is local.”