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I was profiled today by Tufts University.

Comedy Quest

Tufts graduate and comedy writer Mark Treitel is close to realizing his decade-long goal of having his own sitcom.

Medford/Somerville, Mass. [08.29.05] For Tufts graduate Mark Treitel, the situation is getting serious. The “Situation: Comedy,” that is.

The aspiring comedy writer’s script has made it to the final round of competition on Bravo’s new “Situation: Comedy” reality show, which chronicles the making of a sitcom and gives amateur writers a chance launch their Hollywood careers by creating a comedy pilot from start to finish.

Watch Sperm Donor on Bittorent now

Thanks to Firefox566 for putting up Sperm Donor on BitTorrent if you can't use the Aol software.

Here's what he said to do:

For those of you who have experienced difficulties with AOL's video player (or simply wish to download the pilots and save them to your computer), I've made them available via BitTorrent.

This requires the BitTorrent software of your choice (available at no cost for every major operating system), and free membership with TVTorrents.com (with which I'm not affiliated):
http://www.tvtorrents.com/signup.do

If you don't wish to give your real e-mail address, just use a throwaway address from here:
http://www.dodgeit.com/

Then, after logging in to the TVTorrents site, navigate to the following URLs:

http://snurl.com/sperm_donor_pilot
http://snurl.com/stephens_life_pilot

Enjoy! :)

Mon Cheri

You can see a pretty funny preview for episode six on aol.com in which Shoe and I pitch to Cheri Oteri to be part of "Sperm Donor."

All I can say is .... hillarity ensues.

Whatever...

As you all know, the daughter, Brooke, in "Sperm Donor" is played by the exceptionally talented Lauren Schaffel. Without Brooke, the show wouldn't have an emotional core -- she's exceptionally cool and funny!

Here's her short bio:

Lauren has been acting since she was 5 years old. Her first TV job was on a sitcom called "Fudge" (from the kids books by Judy Blume) where she played the kindergarden girlfriend of the little boy on the show. Her most memorable roles are working on the shows "Just Shoot Me," "Will and Grace" and her current re-curring role on "Still Standing" where she plays Becca, the best friend of one her real best friends, Renee Olstead. Lauren has also done voiceover work and she is most proud of her voice role as Lucy in two "Peanuts" shows and some commercials. Lauren studies opera singing and is currently appearing in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Gondeliers" in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Lauren has one more year at High School in Los Angeles, and is hoping to go college in New York City where she can pursue a liberal arts education and continue to study dramatic arts and vocal performance. Working on "Sperm Donor" was an amazing experience for her since it was her very first television sitcom pilot. She felt a tremendous rapport with the cast, writers, and producers of the show and was extremely comfortable on the set. She is very proud of how the show turned out and is so honored to be a part of "Situation Comedy."

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Special note from Mark, off of he imdb credits, I'm excited to see that she was a voice on Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star... if I'd have known that, I would have liked the movie more.

BELOW: LAUREN SCHAFFEL

Videos that don't byte!

Aol has a preview of Episode Five, which has a showdown for the role of DALTON in Sperm Donor between the two superior and hysterically funny actors:

• Richie Keen
• John Ducey

So download before Friday's episode!

In fact Aol's video quality is amazing. Download this video of the White Stripes' "My Doorbell" (with it's homage to "The Little Rascals" -- brilliant). The future of broadband is really here!

Medialife praises Treitel & Schuster

Medialife has this to say about Treitel & Schuster:

Of the two teams, Mark Treitel and Jason “Shoe” Schuster at least have an appealing charm, especially when Schuster warbles the imaginary theme-song lyrics to their entry about a missing father who meets his unknown daughter, “The Sperm Donor”: “The sperm donor gets a 20 percent commission…for his emission.” The “Sperm Donor” casting scenes light up, by the way, when a firecracker of a young actress, Lauren Schaffel, reads as that daughter.

Where else can you see Emo Phillips, Phyllis Diller and Robin Williams tell the same joke?

If you've read Shoe's blog, then you might be aware of a new documentary "The Aristocrats" which is all about the dirtiest joke in the world. (BTW, the joke is that the joke isn't funny, it's the way you tell it.)

Well, after personally getting "spotted" at the Arclight, Mindy and I saw the film. I am happy to say that three of the punch-up writers who worked on Sperm Donor were honored as comedy genuises to tell the joke along such legends as George Carlin, Eric Idle and Don Rickles. The Sperm Donor three writers to watch for are:

Eddie Gorodetsky
Sue Kolinksy
Cathy Ladman

There are about 100 commedians in this film! Go out and see it for yourself.

People's Choice!

How's this for a weekend pick me up? I was on my one-year anniversary with my wife, Mindy, and we got multiple calls saying I was in this week's People Magazine.

Rushing over to the newsstands, I picked up People Magazine, August 8, 2005, with Jude Law on the cover. (Seems that Jude has some of his own problems with his sperm and a certain Nanny.)

[Look for this guy on the cover]

Turning to page 36, People magazine, gave "Situation Comedy" three out of four stars. We are the People's choice.

Not only that, they specifically talk about our premise for "Sperm Donor" and mention Treitel & Schuster by name.

Wow. Getting into People. This is like some sort of pop culture nirvana.

Now all I need to do is light some incense and meditate to get on Entertainment Weekly's Jim Mullen's Hot Sheet and dare I say it, The Shaw Report (hot only, please). Well, here's to wishful thinking.

Sperm Donor in the Atlantic Monthly?

A sentence you never thought you'd see...

I saw "Sperm Donor" in The Atlantic Monthly.

In my googling, I came upon a link to The Atlantic Monthly, an article entitled the XY Files, in which the author, Lori Gottlieb, mentions our show, "Sperm Donor." Can someone e-mail me the article?

Message about real Sperm Donor Children

See how Google can bring people together? In my Google search about our show, "Sperm Donor", I came upon FamilyScholars.org, described as "Your 24/7 research assistant on all things marriage and the family"

I posted:

Acutally, as a co-writer of the show, [Sperm Donor's] really more about the real relationships of the daugher missing her biological father as she grew up fatherless. Granted, we were writing a sitcom with jokes, but there’s a real situation here — at least one that seems similiar to my friends who were adopted and longed to meet their [biological] parents.

And got a response from Elizabeth Marquardt saying:

Thanks for writing in Mark. Sounds like you might be working to present the child’s point of view on the show — more power to you.

Well, thanks Elizabeth, we aim to please and would love to make "The Sperm Donor" part of the American lexicon.