Woody Allen returns to TV roots with Amazon series

Oscar-winning filmmaker Woody Allen is going back to his TV roots in a deal with online giant Amazon to write and direct his own series that will premiere next year.
      
The news comes as the world's biggest online retailer celebrates its first Golden Globes for its transgender-themed sitcom "Transparent" -- a breakthrough in its efforts to catch up with streaming pioneer Netflix.
      
Amazon said the "Untitled Woody Allen Project" will run sometime next year on its growing Amazon Prime Instant Video service.
      
"I don't know how I got into this. I have no ideas and I'm not sure where to begin," the 79-year-old Allen said in a statement from Amazon Studios, the company's TV content arm.
      
"My guess is that (Amazon Studios chief) Roy Price will regret this," he added in his trademark wry humor.
      
The project is a coup for Amazon's on-demand Internet video streaming service, which alongside Netflix is upending the traditional broadcast television business model.
                      
Amazon said the show would be the first TV series to be written and directed by Allen -- but it's by no means his first experience with the small screen.
      
In the mid-1950s, as television took center stage in America's living rooms, Allen found lucrative work as a gag writer for comedian Sid Caesar and variety show host Garry Moore.
      
He wrote and appeared in some episodes of "Candid Camera," turned up as a guest panelist on "What's My Line?" and recorded a one-off stand-up comedy special for British television in 1965, "The Woody Allen Show."       

For American public television, Allen in 1971 directed and starred in a mock documentary, "Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger...