Thursday, August 11, 2005
On Creating a TV Show
I am completely smitten with the process of creating a TV show. You may remember that I wrote about my friend Adam Belanoff and I working on a show concept together. The process that we’ve gone through is completely new and fascinating to me—from the creation of the characters, to the development of the “arcs,” to working with the executive producers at Martin-Stein, to the pre-pitches we’ve been doing at ICM, all prepping for our big pitch to a television network—makes me wonder why I haven’t been in the entertainment business all along.
Adam’s a well-known name and a respected comedy writer in TV-land. He’s been a staff and head writer for shows like the Cosby Show and Murphy Brown. Incredibly detailed and thoughtful, he’s been able to take my stream of thoughts and ideas and make some coherent sense out of them. The most interesting aspect of working with someone who knows the business like Adam does is the focus on things that matter. For example, if I threw out an idea about (I’m making this up,) a couple searching for the perfect couch for their home, he would make me think about the emotional context of the purchase. Is it for their first home together? Is there conflict in what they both want? Is there sexual tension between the salesperson and one of them? Do they argue about if they can afford it? Later, in a meeting with Matt Solo, head of TV at ICM, and Joan Stein, partner at Martin-Stein, I was blown away by how something we had thought was fantastic was shown to still need a whole lot of work. In being our biggest supporters, they was also our harshest critics, and their insights added so much color to our existing concept.
The whole process has been like developing a deep, extensive marketing campaign. In marketing, we make decisions around channels, messages, venues, and context; here, we’re debating characters, connections, “handles”, and settings. In marketing, we craft emotional messaging, tone and brand; here, we create storylines, feel, tone, and “arcs”. In marketing, we discuss personnel, support and service issues; in developing a TV show, we discuss cast, location, and production values. And in marketing, we talk about nailing the right brand value proposition, and focusing single-mindedly on the customer; here, we talk about the perfect ”logline” and focusing on how to get audiences to really react well.
Conceptually, we’re pretty certain that there’s never been a show like what we’re creating. Stylistically, I’ve realized that in Hollywood, people use existing shows as a benchmark for what a new show’s handle might be. For example, “it’s like a fictional Bounty Hunter set in the digital world of Hackers.” Or, “the character’s like Kramer, only he’s smart as Monk.” Still, the big next step is making sure the networks like it. As I understand it, we get one single pitch to do it. This is, again, not unlike the agency business, where we get one shot to present a concept to a potential client.
I recently asked Joan Stein, if it made sense to use visual aides to make the presentation to the networks a little more professional. She gave me this piece of advice: “It’s all about performance. It’s all about being enthusiastic and believing in what you’re selling.”
And as I thought about that, I realized that even in our world, the agencies that consistently win aren’t necessarily the ones that bring elephants and models to a pitch; they’re the ones that, even if from a slide projector standing on an old filing cabinet, always deliver the goods.