TV Development Guide, Page 2

  • How notes fit into the development process

  • The best approach to give notes to a writer

  • What a writers list is and how to put one together

  • Where to sell your idea(s)

  • Understanding the marketplace, the buyers and the outlets

  • The current networks/buyers

  !20

  WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM THIS BOOK

  • Which network to pitch to and when

  • How to define your audience for each project

  • How to identify the different audiences at the various outlets

  • Where and how to sell your show

  • The differences in selling to a broadcast network vs. a stream-

  ing or premium outlet

  • Projections for the future of TV

  • The relationship between studios and their partnerships with

  networks/buyers

  • How acquisitions work

  • The different types of deals and packages in television

  • How to get attachments

  • How to market your project

  • The importance of a competitive development report

  • How to develop a strategy for your project

  • What a transmedia campaign is and how it is useful

  • What agents, managers and development executives (studio

  and network) say about developing TV shows

  • How the TV business has dramatically changed in the last two

  decades

  • The steps to take after reading this book

  !21

  ACT ONE

  What is ‘TV Development’?

  When I went to college, there were no classes to take on Television

  Development. There were media classes, writing classes and act-

  ing classes, but there was nothing about how TV shows were de-

  veloped and got on the air. Even today, this is not something that

  is offered in most schools. As I mentioned (in the teaser), I am

  teaching a course, at UCLA Extension, the first of its kind (that I

  know of).

  When I fell into working in TV Development in the mid-1990s,

  little did I know it would be something I would be doing for the

  next 20+ years. One thing I learned was that it can be a very lucra-

  tive career of choice. Although there is a paucity of current salary

  information for TV executives out there today, I hope the follow-

  ing gives you some idea of what you can earn.

  In 2017, one of the highest paid network executives (who was re-

  cently ousted) CBS’s LES MOONVES, made a whopping $69.3

  million! ( The Observer, 2018, by Sissi Cao)

  !23

  Act 1

  Another top TV executive Steve Mosko, earned $2.8 million (plus

  bonuses) in 2015 as SONY’s president. ( Hollywood Reporter, “Holly-

  wood Salaries Revealed” 2015, by Austin Siegemund-Broka and Paul Bond)

  Here are some statistics from 2012. ( Vulture Magazine, “Polone: So

  How Much Do Hollywood Players Make?” 2012, by Gavin Polone) Gavin

  Polone is a very successful agent turned producer.

  STUDIO

  •

  A major TV Chairman/President/CEO gets $2 million-$5 mil-

  lion per year.

  •

  The Executive Vice President (the person running both come-

  dy and drama development) makes $600,000 - $1 million per

  year.

  •

  The Vice President (there is usually one for comedy and one

  for drama) gets $250,000 - $500,000 per year.

  •

  The Director level executive makes $100,000 - $250,000 per

  year.

  NETWORK

  •

  The Entertainment President makes $2.5 million-$5 million per

  year.

  •

  The Executive Vice President (the person running both come-

  dy and drama development) makes $750,000 - $1.5 million per

  year.

  •

  The Vice President (comedy or drama development) makes

  $250,000-$500,000 per year.

  •

  The Director level executive makes $125,000-$200,000 per year.

  !24

  Act 1

  Like most kids, I loved watching TV when I was growing up. Of

  course my mom, like most parents, objected to too much TV. But

  I am here to report that those hours spent in front of the TV have

  paid off because it gave me the foundation of knowledge about

  TV shows. Even today, with my own young child, I see that most

  of her friends’ parents would like to keep their children’s TV

  watching at a minimum. There has been study after study telling

  us that watching a lot of TV is bad for us. I am neither a doctor,

  nor an expert on the science of human interaction with electronics,

  but I believe, like everything in life, moderation is the key.

  There is, indeed, a lot of excellent content on many of the net-

  works today. I believe this is where it all must begin. For anyone

  to work in television development, whether you are a writer, pro-

  ducer, actor, director, or executive, one must have passion and love

  for the art of television shows.

  New FOX CEO of Entertainment (former AMC President)

  CHARLIE COLLIER said, “I think anyone who gets into

  the business and who doesn’t have a healthy appreciation

  for the content and the brilliant people who create the best

  of it, is in the wrong business.” ( “The Future of Television” by

  Pamela Douglas p.56)

  I couldn’t agree more. Today, with more shows than ever, watch-

  ing all of them is impossible. But when you watch one that speaks

  to you, it can’t get any better than that.

  In order to understand what TV Development is, we need to

  know a little about the history of the television.

  HISTORY OF THE TELEVISION IN A NUTSHELL

  “Television” literally means long-distance sight or far vision by

  wireless transmission. When it was first invented, far vision

  meant across a room. Later it meant across a country, and now it’s

  around the world.

  !25

  Act 1

  Similar to other amazing inventions and historical truths, several

  people around the globe were inventing this life-changing device,

  later known as, the television, at the same time.

  Approximately 5,000-6,000 years ago, people began recording his-

  tory. They were literally writing words down for the first time to

  record what was going on at the time. The amazing thing was

  that this didn’t just happen in one place in the world. It happened

  simultaneously in different places around the world, and these

  first historians had no idea about each other. This interesting

  phenomenon occurred with the invention of television as well.

  WHO INVENTED THE TELEVISION?

  That depends on who you ask. Giving credit to the first person

  who invented something has become easier over time because of

  the advancement of technology. But, back when TV was being

  invented, it happened in bits and pieces. One person invented a

  part of it, and then another took it a step further, and so on. That

  is the reason why the inventor of the TV is a hotly disputed sub-

  ject.

  Here are the three people around the globe who are credited with

  invention of the television:


  An American - PHILO FARNSWORTH

  A Russian - VLADIMIR KOSMA ZWORYKIN

  A Brit - JOHN BAIRD

  Each contributed to its advancement, and suffice it to say we are

  very thankful to these inventors and the people who helped them

  because we are so fortunate to have the wonderful gift of TELEVI-

  SION.

  One of the most important progressions for television was in the

  1950s when color TV was introduced by CBS and RCA Victor. The

  initial RCA Victor color TV set cost $1,000 in 1954 and was in four

  !26

  Act 1

  out of ten homes. Today’s equivalent would be about $6,500. It

  wasn’t perfect, but people loved it. Gathering around the TV be-

  came mainstream around the world.

  At the same time, TV viewers were introduced to a little device

  called, "lazy bones,” which was invented by the Zenith Corpora-

  tion. This is better known as the remote control. It should be not-

  ed that inventors had developed remote-controlled electronics be-

  fore this, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the remote control was

  invented for television. At first, they were connected by a bulky

  wire. Then in 1955, Eugene Polley invented the “Flashmatic,”

  which was the first wireless remote. Today voice control is avail-

  able on some systems and I believe will soon be commonplace.

  TV took another huge step forward in the late nineties when a de-

  vice called, TIVO, was introduced. For me this was a game

  changer. I could finally pause a show, go to another show, watch

  it and come back to the original one I was watching. I was also

  able to record shows and watch them whenever I wanted. Proba-

  bly the biggest concern the TV industry had about this device was

  the fact that the viewer didn’t need to watch commercials any-

  more.

  I was working in the industry at that time, and I remember we

  were all wondering how the advertisers were going to get passed

  this. Here it is, twenty years later, and while advertisers have

  been finding new ways to get the word out about their products,

  commercials are still being aired on TV shows and the viewers are

  still fast-forwarding over them.

  Today, we have more channels and options than ever before;

  where you watch (TVs are everywhere), what you watch, how you

  watch (live or recorded), on which device, on which network, etc.

  One can only wonder where or what is next for the evolution of

  television.

  !27

  Act 1

  Television Development

  Let’s take a look at the various roles people have in TV Develop-

  ment.

  THE PLAYERS:

  WRITERS

  EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

  PRODUCERS

  STUDIO EXECUTIVES

  NETWORK EXECUTIVES

  BUSINESS AFFAIRS EXECUTIVES

  WRITERS

  This is where is all begins. Writers are the ones who literally cre-

  ate, dream, envision, and tell the stories that ultimately sell and

  become TV shows. It is their vision that an executive producer (if

  attached) must be as equally passionate about and support.

  The writer/creator is most often attached as an executive produc-

  er. She or he is called, the “creator,” and would get “created by”

  credit on the show. If it’s their first project, sometimes they will

  start with a co-executive producer (Co-EP) credit before being ele-

  vated to executive producer, but they would always get the “cre-

  ated by” credit. This is mandated by the Writer’s Guild of Ameri-

  ca (WGA).

  !28

  Act 1

  EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

  An Executive Producer (EP) is a creative partner to a writer. They

  help facilitate the writer’s vision by assisting in setting up the

  project either at a studio and/or network or through independent

  financing. They can be either writing or non-writing executive

  producers. The writing executive producers are known as

  ‘showrunners.' Writers can bring an idea to an EP, or the EP can

  bring one to them. Together they shape the idea into a series and

  bring it to life.

  A non-writing EP always needs a writer/creator. In order to sell

  and produce a series with a network/buyer, they need to know

  the writer’s vision. There is a particular circumstance where an

  EP can bring an IP ( more on “IPs” in Act 2), or an idea, to a network

  without a writer and enlist their help to find the writer, but net-

  works would not buy the idea until the writer is attached.

  PRODUCERS

  In the credits of a TV show you will see many names with differ-

  ent types of “producer” credits. These are the writers and/or

  physical producers on the show. The writers work in the writer’s

  room with the creator of the series and help ‘break the story’ for

  each episode in the season(s). Oftentimes they will write episodes

  of the series. The ‘below the line,’ or physical producers, on the

  show help with the actual production of the show.

  STUDIO EXECUTIVES

  The Studio Executive is the person who works for the company

  that 'deficit finances' the project. The studio owns the show.

  Deficit finance means the studio will pay the amount of money it

  costs to produce the show above and beyond what they get from

  the network.

  !29

  Act 1

  NETWORK EXECUTIVES

  The Network Executive is the person who works for the company

  that pays a 'license fee' for the project in order to air it on their

  network. A license fee is an actual fee that the show (the studio)

  gets from the network for the right to air it. It’s like renting vs.

  owning. The network, in turn, will charge advertisers a fee to

  place ads (commercials) during the show.

  At the network and the studio, as well as some production com-

  panies (companies that writers and producers form), there can be

  two types of executives: Development and Current.

  • Development Executives develop the pilot for the series.

  • Current Executives work on the life of the series while it is on-

  the-air, in 'first run.’ First run is the first airing of a show.

  BUSINESS AFFAIRS EXECUTIVES

  The Business Affairs Executive is an entertainment attorney who

  works for either the studio or the network. She or he makes all

  the deals. ( More on “Deals” in Act 3)

  THE PROCESS: HOW DO THEY ALL WORK TOGETHER?

  Writer(s), with or without non-writing producer(s), bring their

  ideas to studio executives…

  They then work together on the “project” and bring it to the buy-

  ers, the network executives…

  All of them work in concert on the project and, hopefully, it be-

  comes a SERIES!

  If you are wondering whether writers can sell their ideas directly

  to a network without a studio and/or have a non-writing produc-

  er attached, the answer is yes.

  !30

  Act 1

  It is not necessary to have all these people and/or elements at-

  tached to projects to get it sold, but in my experience it is a rare

  show tha
t is sold from a writer directly to a network.

  When writers do ‘pitch’ directly to a network without a studio

  and/or producers attached, it would require the network execu-

  tives to put more work into the project. This is in part because the

  studio and/or producers usually get a project to a certain level

  before bringing it to the network. When a project comes to a net-

  work with ‘attachments’ already in place, the network can and

  will probably have a better idea of what they are buying. On the

  flip side if the network gets involved in bringing on elements, they

  will have more of a say/control with the project and in turn, be-

  come more invested.

  THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT TV DEVELOPMENT:

  I have found the biggest misconception people have is when they

  believe they have a great idea for a TV show, they also believe it

  should, and could be easily made into one. My hope with this

  book is that you will see there is much more than meets the eye

  when developing TV shows. Also, that every great idea does not

  translate into a viable TV show.

  KIDS PROGRAMMING

  When I was growing up, Saturday morning was dedicated to kids

  programming. Now there are entire networks that specifically

  develop and cater to kids (i.e., Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Car-

  toon Network).

  Kids programming is run a bit differently than ‘prime time.’

  Prime time is programming for adults, ages 18-49, which is the

  most coveted demographic. Prime time is considered to be after

  dinner and before bedtime, or from 8:00–10:00 p.m.

  How is kids programming different? One big difference is that the

  !31

  Act 1

  network and studio usually act as one entity. This business model

  has its advantages, they own the show and also because profits

  from the shows are made in more ways than just advertising.

  They have things like merchandising, which is a very important

  factor.

  Additionally, kids programming usually doesn’t have separate

  executives working on the pilots and the series. Sometimes they

  do have different departments for Current and Development, but

  most of the time they have executives that develop and also work

  on the shows on the air.

  Another big difference is that kids programming also has movie

  and animation departments that complement their series devel-

  opment, although not all of them do.

  When I first started to learn about kids programming, I was really

  surprised to hear that ideas are usually developed in-house or in-