Television Development

by Bob Levy

  If the writer in Indiana had been represented by a talent agency, the network would have been protected. The agent would explain to his frustrated client that ideas aren’t protected by the law, only specific executions of ideas are protected by the law. The idea of an accountant-by-day/superhero-by-night is not protected; the specifics of a thorough and detailed execution of that idea – the names of the characters, places they live, specific relationships of the characters, specific plot points of stories, specific dialogue used to tell the story – are protected by the law.

  Idea theft does occur in Hollywood, but it’s extremely rare. As mentioned earlier, most Hollywood professionals are in the game for the long term. They hope to have long careers. If they develop a reputation as a thief, their careers won’t last very long. For one thing, they and their employer may be sued, and, if there’s any merit to the claim, the employee won’t last long, and word will spread among the people who run companies not to hire him. Second, if an agent gets burned by an exec she does business with, she’ll be very reluctant to ever submit anything to that person again. The thief will develop a reputation and become isolated, unable to get a job, hold a job or get his hand on material to do his job. Almost everyone in the industry understands this and, as a result, a fairly high degree of professional integrity is one of the business culture imperatives that is embraced throughout the TV industry.

  Aspiring professional writers should never submit material directly to producers, networks, studios or production companies. Agents submit material and set pitch meetings. Aspiring writers need representation by agents or managers to submit material for them.

  The good news for aspiring talent is that agencies have a voracious appetite for talent. That’s their business – identifying talent and selling it, monetizing creative abilities – and they are constantly looking for fresh, new talent. Hollywood loves new faces. As a network development exec once put it, “Hollywood loves the shiny penny.” Yes, it can be hard for aspiring talent to get signed or even get noticed by Hollywood talent agencies, but there are methods to this madness, which I’ll discuss in Chapter 13.

  Other Roles of Agents in TV Development

  Agents are hands-on when their clients begin the process of developing new projects. Agents are frequently the very first development professionals to hear a writer’s new idea. They listen to their clients’ preliminary ideas and give them initial creative feedback along with an assessment of the idea’s potential in the marketplace. Not only is the writer looking for creative and marketplace feedback, she’s hoping to get her agent excited about her idea, to motivate her rep to become a champion and advocate for her idea to the industry.

  The agent may next propose packaging elements. “Here’s a producer who would be great to partner with on your project. She has a track record of success in this area and great relationships with the target buyers.” Or, “This idea would be perfect for Star X who the buyers are dying to be in business with. I’ll put you in a room with her and you can pitch it to her.”2 After the writer has met with prospective packaging partners and further developed her pitch to incorporate any creative or practical sales input from her agent, the agent creates a sales strategy. Do we want to pitch this project to studios and make a studio deal first? Or do we want to take it straight to networks? Which kinds of networks is this project right for? Once the agent and writer arrive at a sales strategy, the agent calls prospective studio or network buyers, pitches the logline and the writer. If the prospective buyer isn’t familiar with the writer’s work but responds to the idea, the agent emails writing samples of the client’s previous work so the buyer can educate himself on the client and evaluate if the writer’s work suggests to him that she’s someone he wants to develop with. If the network or studio exec follows up a week or two later and says he likes the writer’s material (or if the exec knew and likes the writer already) and is interested in hearing the pitch, the agent’s assistant follows up to schedule a meeting for the client to go to the exec’s office to pitch her idea. Hopefully, the agent gets interest from multiple companies and can set a round of pitches, anywhere from two or three to twelve pitch meetings or more.

  The agent views all his clients’ pitch meetings on a calendar and immediately follows up with the exec after each pitch to gauge response and, if he sees an opening, to do a little selling, to “agent” them as much as possible toward the goal of hearing a “yes” and getting an offer. Agents learn the personalities, styles and idiosyncrasies of the different execs, and the best ways to work with them. Most execs are sellable to a greater or lesser extent, and good agents learn how to tailor their salesmanship to specific buyers’ personalities.

  If the agent receives multiple offers for a client’s pitch, the agent may be in a position to effectively turn the situation into an auction and play one offer against another, bidding each one up as high as possible. If only one buyer responds, the project enters the deal-making phase and the agent works with the client’s lawyer (if she has one) to negotiate the deal for the client’s services on the project with the network or studio buyer. If no buyer emerges, the agent has the painful task of breaking the sad news to his client and ideally finds some kernel of positive feedback and encouragement to give her as consolation. “They didn’t buy this one, but they loved meeting you, loved reading your other material, thought you were great in a room [meaning a good pitcher and pleasant personality] and would be excited to hear your next idea.” Agents are a little like doctors; delivering bad news is an important part of their job, and good agents learn how to deliver bad news in a way that doesn’t make their clients feel defeated. One common agent motto is: “Deliver bad news fast.” In other words, perform the harder aspects of the job with professionalism, don’t procrastinate because your job is hard, make sure the client doesn’t hear bad news “on the street” and, lastly, the client deserves to hear a polite version of the truth promptly so she can lick her wounds, pick herself up quickly and move on to the next project, the next piece of income-earning business.

  If the project sells, the agent effectively stands down once the client’s deal is closed. The project is now in the hands of the writer and her various partners. The agent’s job at this point is to respect the process and give his client and the development execs and producers room to do their work. Once a script is in the final stages of development, the agent might resurface to check in with execs and producers and gauge the script’s chances of moving forward. The agent may use his agenting wiles to sell the development exec on supporting the project. The agent may also try to get a sense from the exec of the strength of competing projects, the other pilot scripts that will go to the network president for greenlight consideration. (Aside from his own clients’ projects, an agent is always gathering intel on the marketplace to share with his agency colleagues.)

  Once the client’s pilot script is on the network president’s iPad along with all the other contenders, an agency typically has one of its senior lit partners, who has a good relationship with that network president, make a call to the president to assess her interest in the agency’s various contending scripts and to do a bit of high-level, low-key selling if possible.

  If the client’s script is greenlighted to production, the agent works on her behalf to get the agency’s most sought-after actors and directors interested in considering the project and, on the other hand, coordinates with his agency colleagues to place the agency’s other clients at the front of the line for his client’s consideration to hire. He helps his client navigate within his agency, and he becomes a seller to his own client. The agent knows full well that the project’s success is far too important for his writer client to steer a lead actor or a director to the client’s project simply because of agency allegiance. He knows that choosing the right lead actors and director will make or break the pilot’s chances, but the agent’s job at this point is to do his best to help get his agency’s clients in the door, to get them “in the room” so th
ey at least have a chance to show what they’ve got. The writer/showrunner prepping a pilot is too busy to audition or meet with every candidate and has to be selective, but an agent considers himself effective if he’s able to get his firm’s best candidates in front of a client pilot showrunner.

  Once finished pilots are delivered, the senior agency partner makes another foray to the network president, hoping to gather intelligence on all the pilots’ prospects and do whatever little selling he might be able to do to help tip a decision in favor of one of his agency’s projects. The agent might try to offer other agency elements to help sweeten a project’s prospect. The agent might offer other top writer clients to work on the writing staff or top director clients to direct episodes of the series. Chances are the agency has a package or some share of a package on his agency’s contenders, and the payday seven to ten years down the road if the project gets on the air and becomes a hit is enormous. These moments when network presidents decide which pilots to greenlight are make-or-break moments for projects, and senior agents with any kind of influence on the highest levels of networks do whatever they can to help decisions go their agency’s way.

  Once series pick ups are announced, the entire agency shifts into staffing mode (a mode it’s partly in year-round). The showrunner client might do a call or a meeting with agents at her agency who specialize in directors and go through the list of agency director clients and try to “slot” the firm’s best available directors.3

  Another Role of Agents

  While some writers, actors and directors are entrepreneurial and interested in the business side of Hollywood, most talent prefers to stay focused on the creative work and leave the business side of their careers to agents, managers and lawyers. Most TV writers in development look to their agent, producer and studio partners to do the work of assessing the marketplace and identifying the right target buyers for their projects. A common writer attitude is, “I’ll worry about coming up with a great idea for a hit show. You study the business and tell me which networks could make the best place for it to have success.”

  Agents also sometimes are called upon to protect their clients. Executives and writers work carefully to maintain harmony with the delicate process of notes, but sometimes writers feel network executives overstep their roles and become too invasive in the creative process. UTA’s head of television Jay Sures has had to have a tough conversation with execs a few times over the years:

  What I’ll say is, “Are you open to a little feedback?” They’ll say, “Sure,” and I’ll say, “Your note, whether it’s good or bad is subjective. And at the end of the day, if you really want to be in business with this client, you gotta trust them. I’m going to make sure they hear your note – I’m not going to make sure they execute it – I’m going to make sure they acknowledge it, think about it, and then have them do what they think is best for the project. And I hope you’re ok with that, cause that will be better for you, your network and my client in the long run.” That approach tends to work pretty well.4

  Sometimes clients need even more help from agents. One creator/showrunner of a hit series a few years ago fired her long-time and beloved agents for one reason: She needed a more powerful agency to protect her from her own network that she thought was trying to steer her successful show in the wrong direction. The writer didn’t have the time, energy or toolset to fight back, and needed a bad cop with a lot of muscle. The most powerful agencies have the muscle to defend a client in cases like this, not only because their senior agents have strong personalities (which they do), but also because the agencies control so much top talent that networks and studios are hesitant to alienate them and risk losing out on attractive future projects.

  Managers

  Managers are slightly different from agents. In theory, agents help clients get jobs, and managers help clients navigate their careers. California law specifies that managers may not help clients get jobs. That’s the agent’s purview. The manager is typically considered closer to the client than the agent, almost a professional life coach, helping the client navigate the tortuous twists and turns of a career in a difficult industry. Typically managers have many fewer clients than agents so they can devote more time to each client and deliver more hands-on services. It’s not uncommon for young talent to sign with a manager first; one of the manager’s key jobs at the outset of a career is to help the young client get signed by the best possible agent.

  Managers help groom the talent. How should the client position himself in the industry? Is the client a feature writer or TV writer? Is the client a drama writer or comedy writer? Does the client want to sell development first or staff on a series first? Writers and actors often have both an agent and a manager (their “team”) who work together to get the client jobs and/or initiate development, build the client’s career and navigate a path toward success. Managers are typically commissioned 15% of a client’s pay.5

  Managers also sometimes become producers, as mentioned earlier. Traditionally, agents could not legally produce content, but managers can and do. (In our current era of increasing deregulation, however, rules restraining agents from producing are relaxing, and agencies are slowly dipping their toes into producing television. Endeavor Content is a new production company sister division of WME, owned by WME’s parent company, and develops and produces Killing Eve on BBC America among other new and upcoming series. CAA is also stepping into producing ventures.) The larger management firms package their clients and their own managers as producers to develop, sell and produce series. Thirteen Reasons Why was packaged by three managers at the management firm Anonymous Content, and the three managers serve as EPs on the series.

  Writers, directors and actors sometimes have pangs of conscience when they fire reps who helped them start their careers and then “trade up” to bigger, more powerful agents and managers.6 Some talent, on the other hand, are devoted to their agents and managers and stay with them for their lifetime. We’ve all seen how emotional some actors, writers or directors get thanking their agents or managers at Oscar or Emmy awards for sticking with them through fallow years, believing in them and helping guide them to their success.

  A senior partner at a top LA talent agency, who reps many successful and powerful creators and showrunners, once said that despite all his important clients’ huge and lucrative successes, his greatest thrill as an agent is getting young clients their very first job in television. “I help change people’s lives,” he said. “There’s nothing better than that.”

  Notes

  1 We don’t call all writers who work on a TV writing staff “staff writers” because “Staff Writer” is actually a job title of one of the several hierarchical levels of writers on a TV writing staff; a Staff Writer is, in fact, the lowest level writer on a writing staff. (See the complete list of hierarchical writing staff titles on page 19 in Chapter 1.)

  2 “Put you in a room with…” is de rigueur agent lingo for “I’ll schedule a meeting for you with….” Another popular variation on this is, “You know who you should sit with…?”

  3 Writers are “staffed” onto series writing staffs, and directors are “slotted” into specific schedule slots (including prep, production and post) for specific episodes, in almost all cases long before anyone has any idea what the content of the episode will be.

  4 Author interview with Jay Sures.

  5 It’s not uncommon for writers, actors and directors to pay 10% to their agents, 15% to their managers and 5% to their entertainment lawyers, who negotiate the detailed terms of their contracts (rather than paying them hourly). Very successful writers, actors and directors also pay business managers (who manage income, expenditures and coordinate with bankers and investment advisors) and publicists.

  6 One well-known TV star fired her mom, who’d been her manager for many years and helped her make her way to stardom, only to trade up to a more powerful manager. The mom was an actual professional talent manager with a full roster of clients – as
opposed to a “momager,” a mother of a successful young actor who reps only her own actor child so the family has legal access (by way of the manager’s commission) to some of the child’s income while the rest of the earnings are protected until the child turns 18 under the California child labor law known as the Coogan Act.

  10

  Other Development Strategies

  The standard script development process described in Chapter 2 is the most common series development model in American TV today, and the great majority of new series are developed that way. As discussed, new projects are shopped as verbal pitches, networks buy pitches and pay the screenwriter to write a pilot script, finished pilot scripts are evaluated by the networks, the best are greenlighted to pilot production, networks evaluate completed pilots and – in a minority of cases – order them to series.

  While this is still the most common process today, there are others as well. I’ll look at several in this chapter. I’ll also look at the kinds of development deals writers, producers, directors and actors make.

  Since 2013 a development trend has emerged that bypasses the traditional piloting process. This alternative is known as “straight-to-series” development. In straight-to-series development, a network buys a new project not to order a script and shoot a pilot, but to commit to one or more full seasons of episodes upon initial acquisition of the project. Netflix began this current trend, and other online distribution companies employ the strategy as well (although most buy pitches in the traditional script-to-pilot model too). HBO, Showtime, Starz and other cable networks continue to primarily develop pilots but have employed the straight-to-series model in limited cases in recent years.