Television Development

by Bob Levy

  Whether it’s meeting for a beer or an information interview, the information the person shares is important, but more important is the personal contact, the beginning of a personal and professional relationship. You transition from being a name on a possible resume or the daughter of a friend of a friend, and you become a person with a face and a personality. Someone who’s bright and eager and has a positive, committed, respectful and appreciative personality. At the end of the drink or info interview, it’s ok to ask, “Do you happen to know of any jobs open right now that could make sense for an entry-level person like me?” Chances are the person will say no, and the crucial next step is to politely say, “Is it ok if I check back with you in a few months?” Very few people will say no to that question. Put it in your calendar for three months later: “Check in with John Smith.” Three months later: “Hi there, I’m meeting great people but still looking for that first job. Do you happen to know of any opportunities open right now or opening soon?”

  Hearing, “I’m sorry, no, I don’t know of any openings,” time after time can get discouraging. But think of it this way: It’s a numbers game. It’s math. If you meet enough people, cast your net wide enough, keep hustling, keep following up, it’s only a matter of time before an email inquiry happens to coincide with someone who knows of a new opening. Keep hustling, keep meeting people, and chances are that, eventually, the timing will work out.

  Use whatever network of contacts you have to meet people, ask for help and inquire about job leads. If you’re a college graduate, there’s a great chance that there are alumni of your school working in Hollywood. Get that list of people. Make that list of people if you have to. Most alumni feel a degree of loyalty to their school and will help a young, fellow alumnus get on his feet. Are there people in entertainment from your hometown? People often feel a kinship and loyalty to people who come from where they come from. Use it! Chutzpah is respected in Hollywood. If you’re bashful and fearful of cold-emailing or cold-calling strangers with tangential connections to you or your family, get over it!

  If you know what you want to do, if you know you want to work in TV development, target those jobs most intensively. But be open to other opportunities. There are many talent agencies in LA, from CAA and WME at the top, down to very small firms. Aim as high as you can and take the best you can get. A year may seem like a long time when you’re young, but working at a small agency or a tiny production company that doesn’t seem to have a lot going on can still be a positive learning experience and can still serve to help begin building a network of industry contacts. You’re not bound to stay there forever. Your first job will be about learning and it will afford you an opportunity to see a clearer professional path in front of you.

  Most larger entertainment companies like networks and studios have Human Resources departments. Make an appointment and fill out an application. It may not lead to a job in the programming department, but it might get you in the door. Charm the HR people while you’re there. There are numerous temp agencies in LA that cater to Hollywood. Do your research when you hit the ground and apply at every temp agency. Getting in the door as a temp can lead to fulltime staff jobs – it’s all about building relationships once you’re in the building.

  It may be necessary to consider internships if fulltime or even temp jobs aren’t available. Do whatever it takes to get a foot in the door. A low-paying internship – if you can afford to do it – literally gets you in the door, gives you access to people, gives you entrée to developing relationships that can lead to real jobs, at the company where you’re interning or by recommendation to another company from someone you’re interning with.

  If you aspire to a career in entertainment, here’s another tip: Come when you’re young. Hollywood places a premium on youth. I delayed my move to Los Angeles for several years because I was intimidated by many of the myths of Hollywood, and, in retrospect, it was a mistake. It was a mistake because my fears were exaggerated and ultimately just plain wrong, and it was a mistake because Hollywood values youth and the young. Hollywood loves young, cheap labor. Take advantage of it. Your first jobs in entertainment aren’t about the pay, they’re about the experience and the relationships they allow you to build. Plan to live cheaply, bite the bullet and know that you will work your butt off for very little short-term financial reward. The reward is in the long term. Your financial payoff will occur in the long run. If you can make it into the business and up the first couple of rungs of the ladder, the pay for mid-level and upper-level executives is excellent. A successful, lucrative 30-year career is worth suffering for financially in your first few years if you can make it work.

  I counsel students to arrive prepared to execute the Three Ps: persistence, politeness and patience. It’s ok to be persistent. To get my very first job in Hollywood I had to bug a contact five times before he agreed to meet with me – and he was the best friend of a best friend. As long as you’re persistent in a polite way, persistence is respected (just like chutzpah). Hollywood “weeds out” the people who aren’t committed enough to be persistent and lack the discipline and organization to follow up in a timely fashion. But be patient. It’s not ok to follow up and ask about job openings a day or a week after a first meeting. Develop good judgment for a polite and patient timeline of follow up, then follow up. Be respectful. There’s a fine line between being politely persistent and being in someone’s face and annoying them. Err on the side of patient and polite.

  It’s harder to get that first job in TV development if you’re not young, if you’re not in your 20s. Getting a foot in the door as an intern or an assistant is very unlikely once you’re in your 30s. Even if an older person is open to starting at the bottom, employers are reluctant to give older people jobs that normally go to much younger workers. This reality steers me to the second major strategy for getting a job as a development exec, one that can be useful to people who are older than early to mid-20s.

  Development Exec Career Strategy Two: Lateral Move Route

  The second strategy is for people to establish themselves in other careers first and then leverage the other career to move laterally into a job in development. This scenario typically involves getting a job in an ancillary department at a network, studio or production company. Execs can move into development (or network or studio current) as established professionals in ancillary fields. The most common ancillary fields that execs move laterally from into development are publicity, casting, advertising and promotion, research and business affairs.

  Jeff Ingold, who’s now a production company development exec and non-writing EP (Rush Hour, Whiskey Cavalier), worked as a network development exec for many years after transitioning within the network from its program research department. Julie Pernworth, the Executive Vice President of Comedy Development at CBS, began her career in casting. After realizing that as much as she enjoyed casting her real interests lay in helping writers and producers create new series, she set her sights on moving into development, patiently waited for an opportunity, and, when given an opportunity, built a career that led her to run her own network development department.

  I began my career in Hollywood in a network advertising and promotion department. After four years in that job I transitioned into the programming suite as a current and development exec. Literally everyone I worked with in development at NBC when I started had begun their careers as assistants at networks, studios or talent agencies, had paid their dues in development straight out of college and had graduated up to the executive ranks by their mid-20s. Because I had delayed moving to LA until my late 20s and had worked in an ancillary field for four years before transitioning into development, all my development peers were younger than I was and every boss I worked for was younger than I was. It was a modest blow to my ego, but I quickly realized I had an enormous amount to learn from their experience, and I was lucky to have the opportunity.

  Moving into programming laterally within a network or studio is difficult. Accept
ing a job in a network’s ancillary department offers no guarantee that a path to development will ever emerge. The best approaches to a lateral move within a large entertainment company are as follows.

  First, excel in your department. Be a star. Make it clear from your contributions to the company that you are destined for a bright career. Second, have a candid conversation with your supervisor about your goal to move into the company’s programming department and ask for his or her support and assistance. In most cases, you should find that person supportive. (Have I mentioned that Hollywood admires chutzpah?) If your supervisor is supportive, he or she should offer to have a conversation about you with his management counterparts in current and development and share your ambition. If there happens to be a job opening in programming, your supervisor should help you to get an interview. If there isn’t a job opening, your supervisor should offer to arrange a general meeting for you with the managers of current and development so you’re on their radar if and when openings do arise. Third, you should reach out to the current and development execs at your level, invite them to lunch or for a drink after work and pick their brains, inquire about their work and about their career journeys. Build relationships, create allies. Win over your future colleagues to help your present cause. Continue to stay in touch with as many people in current and development as possible, and ask your supervisor to keep his or her ear to the ground for openings in those departments. Keep your eye on the ball, be great at your job and inspire people to want to help you. Big companies love to hire from within, to promote homegrown talent and groom future stars. It gives senior management a sense of pride, and they also know it serves as inspiration to everyone else in the company. Be that star and earn your way to a great new career.

  Paths to Becoming a Producer

  Most scripted series producers, as I’ve discussed throughout the book, are writers. Not only do creators and head writers serve as showrunners (and are credited as EPs), other senior-level and mid-level writers on series writing staffs get producing credits (Co-Executive Producer, Supervising Producer and Producer) because they’re delegated producing responsibilities – in addition to their primary writing responsibilities – by their showrunner. The paths to these writing/producing jobs will be discussed in the next section on writing careers. This section will focus on non-writing EPs.

  Most non-writing EPs enter the producing ranks via careers as development execs (at networks, studios or production companies) or as talent reps (agents or managers). Non-writing EPs tend to be highly experienced development professionals who effectively graduate up to producing careers. After 10, 15 or 20 years as a development exec or talent rep, they’ve accrued the development experience, command of the industry’s politics and processes, depth of industry relationships and industry respect, and often, critically, the financial security to launch a career as a producer.

  Development execs, agents and managers have steady jobs and salaries. They typically have long-term contracts (two, four or five years) that provide them with the security of a regular income and benefits. Producers, as we’ve discussed, aren’t paid anything for development, and while producing fees and backend profit participation can be very lucrative, they only bear financial fruit when a producer succeeds and gets a show on the air that stays on the air for several years.

  Ironically, sometimes industry pros become producers against their own wishes. They get fired from a high-level network or studio development job and are awarded a “golden parachute” producing deal as a face-saving gesture. Most people in this situation probably would prefer not to be fired and remain in their steady, high-paying senior exec position. Receiving a two-year producing deal (including a guaranteed income for those two years) to attempt to launch a new career as a producer is the next best thing though. Some new producers in this situation make the most of the opportunity and become successful non-writing EPs, either developing a hit show they’re attached to as EP, or they have enough development success short of a hit series to earn another POD deal after their initial golden parachute expires.

  Most non-writing EPs find the career very hard going, and many people who try it (either by choice or via a golden parachute) run out of patience waiting for their first hit show, run out of money (many of them have family financial responsibilities) or simply come to the realization that they prefer their earlier career choice and return to the executive ranks. Susanne Daniels was a career TV development exec who rose up to the rank of President of the WB network in the 1990s, then left to become a producer, EP’d a handful of short-lived shows, and returned to the executive ranks at Lifetime, then MTV, and she runs YouTube’s TV development and programming as Global Head of Original Content as of this writing.

  Many non-writing EPs cushion their transition from careers as execs or representatives with studio POD deals that provide an office, an assistant, sometimes a staff of junior development execs, and significantly a couple of years of guaranteed income. Other non-writing EPs eschew the security of studio deals and remain independent, or freeball. One of the most successful non-writing EPs today is Aaron Kaplan, who worked as a TV lit agent at the William Morris Agency (before its merger with Endeavor in 2009 forming WME) for 16 years. Kaplan had earned enough financial resources as a veteran agent to launch a producing career without a studio POD deal, and found success early enough to remain freeball. After putting 19 series on the air in the first seven years of his self-financed producing career, Kaplan agreed to sell a share of his company to CBS Corp. In effect, Kaplan’s self-financed production company has succeeded so well that he’s partnered with CBS Corp. to become his own mini-studio, which will potentially allow him much greater ownership of shows he produces.

  Another route to become a non-writing EP in television is a successful career producing features. (Obviously this isn’t an entry-level career path, but it’s worth being aware of.) Unlike in TV, most feature producers aren’t writers. They’re career producers. Because the demand for TV content has grown so much in recent years, many successful feature producers have expanded their portfolios to include TV. Two very successful non-writing TV EPs in the last 20 years were successful feature producers first. Jerry Bruckheimer produced a number of blockbuster movies in the 1980s and 1990s like Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop and Armageddon, then expanded into TV, having a great run in the early 2000s with the CSI franchise, Without a Trace, Cold Case and The Amazing Race on the unscripted side. Mark Gordon produced the features Saving Private Ryan and A Simple Plan (among many others) in the 1990s, then expanded into TV in the 2000s with Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds and Ray Donovan. More recently, the successful feature producer Jason Blum has expanded his business into scripted television.

  The last pathway to a non-writing EP career worth discussing, ironically, is writing. Some of the most prolific non-writing EPs today are producers who are first and foremost writer/creators. Shonda Rhimes and Greg Berlanti rose through the ranks as TV writers, wrote on the staffs of other creators’ shows, and eventually created their own hit series. Ryan Murphy skipped staffing on other writers’ shows and began creating his own series in 1999. Rhimes, of course, created and ran Grey’s Anatomy, Berlanti created Everwood and Murphy created Nip/Tuck. All three then defied the TV odds and went on to create more hit shows, ultimately becoming such successful and prolific creators that they were able to expand into rendering producing services – ideating new shows, identifying IP, developing shows with other writers – that expanded their portfolio of projects beyond their own writing/creating/showrunning limitations and into effectively becoming non-writing EPs. Unlike non-writing EPs who were never writers, these writer/non-writing EPs work with writer/creators in a more creative and intimate way, but they are still effectively working as non-writing EPs.

  Paths to Becoming Writers

  The goal of many aspiring development professionals today is to create and run their own shows. In the old days, as I’ve described, writers served for years on the writin
g staffs of other creators’ shows before they earned the opportunity to pitch networks and create their own series. The world is different now. Lena Dunham, as mentioned repeatedly throughout this book, created, EP’d and co-ran her own show when she was 25 without any prior TV experience. How did she do it, and what paths do others take to become TV writers and get the chance to develop their own series?

  Arriving in LA in your early to mid-20s as an award-winning indie feature filmmaker and fully formed artist like Lena Dunham is truly exceptional, but young writers and fresh voices have a greater opportunity in TV development today than ever before. The Handmaid’s Tale non-writing EP Warren Littlefield says that TV development today is “about powerhouse creators and new voices.”2 The “powerhouse creators” he’s talking about are writers and producers with huge development deals like Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy, or with long histories of successful series like David E. Kelley and Damon Lindelof. The “new voices” he’s referring to, though, are often young writers with limited TV experience.

  Though Hollywood is more open to fresh voices than ever before, young writers still need official entrée through the gates of power – they need access to networks to pitch their ideas, and that’s still only possible with representation at Hollywood talent agencies. In Hollywood even the gatekeepers have gatekeepers. Young writers can earn the opportunity to pitch networks, but they need to get signed by an agent first.