by Neil Landau
There are different variations on the same theme for many TV series concepts, so don’t limit yourself by putting all your eggs in one basket. Have a strong vision of your series, but be open to the needs of the marketplace at any given time.
Ann Donahue, Emmy Award–winning writer/producer/showrunner/co-creator of CSI: Miami, once offered me this advice on pitching and selling an original series, “Find out what they’re looking for and bring it to them.”
Great advice, right? But how? Part of navigating the branding marketplace is doing your due diligence before you go in and pitch (and I’ll get to strategies of how to pitch further in this chapter). Before you craftyour pitch—or write your speculative (“spec”) pilot—you’ll want to do some reconnaissance (“recon”). If you’re fortunate enough to have an effective agent or manager, that’s a big part of their jobs; if they’re good, they’ll always have their eyes and ears to the ground ferreting out what buyers are seeking for the new development season. This might be a show that would be compatible with and complementary to an existing series following the cancellation of an underperforming series. Or maybe the network has a new mandate from a new network president.
Pitching Research
Can you do your own recon and due diligence without an agent or manager? Absolutely. Once you come up with an original idea for a series that you’re incredibly passionate and excited about, here are my recommended steps:
Determine other current and past series that have a similar tone and feeling of your original series. On which networks do/did they appear? Does that network still have the same programming niche and profile? If yes, do they currently have a series that’s too similar? If not, then that network could be a good fit for your series and a great place to pitch.
Determine the programming profile and brand of a particular network. Tune in for their shows and stick around to watch the commercials. If you’re seeing lots of cosmetics and feminine products being advertised, then you know that network is primarily targeting women. If you’re seeing lots of beer and truck commercials, chances are they’re targeting men. Commercials are advertisers “pitching” their clients’ products to you; to the advertiser, the show you’re watching is actually just a delivery mechanism to sell their products to as many consumers as possible. Your job as a TV series creator is to pitch to the network whose advertisers are pitching to their niche audience. It’s a food chain and your show is viewer bait. Sure, you’re an artist who wants to dedicate your craftto the making of art, but if you’re writing for television, it’s all about targeting the eyeballs and delivering the ratings for the buyer. Absent that, no matter how critically lauded your series may be, it’s going to get axed.
Do your research. What shows are doing well in the ratings for their particular network, and which shows are struggling to attract viewers? A niche network like SyFy isn’t going to get the same ratings shares as one of the major broadcast networks, but what’s considered a “hit” for that specific network? If you’re planning to pitch an original series that evokes one of their struggling or recently cancelled shows, you’ve already shot yourself in the foot.
When you go in to a TV studio or network, be mindful of the credits of the executives to whom you’re pitching. Have they been at this studio/network for a while, or did they come over from another niche cable network? Which shows did they champion? Which shows are they most proud of? What kind of taste do they have? Don’t assume that they love all of the network’s current hit list. They might deplore the current slate of programs and want to shake things up with new concepts and new voices. Conversely, they might want more of the same. Surf the web for interviews and sound bites from these execs. I’m not suggesting that you blatantly pander to them. I am suggesting that you appeal to their proclivities. (“Work smarter, not harder” is another Ann Donahue aphorism.)
Know your genre inside and out. If your ambition is to create a new, groundbreaking sci-fi series, do your homework and know about every sci-fi series past, present, and on the horizon. Remember, you’re not just competing with what’s currently on the air, you’re also competing with every series in the same genre from the past decade or more. You don’t want to be blindsided in a pitch meeting when an exec points out that your “original” series is actually a retread of a cancelled series from last season, or maybe it’s too similar to a series that’s currently on another network. Know what’s fresh and unique about your series. How is it different than what’s already out there? How is it the same—but with a twist? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. In fact, if you study the TV landscape, most shows are variations on their precursors. Deadwood was an edgy, much darker version of countless westerns from Gunsmoke to The Magnificent Seven. For example, Lost was a dark, supernatural, serialized version of Gilligan’s Island—with a Twin Peaks spin. House, M.D. turned the heroic doctor show formula on its head with a brilliant physician who has contempt for his patients; House was also a new wrinkle in the crime procedural franchise—but instead of criminals, the doctors were investigating and thwarting diseases.
Some recon might involve casting. Is there a particular movie star who’s seeking a role in a TV series with specific parameters? Is there a network actively developing series concepts for a specific actor?
Seek out TV production companies that are actively developing series for the new pitching season. The producers to target are ones with deals at studios and networks, and it might be a good idea to suss out a producer who had a hit series recently, but doesn’t currently have any shows on the air; these producers are always aggressively looking for The Next Big Thing and might be more open to hearing pitches and reading spec pilots. The hottest production companies in town, such as J. J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, are unlikely, if not completely foreclosed, to hearing unsolicited pitches because they’re inundated by top agents pitching projects from their hot clients with proven track records in TV and film. You don’t need to shoot for the top tier; you just need a producer with some solid contacts who can help get you in the door. This business is cyclical, so yesterday’s hot producer might be weathering a cold spell—and that means he/she might be open to making new relationships with new talent.
Know who’s reading what and when. For decades, the major broadcast networks have opened their doors to hear new pitches about a month after the up-fronts.1 The up-fronts are traditionally held in May in New York. New series orders (anywhere from six to thirteen episodes) are placed in mid-to-late May. And then network execs are wont to take vacations before resuming the new development season in June. More recently, the network pitch-buying season has come even later—in July. The networks have budgets of how much they can spend on buying and developing new series pitches, and once they exhaust these budgets, their shopping spree is over—usually by the end of October (although, occasionally, a pitch will sell in November, but that’s rare). Based on this schedule, studios and producers are in the development pitch and planning mode for many months prior to June. The suppliers to the networks (i.e., producers and TV studios) like to get their ducks in a row at the beginning of the new year; they’ll be watching indie films, reading screenplays and spec pilots, watching graduate student shorts, hunting for hot new playwrights all year round, and then zeroing in on the talent (writers, show creators) they’d like to be in business with for the new network pitching season. If you’re trying to get in the door to pitch your original series to a network, producers with a proven track record are the key. The trick is getting them to read your very best work and, hopefully, they’ll become fans, anoint you at the studio and networks, and become your business partner and advocate in the marketplace. Their job is to find and develop talent and new series concepts. Your job is to make noise and get them to notice you with your impressive body of work.
Once you’ve determined where your new series might be a good fit, the next step is for you to prepare a viable, cohesive, indelible pitch. If you consider yourself a reclusive, reticent,
tongue-tied, prone to stage fright writer, then pitching is not the venue for you. Selling a TV series is about showman-ship and the creator’s passion and charisma. A strong pitch is a performance. It needs to be tightly scripted, rehearsed, timed, edited, memorized, and then come off as effortless, spontaneous, and a whole lot of fun to watch. A good pitch is like a great movie trailer: it entices, teases, and succinctly articulates to the audience what the show is going to be about—all in about fifteen minutes or less.
Pitching Guidelines
Here are my guidelines for preparing and delivering a great pitch for an original series. Every pitch needs to be customized, so these guidelines are not rigid and do not have to be in this precise order. In fact, depending on genre and format, some of these rules may not apply.
Your pitch presentation should have the same tone as the genre of the series. If it’s a comedy, your pitch had better be laugh-out-loud funny. If it’s an edgy thriller, it needs to offer suspense, thrills, and chills. If it’s a family drama, the pitch needs to evoke empathy and pathos. If it’s a crime, legal, or medical procedural series, the pilot story needs to offer a surprising, emotionally resonant mystery.
Set the stage for the pitch before delving into the basic story points (“beats”) in the pilot episode.
What’s the basic format (i.e., half-hour dramedy, one-hour drama)?
What’s the genre and tone?
What’s the principal time period?
What’s the main setting? If you were pitching Once Upon a Time, you would need to establish two realms.
Make eye contact with everyone. Don’t just pitch to the most powerful player in the room; you’re going to need other advocates. Not making eye contact with a junior executive can alienate him or her and cause him or her to torpedo your pitch after you’ve left the meeting. Be democratic, respectful, and diplomatic.
Once the stage is set, start with a killer teaser to pique their interest. Everyone loves to hear a great story told by a master storyteller, so start offwith a provocative cold opening. Maybe it’s facts and stats. Maybe it’s a provocative question. Maybe it’s a joke that captures the flavor of your comedy.
Once you’ve effectively grabbed their attention with the teaser, pitch out the basic A and B stories of the pilot episode. I’ve found it’s best to describe the cast of characters on a need-to-know basis within the context of the story versus as a laundry list. But do not give short shriftto the characters. No matter how delightful and innovative your series’ premise might be, a series is only as compelling as its leading players. Present a thumbnail sketch of who’s who—but don’t snow blind them with too many names and specifics. Do tell them how and when and why we’re being introduced to this group of characters at this particular time. How are they uniquely flawed and engaging? What are their primary strengths and weaknesses?
Present the basic structure of the pilot episode. I like to delineate the act breaks so the execs can get a sense of the tone, pacing, style, and mini-cliffhangers at the end of each act—leading up to the big, climactic cliffhanger at the end of the pilot episode. Ideally, the ending of the pilot episode will be surprising, organically earned, and resonant.
End your pitch of the pilot episode on a high note that portends future conflicts versus too much resolution and harmony. The primary difference between a TV series and a movie is, by and large, that a movie is intended to be finite; “The End” is intended to be the end of the movie. In contrast, the end of a TV pilot is just the beginning of what is intended to be an ongoing journey for the characters.
Make them care. Get them invested in the plight of your characters. Keep them on the edge of their seats with suspense—which is generated by their emotional investment in the characters! You want your series to get under their skin. You want it to haunt them. You want them to talk to their colleagues and bosses and significant others about it. You want them to lose sleep over it. They say yes, and you make the sale when they simply can’t say no.
Clarify the week-to-week of your series. In other words, what’s the franchise? As you’ll read in my interview with The Walking Dead show-runner, Glen Mazzara, “Great TV is about cool people doing cool shit.” So it’s not enough for you to introduce and describe your characters, it’s also essential that you specify what they’re going to be doing in each episode.
Show them your series is set on fertile ground. Have at least three examples for future episodes. This will probably not be necessary, but be prepared with brief loglines in case they ask. Avoid lots of plot details, but do let them know where the series goes from there. What are the “story engines,” that is, what is the series going to be week to week? Is it going to be serialized with an ongoing plotline for the whole season? Or are the episodes going to be closed ended and resolve by the end of each episode by divulging whodunit or the verdict or cure or truth? In a purely serialized series, such as 24, Dallas, Gossip Girl, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Lost, Friday Night Lights, and Parenthood, the ongoing stories in the lives of the characters are the week-to-week franchise. These ongoing, cumulative character plotlines and subplots are called “character arcs.”
What is your intention for your series? Let them know in your pitch so they have a framework for the story you’re trying to tell. In a purely procedural series, such as Law & Order, CSI, Bones, House, the franchise will be the case of the week. And then there are hybrid series that are both serialized and also offer closed-ended A stories, such as The Good Wife, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and Once Upon a Time. The series, Touch, featuring Kiefer Sutherland, started out as a character-driven procedural in its first season and evolved into a serialized series in season 2. Know the network’s brand and what’s working within their wheelhouse. Currently at ABC, hybrid shows are working quite well, while purely serialized shows (such as Revenge) are starting to lose steam with viewers.
Briefly and succinctly pitch out the basic mythology of the series. Keep it simple! Your series’ mythology will take the form of a central mystery—secrets from the past that are actively hidden or obscured. Mythology is about how the past (aka “backstory”) affects the present and future of your series’ characters. Lost was a serialized show with a deep, rich, ever-expanding mythology that dealt with the mysteries of the island. No need to tell the execs everything you know. Not knowing what’s going to happen invokes the central questions of your series—which is the lifeblood of good television. Even in a sitcom in which nothing fundamental ever really changes and the characters very often stay the same, the fun is knowing not if they’re going to get out of trouble—but how. A good pitch will entice them to ask you questions. If you can end your pitch and then they’re brimming with curiosity about what’s going to happen next to these characters, they’re probably going to buy your pitch just to find out.
Let them know if it’s a “premise” pilot or a “non-premise” pilot—although this should be fairly obvious from your pilot episode. A premise pilot means that episode 1 is essential to start the series; a premise pilot establishes the premise from day one. Lost was a premise pilot because it started with the plane crash. The Killing was a premise pilot because it’s the first day that Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) starts investigating the murder of Rosie Larsen and partners up with Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman). Grey’s Anatomy was a premise pilot because it started with the first day of internship for the new residents. The X-Files was a premise pilot because it began with Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) being introduced to Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and the inception of their partnership. Homeland was a premise pilot because it started with POW Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) returning home and Carrie Mathison’s (Claire Danes) accompanying suspicion of him.
In contrast, a non-premise pilot simply drops us into the world of the series that’s already in progress. It’s the first episode for the audience, but it’s not day one for the characters. It’s just now. Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Parenthood, Modern Family, E.R., and The West Wing w
ere non-premise pilots. The Mentalist, Rizzoli & Isles, Law & Order, and most of the plot-driven procedural dramas are non-premise pilots. There are also hybrid franchises that begin with a climactic moment and then either flash-forward (such as in the pilot for The Good Wife and Royal Pains) or flashback (such as in the pilots for Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Damages). To me, Friday Night Lights was a premise pilot because it ends on the debilitating injury of star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter) and its effects on not only Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his family, but also on the whole town of Dillon, Texas. The Sopranos was a hybrid pilot because it’s Tony Soprano’s (James Gandolfini) first day of therapy with Dr. Melfi(Lorraine Bracco).
Think about casting—networks are all about getting the widest audience possible for their brand, so it’s always a good idea to have diversity in your cast. A big exec at a major TV studio recently told me that, given the size of the Hispanic audience, it’s now impossible to pitch a series without at least one major Latin role. This isn’t about pandering. TV viewers like to see their lives reflected in some way on their favorite series, so think about a multi-ethnic, multigenerational cast. Are their exceptions to this rule? Of course, Seinfeld, The Sopranos, and Friends immediately come to mind, but times are changing. P.S.: Sometimes it can be useful to offer a casting suggestion even if it’s a movie star who’s not going to be doing a TV series any time soon or ever—just to create a picture in their minds, “she’s Jennifer Aniston with a briefcase.” This strategy can also be risky because you might end up choosing someone the exec hates.