Television Development Read online

  The second essential creative element of all development is a writer, a screenwriter. The goal of development is to create and perfect a script. A screenwriter is necessary to transform the idea into dramatic, narrative form, into a script. An idea and a screenwriter are the two basic, essential creative elements of all development.

  Warren Littlefield, the Executive Producer of Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale, defines the TV producer’s fundamental job as “recognizing and protecting vision.”3 The producer identifies a writer with a unique vision for turning a great idea into a series and then helps protect that vision throughout the life of the project. Littlefield’s definition could just as well be applied to the entire process of development.

  Additional creative elements of TV development could include a producer, a director and potentially a star. (I’ll explain in a moment why I say “star” rather than “actor.”) Most TV development these days includes producers in addition to writers. It was more common in earlier periods of TV development for projects to include only an idea and a screenwriter, but, more and more often today, producers participate in the development process.

  Directors become very important participants in the TV development process once a pilot script is greenlighted to pilot production, but directors in TV don’t commonly participate in script development. For one thing, they’re usually too busy directing episodes or other pilots. Sometimes, however, the most successful, powerful and sought-after TV directors do participate in development. They may have ideas or IP that are personally important to them that they want to shepherd through the development process, or they may have their own production company that develops multiple pilot projects for them to potentially direct. In these cases the director is actually acting as a producer, and he or she may earn an Executive Producer credit along with a Director credit.

  Like directors, actors usually only enter TV development once a project has been greenlighted to pilot production, when the casting process commences. Actors are typically reluctant to commit themselves to TV pilots until they can read a finished script and see the character they’re considering playing printed in black and white, and until the director they’re going to be working with has been hired. Most actors enter TV pilots via an extraordinarily competitive process involving multiple rounds of auditions to win a role in a TV pilot, and they consider themselves fortunate to land the job. But the most sought-after actors, the biggest stars who are interested in acting in TV series, can command deals from TV networks that guarantee them big upfront money and, in some cases, the opportunity to have a TV pilot specifically tailored for them. In some cases, a star may tentatively commit to a project at the outset of its development and earn a Producer or Executive Producer credit along with the starring acting role. The star then effectively works as a producer throughout the development phase, often with fulltime producer partners, helping to identify other creative elements and working with the rest of the team to focus and improve the material.

  The list of creative elements that are part of TV development can include a director and an actor, but most pilot projects have only an idea and a screenwriter and possibly a producer. There’s another element that’s essential to all Hollywood development – although it’s not really a “creative” element – money. Someone’s got to pay the writer to write the pilot script. The writers that TV networks want to write pilots for them are the most talented and sought-after professional writers, and the most sought-after writers don’t come cheap. In TV development the networks and studios pay the writer to write the pilot script. When people go into a TV network and pitch an idea for a TV show, what the network is actually deciding in most cases is whether to pay the writer to write a pilot script version of that idea. They’re not only paying for the idea that’s being pitched (and if it’s based on IP, they’ll need to pay to license the IP – more on that later), fundamentally they’re paying the screenwriter to write a pilot script. For most TV development, networks and studios together pay anywhere from $50,000 to $750,000 for a writer to write one 35–60-page pilot script. That’s what the network is typically committing to when it “buys” a pitch.

  In some cases a writer may write the pilot script on her own before approaching a network, rather than pitch her idea and ask the network to pay her to write it. This is called “spec’ing” a pilot script and the end product is referred to as a “spec pilot script” because it’s based on the speculative effort of the writer. If the spec pilot script is great, though, and networks want to develop it, a network will still have to pay the writer for the finished script, and the script will then enter into the network development process. In most cases the network will likely ask the writer to make changes to the script (the network will “develop” the script further) and will be hands-on during the pilot production phase of the project’s development. In some cases a spec pilot script may result in a “straight-to-series” order, bypassing pilot production. Whether the writer pitches her pilot or specs it and sells it to a network, the development of that script costs money that the network and studio pay.

  Interestingly, producers don’t get paid for development. Producers get paid when and if the development phase is successful and the project moves forward to pilot and/or series production. The producer then earns “producing fees.” In the feature film business producers are paid a nominal amount for development, typically $25,000, to develop a feature film script. In TV, producers are paid zero for development. They work hard for months or years without any compensation in the hope that the project will get made and they’ll be compensated for their efforts. The writer is paid handsomely to write the pilot script, but his producing partner works beside him on nothing more than hope and prayer.4

  The process of assembling the various creative elements of development is known as “packaging.” Putting projects together, marrying an idea with a writer, potentially partnering them with a producer, possibly adding a director and/or a star, figuring out which are the right elements to put together, the right members of the team to marry to the right ideas, is called packaging. The multiple creative elements of a development project are sometimes referred to as “a package.” Producers sometimes put the pieces of a TV development package together. Development executives at networks sometimes put the pieces of a package together. Talent agents sometimes put packages together, usually consisting of their agencies’ various clients. For example, an agent might package a book his agency represents (by dint of representing the author) with a screenwriter the agency represents and possibly add a producer the agency represents for good measure.

  Packaging is one of the fundamental arts of development. The goal is to marry creative elements that harmonize, that work together and off each other to make the best possible version of the project. Packaging the wrong creative element can sink a project.

  To review: Identifying a great idea and packaging the right creative elements to translate that idea to pilot script form are the first two and most basic activities of TV development. The package can consist of the idea and one person, the screenwriter, or several people.

  In the next chapter we’re going to walk through the specific steps of developing a typical pilot script from idea to pitch to script to pilot to series, but before we dive into the details of that process there are a handful of important preambles, a few basic concepts about how the TV industry works today that are essential to understand.

  Preamble #1: The Corporate Structure of the TV Industry

  In the Hollywood movie business there is one fundamental corporate entity: the movie studio. In the TV business, on the other hand, there are two basic corporate entities: the TV network and the TV studio. Understanding the distinction between what TV networks and TV studios do is essential to understanding the American TV business and essential to understanding how TV development works.5

  Most of us are familiar with the names of the companies that have long ruled Hollywood, the great old American movie studios like Dis
ney, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and others. If I’m a screenwriter with an idea for a Hollywood movie, I can get in my car and drive to one of these movie studios, let’s say Warner Bros., which sits on a large studio lot in Burbank, and pitch my movie (I’m making this sound like an effortless and easy thing to do for illustration’s sake, but a pitch meeting is by invitation only and not easy to come by. We’ll discuss later who gets these invitations in the TV business).

  I sit down in the office of a Warner Bros. movie exec and pitch my idea. If she buys my idea, she puts it into development at the studio, then I write the movie script with her input, and when the script is finished she presents the script to her boss, the President of Production of Warner Bros. Pictures who decides whether or not to greenlight my movie to production. If the studio’s production president greenlights the movie, then Warner Bros. makes the movie. Executives of the studio oversee physical production. I might shoot some of the movie in Warner Bros.’ soundstages or on one of the faux-facade streets of the Warner Bros. backlot. The studio then oversees post-production of my movie, and possibly makes use of the studio’s edit rooms and scoring stages on their lot. Once the movie is done, the film is turned over to the studio’s marketing and distribution departments, executives of which have consulted on the project from greenlight through production and post-production. Once the Warner Bros. distribution department gets the DCP (digital cinema package) of my movie into the hands of exhibitors, the movie theatre chains, Warner Bros. is finally done with the many steps involved in making my movie.

  In reality, most movie studios today involve financial and distribution partners, but the writers and producers typically deal only with executives from one corporate entity, most often the movie studio.

  In TV, by contrast, there are typically two corporate entities involved in this series of steps, the TV studio and the TV network.

  Most of us are more familiar with TV networks than TV studios, so let’s look at networks first. By “network” I’m referring to any of the nearly 50 channels that distribute high quality, big-budget scripted series television. Those networks include the five legacy American broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW, the basic cable networks like TNT, AMC and FX and premium cable networks like HBO, Showtime and Starz. There are also newer over-the-top (OTT) networks that stream shows to viewers online like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. While cable channels and OTT streamers aren’t technically networks, they all effectively act as networks and most professionals in Hollywood refer to them as “networks.” For that reason I’m going to shorthand the category and refer to them all as “networks” throughout this book.

  All these companies perform the same primary role of the TV network corporate entity: they distribute content. They distribute shows to consumers. Second, to attract the largest possible audience to the content they distribute, TV networks market their shows. At their core, TV networks are giant distribution and marketing machines.

  But the networks typically don’t make the content. This is where it gets tricky. They rent it. Networks “license” the content they distribute. They license the shows for the privilege of being the first and, in many cases, the only network to distribute the shows. In other words, a license agreement allows a network to be the first channel to air new, original episodes of a TV series. It also allows the network to be the exclusive distributor of a finite number of repeats of those original episodes, defined either by a limited number of times an episode can be repeated (in broadcast and cable) or by a limited period of time the network can exclusively run or stream those episodes to consumers.

  So the networks distribute and market content, but they don’t make it. Who does the network license the content from? Networks license shows from TV studios.

  The network pays the studio a “license fee” for the privilege of being the first exclusive distributor of the series. Traditionally, the license fee is equivalent to two-thirds of the actual cost of producing the episode. When NBC airs a new episode of This is Us it has paid the studio that produced the series a license fee of several million dollars for the privilege of being the network to air that episode first and to air new episodes of that series exclusively. NBC markets that episode with on-air promotion, online and print advertising and with various forms of publicity. It then distributes the episode to consumers via its TV stations and via cable, satellite and internet.

  Because a TV network pays so much money to license so many episodes of so many series, it employs executives to oversee all that programming on its behalf and to protect its huge investment. Those execs are called “programming executives.” At American TV networks there are two primary kinds of programming executives: development executives and current executives.

  Network development executives develop new shows. They’re the network employees who hear the pitches and decide which pitches the network buys and places into development. They then work with the writers and producers to focus, hone and improve the pilot scripts, to develop them, to make them as good as possible with an eye toward the kinds of shows that the network thinks work best for its audience. When a finished pilot is deemed successful and the network orders it to series, the network development executive’s job is done and he hands the project off to a current executive.

  The current executive is the network executive who oversees the network’s interests in series that are currently on the air. The current executive has a say in the creative direction of the series, and also serves as the point person between the network and the senior staff of the show on behalf of all the network’s various departments that have a need to interact with the show. Rather than many different departments interfacing with the show from many different corners of the network, all the network’s requests are funneled through the current executive.

  A network development executive’s involvement with a show may be relatively brief, sometimes as short as only 9–12 months, while a current executive’s relationship with the show can last the entire life of the series on the air, five years, seven years or longer. Notwithstanding, development executives are thought to have higher status within networks than current executives. The birthing of the series is considered the more crucial step in the overall process, and development executives tend to have a much more hands-on creative involvement in defining the direction of the series.

  At smaller cable, satellite and streaming channels that develop and program only a handful of scripted series, programming executives tend to perform both development and current roles. They develop the pilots and then serve as the network’s current executives, managing the network’s interests in the show for the life of the series. For the purposes of this book we’ll focus more on development executives’ responsibilities than on those of the current executives.

  So if TV networks license content from TV studios, what exactly do TV studios do?

  Most importantly, TV studios make the shows. The network doesn’t make the show – it just rents (i.e., licenses) it and distributes it. The studio physically makes the show. The studio has soundstages and backlots and set construction departments and costume design studios and sound mixing stages. The studio is the corporate entity that physically makes the episodes.

  Most American TV studios are divisions of the legendary old movie studios. Warner Bros. Entertainment, which was founded in 1923, operates a movie studio called Warner Bros. Pictures (which made my theoretical movie above) and also operates a TV studio called Warner Bros. Television. Beginning in the 1950s, all the major American movie studios created TV studio divisions that operate alongside the movie studio divisions. One of the many secrets of the Hollywood studio business is that while the movie studios have traditionally been considered the more glamorous and prestigious business – as opposed to the TV studio stepchild across the lot – it’s the TV studios that have made the lion’s share of the studios’ profits over the years. Television has been an enormously lucrative business throughout its history, and the profits of m
ost studios’ TV divisions dwarf those of their more prestigious movie studio sister divisions.

  Studios deploy their physical production assets – their soundstages, edit rooms, etc. – toward both their movie and TV productions as needed, but the studios employ separate teams of executives (including development executives) who work exclusively in either TV or features, but not in both.

  As mentioned above, NBC doesn’t make This is Us. It distributes the series, but licenses it from Twentieth Century Fox Television, the TV studio division of Twenty-First Century Fox, the company that actually makes the series. (Yes, strangely, one’s been renamed “Twenty-First Century” and one hasn’t.)

  In addition to the TV studios that are divisions of the long-standing movie studios, there are a handful of newer, smaller TV studios. Lionsgate, which also has a movie studio division, has become a successful TV studio producing series like Mad Men, which was distributed by the AMC cable network. Media Rights Capital (MRC) is an even newer TV studio. It produced House of Cards, distributed by Netflix, and Counterpart, distributed by Starz.

  But let’s get back to focusing on what TV studios do and how they’re different from networks. First, as we’ve said, TV studios make the shows. Second, TV studios own the shows. The network doesn’t own a show – it only licenses the series for a finite period of time and/or for a finite number of runs. It’s the studio that owns the shows, and they own them forever.

  This ownership entitles the studio to all ancillary revenue from the shows. A show’s primary revenue comes from its domestic US network distribution. That network pays the studio the large license fee for first, exclusive, domestic distribution rights. The studio then sells the show to the rest of the world. The studio licenses the show to foreign TV networks that air the show internationally. All of those international fees go to the studio, not the network. Following the original first-run network window of distribution of a series, the studio licenses a second window of distribution of their series to a domestic streaming company like Netflix or Hulu. One-hundred percent of that streaming revenue goes to the studio, not the original network. In addition to (or instead of) a streaming distribution deal, the studio may strike a syndication deal for repeats of the show to air on local TV stations around the country or on a US cable network. The studio will also license foreign streaming and syndication if there’s enough demand for the show. Home video and merchandising are two other forms of ancillary revenue TV studios earn from their ownership of series they make. All that ancillary revenue goes to the studio, the owner of the series, and not the network that first aired it.