1 post tagged development season

Noah Hawley is a novelist (The Good Father) and screenwriter (Lies and Alibis) who created and ran two TV shows for ABC (The Unusuals and My Generation). In this exclusive post, Hawley offers an insider’s perspective on television development season:

Technically speaking, Development Season 2012 began on May 21st. That was the first Monday after the upfronts. Now all the new and returning shows are staffed, all the shiny new overalls have been handed out, and for those of you who didn’t get a chair in the game of staffing musical chairs (or who made pilots that didn’t get picked up), it’s time to think about development. But how? What strategy should you take?

Here are two suggestions for how to jump in:

Start taking general meetings

The networks won’t officially open their doors to hear pitches until after Independence Day, but if you plan on pitching a pilot this summer, your agent should already be setting general meetings with producers and studio and network executives. Even if you’ve created and run a show, as I have, it’s never a bad idea to meet new people.

Television producers — from small shingles to big companies like Bruckheimer, Bad Robot, etc. — are always looking for material (books, magazine articles, foreign formats) that they think would make good TV shows. They are also always on the lookout for writers to adapt them. So get yourself out there and make relationships. This way later — if you have an idea, or they find some great material — the door is already open.

My last show, My Generation, started as a Swedish half hour that producer Warren Littlefield and ABC Studios optioned. They brought the format to me. I responded to it and dived in.

Read More