How do you like your stakes? I personally like them big and rare. But Broadcast Executives like them big and often.

So what are the stakes for the characters in your show? What do they need to accomplish and what happens if they don’t do it?

A well-written show will almost always have a reason that the characters need to get something done. And they generally need to get it done by a certain time.

If the characters don’t have stakes in the game, than it makes it harder for the viewers to care. And if the viewers aren’t going to care, the Execs aren’t going to either. …readmore

Research, social media, and your face.

As you research television shows that are in a similar genre to yours it’s not uncommon that you’ll have to watch some shows that you consider to be utter crap. Some of them probably ARE crap. Yet you still have to watch them so that you know the ins and outs of what’s on TV. …readmore

Are you bringing any talent to the table? No, I’m not being mean. I mean do you have any talent attached to your show.

If your show revolves around a specific person, it could be in your best interest to enter into a legal partnership agreement with them before you begin pitching your show.

But, like most things in life, there can be an upside and a downside to this type of deal and you need to be prepared. …readmore

I got an email from a reader a few weeks ago with a pretty good question. It went like this:

Do u have a producer friend? Seems its best to have a producer on board when pitching to a network. Does the same go for a director?

To start, I’m not going to take issue in this blog with the writer’s grammar, spelling and punctuation.

But the question asked about whether it is advantageous to attach a Producer and/or a Director to a project is a good one. When I was getting started I asked it too, and the answer is pretty darned simple. …readmore

You can’t win if you don’t play

I was sitting in an airport lounge this morning waiting to fly to LA for some meetings and I struck up a conversation with a fella sitting beside me. We were talking about the Super Bowl and gambling and the conversation eventually came around to lottery tickets. He was saying his Mother spends upwards of $300 a month on the lottery.

Apparently she always tells him, “You can’t win if you don’t play.” …readmore

I was making a pizza the other day (“making a pizza” means putting extra toppings on a frozen pizza), but when I looked in the fridge I didn’t have any pepperoni.

It was a nasty day outside and it ticked me off because if I had checked earlier I could have easily picked some up before I got to the final stages of “making” my dinner. Needless to say I chose to brave the elements and quickly run to the corner-store because really, a pizza without pepperoni isn’t much of a pizza at all.

It reminded me of this kid Tony I went to elementary school with whose family owned a pizza joint. This kid always knew the daily lessons’ answers before our teacher taught the class because whatever chapter we were supposed to read, he would read the next chapter as well, so he was always ready for whatever questions came up the next day. …readmore