I was reading the Publishers Weekly close-up on mysteries, which reminded me of a pitch meeting we had a few years ago at a basic cable network, before MONK burst on the scene. I pitched a mystery series, a blend of reality and scripted tv, to the new development exec. He interrupted me in middle of the pitch.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “You want to do a mystery every week?”
“Uh, yes,” I said.
“It can’t be done,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked, genuinely confused.
“I mean, you can’t tell a new mystery every week,” he said. “It’s just not possible.”
“Of course it is,” I replied. “I’ve done it. Diagnosis Murder was a mystery.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Yes, it was,” I argued.
“Nobody can do a mystery every week,” he said. “It’s ludicrous.”
“Murder She Wrote, Law and Order, CSI, those are all mysteries,” I said.
“No, they aren’t.”
“Okay,” I said. “What is your idea of a mystery?”
“Scooby-Doo,” he replied.
“That’s an animated Saturday morning cartoon,” I said.
“Exactly,” he said.
The Peter Principle in action. Explains why the American version of “Coupling” actually made it through a few episodes.
And Then His Head Explodes
Despite being laid up with two broken arms, Lee Goldberg is still blogging. Recently, he’s been ripping the lid off TV (what, again? Didn’t Harlen Ellison do this already, and
What The…? That guy needs a thump on the head. Maybe with a dictionary, and have it somehow fall open on the page that states exactly what a mystery is.
~Kiara