I got an email the other day from Dan X. He wrote:
I'm trying to become a tv show writer and was wandering if you could help me out.
I replied:
I sure can — all my best advice is in my book SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION WRITING. http://www.amazon.com/Successful-Television-Writing-Lee-Goldberg/dp/047143168
He replied:
I was wandering if there was any other way, cause I'm good at creating tv shows but I just need someone like cbs to get ahold of
Hope he’s wandered out of your life by now.
When people contact me, saying they have a great new idea for a show the networks will love, I don’t know how to explain the process to them.
The closest analogy I can come up with is someone saying, “I have this wonderful idea for a new color. It’s kind of a greenish-blue with a little gray. I’ve never seen it before. All I need is for you to come on-board and we can develop it together and then we can take it to Benjamin Moore and sell it to them and make a lot of money.”
This isn’t how it works.
Wow. You get all the special people contacting you.
While you’re at it, can you send me Steven Speilberg’s cell number? I’m not published, I’ve never actually written a screen play but I’m pretty sure I can pull that off.
Geesh.
When he’s done “wandering” about these things, perhaps he’ll wonder why no one at a studio would take him seriously. They may make an exception if the first of his shows is a documentary on the decline of spelling skills and grammar usage in the world.
Hey, at least this guy didn’t offer you 10% if you would write it for him. If you need any more of those ten percent offers, I have plenty of them.