Lee Goldberg

I got this email today from an aspiring screenwriter. I’ve removed the names:

My name is X. I am a writer.  Producer Z has been corresponding with me via email concerning one of my screenplays.  He asked me to email to him the first 10 pages of my script.  Before sending it I Googled him and found that he appeared to be legit.  After receiving the 1^st 10 pages he emailed his phone number and asked me to call him.  During our conversation he said that he liked the script but because I am a new writer it would take a lot of time, effort and phone calls to get it produced. He then asked for $1, 500 up front or whatever I could afford.  I said to him that even though I am a novice writer, a producer asking for money upfront is a red flag and that I didn’t expect that from someone with his credentials.  He seemed a little embarrassed and backtracked on his request saying maybe I could pay him 15% of the sale.  He asked me to send the entire script to him via email and fedex because he is interested.  Please inform me of any encounters that you have had with Mr. Z.  Is he legit?  I am EXTREMELY hesitant.

You’re right to be uneasy. Producer Z is a notorious scumbag — don’t be fooled by the fact that he has some legitimate credits in his distant past. Asking you for money is highly unprofessional and tremendously sleazy. Do not send him your script or communicate with him any further. And you should register your script immediately with the WGA just to be on the safe side.

I got this comment from Christie yesterday on a three-year-old post about someone I met at a mystery convention who wanted me to produce her great TV series idea.

For the sake of argument- assume you do have an excellent idea/script/series planned out. How would you, going from nothing, get to the point of having that on the air? Is it possible for a person to just hand it over to a producer and let them take the lead? Or is it completely necessary to do everything you did? Would it be possible to pass up the producing/directing/writing part, and just become the voice behind the show. The show-runner, as one may call it. As in "I say what happens" and "You make it happen".

I love these people who want a short-cut to becoming a showrunner that doesn’t involve any actual talent or experience. Clearly, Christie didn’t read my post very closely. I wrote, in part:

[…]television is a writers’ medium. The majority of TV producers are writers first and producers second. Every one of us wants to sell a TV series of our own. It’s the dream. It’s the chance to articulate your own creative vision instead of someone else’s. It’s the chance to not only write scripts and produce episodes, but also have a piece of the syndication, merchandizing, and all the other revenue streams that come from being an owner and not an employee.

[…]Getting to the point in your career that networks are interested in being in the series business with you isn’t easy. You have to write hundreds of scripts, work on dozens of series, and build a reputation as an experienced and responsible producer (Or you have to write and produce a huge hit movie, which often leads to an invitation to work your same magic in television). The point is, you don’t work that hard just to share the success with someone else who didn’t have to work for it.

What is the incentive to do all the hard work but give someone else all the money and control? There is none.

But don’t despair, Christie, it’s still possible to be someone who has never written, produced or directed a TV show and yet can still come up with an idea, hands it off to someone else to produce, and still gets to call all the shots and collect the money. All you have to do to is to earn the respect and power elsewhere …perhaps as a former network or studio president, or as a movie star, or as a bestselling novelist or successful screenwriter. 

Oh, wait, that would take some talent, hard work, and experience….and you don’t want to bother with any of that silly, unnecessary stuff. So I guess the answer is no, there isn’t a way you can be the person "who says what happens."

I got this email from Antonio Lopez today:

I am a huge fan of your books on Unsold TV Pilots. I have found it so fascinating that when I finished Vol. 2, I was left wanting more. When do you plan on releasing another volume that brings us up to date to today’s unaired pilots. This seems like a project that could be updated every five years. Please let me know if you plan on bringing us future volumes.

People ask me this a lot. I started writing the original UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS book when I was nine years old and finished it in 1989, when I was in my 20s. I sold it to McFarland & Co, a small publisher in North Carolina, which brought the book out as an expensive, library-edition hard-cover. The book got lots of publicity and stayed in print for over a decade. When it finally fell out of print, I brought it out again (at no cost to myself) as a two-volume paperback  edition through the Authors Guild’s Back-in-Print program with iUniverse. I also produced two hour-long, primetime specials based on the book — one for ABC and one for CBS.

Over the years I’ve continued to casually gather data on unsold pilots for a future volume or TV special, but I doubt either will happen. I don’t have the time to write another book and there isn’t enough money in it for me to make it worthwhile. Besides, the world has changed since 1989 and the data on unsold pilots is now readily available to TV professionals through paid, on-line databases, which renders the need for my book obsolete. The "clip show" special has become extinct on primetime for the time being due to the success of reality shows and the skyrocketing costs of licensing TV and movie clips.

So that’s a long-winded way of saying no, Antonio, I don’t think I’ll be writing another volume of UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS any time soon…but I hope that someday I’ll have a chance to do another TV special. Thanks for your interest, though.