The Mail I Get

It's a cliche that everybody thinks their life would make a great story — but now it's not just a story, it's a reality show. I got an email from a guy who thinks there's a show in his budding auto parts business. He writes:

There would be a small but dedicated market for said show on specific cable networks. Not so much featuring the building, but more the economics, structure and work that goes into the business… with the work, cars, and skills being accessories to the focus.
If that interests you, and you would like to discuss further, please let me know. There are a million details, directions and avenues that can be explored within this realm.

I don't know what makes people think that they should share their reality show ideas with me, since I have never written, produced, or created one. But I guess they figure that if you're working in Hollywood, you're plugged into every facet of the TV biz. I'm not. No offense, but you're wasting your time sending me your reality show ideas.

8 thoughts on “The Mail I Get”

  1. Dang! And I was just going to pitch you an idea for a reality show where a writer in Hollywood goes to an auto parts store. And then he walks into a bar. With a rabbi, a priest, and a kangaroo.

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  2. Anybody’s life story, I think, can be a novel/movie/play if they have learned something new about Life, or can express an insight in a moving way.
    One of the most memorable novels for me is Philip Roth’s, “The Ghost Writer.” It’s short, but it shows how a young writer gets in touch with the culture at his depths and then receives the blessing he needs so badly so that he can carry on writing. All the plot is concerned with, outwardly, is a dinner and sleep-over at his mentor’s house. But the moving depths of the narrator’s emotions are timeless.
    I’m not sure a show on auto parts needs to get this deep, but it probably needs a philosophy of life to make it interesting. Where’s the conflict? What’s at stake? Guys working on cars needs more to it, I would argue, than guys working on cars. But that’s just how I see it.

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