The Mail I Get

I get lots of emails from people who want me to help them sell their TV series ideas. Here are a couple of the most recent ones:

I have created the ultimate tv cop show detective series and I want YOU to write it.  You hardly have to do anything since I've come up with all the stories all ready. Write me at XYZ right away or I will go to someone else. YOU dont want to regret it later.

And another:

I have written the complete bible and full pilot script for a TV series and I need to get it to someone at a major network (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) who has the authority to greenlight. I don't live in Hollywood and I don't have an agent but I know what I am doing and this is a great show. If you could pass it up the ladder for me, you would be my first choice to be a writer on the show when it goes to series.

Others just want me to be their penpal. This one was about 1000 words, so I have edited it down some:

I see you have written on some shows I like. Namely Monk, wonderful show. I too am a budding producer/writer/researcher/technology developer/ and game designer… ok Im a bit scattered. I have lots of interests and I explore different forms of media from time to time as it suits me. I am developing a few show ideas..

[…] Im going to be doing a home and garden show. i like to garden and I want to learn about making tv shows. […] I think doing a garden show first is a good choice. Its popular, easy to keep fresh all year, with plenty to do in each week and not a lot of costs. Hard work, dirt, water and seeds. I dont need a big production crew or any talent. 

[…]I do have one or two 'hollywood' class shows Id like to do. I wont bog you down with details. One is a crime solving forensic science show with a nice story over several seasons I think will do well.

[…] Well, thanks for taking the time to read, if you don't mind, can I add you on linkedIn and corresponde with youfrom time to time about writing novels and creating tv shows and movies?

4 thoughts on “The Mail I Get”

  1. Don’t forget the series idea I posted here in 2009. I still haven’t heard back from you so I will paste in what I wrote before. Contact me directly for where to send the checks. I’m willing to act in a starring role and will help audition actresses.
    =================================================
    Cat Dudes! Four single guys in the city who love their kitties. There is a hip-hop/thug-life guy, a bookish nerd, a blue collar guy, and a gay dude. They get together at the local coffee shop/bookstore to share their love of kittens and crack jokes about litter boxes.
    Sometimes they pursue madcap adventures while hunting down lost kittens, searching for sale priced cat food, or helping each other find dates in a world where men are supposed to own dogs. Each episode ends with a cat-centered moral or lesson: how to keep your cat from puking all over, recommended games, viewer submitted cat pictures.
    There are umpteen million ideas that could make an episode. Lost kittens, kittens with mange, kittens playing with string, kittens getting lost, kittens vomiting, kittens with leukemia, kittens who steal jewelry, kittens wrestling with other kittens, kittens asleep on keyboards, so on, so forth.

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  2. Okay, so we know lots of persons want to get a TV series going, and that you, Lee, are the one they are coming to. So this is your “call to adventure,” can you utilize this resource somehow to everyone’s mutual benefit?
    I’m thinking about a reality show, think a cross between “The Apprentice” and “American Idol.” Persons with ideas for a TV series compete against each other with the top three winners getting their pilots made. So, like “Idol,” there’s a series of “pitching auditions” to a group of judges. The judges select maybe 10 possible concepts for a TV series. The ten contestants have to get a producer, director, writers, a studio, a crew, etc. and get one scene written, cast and shot—something like that. The audience, including those at home, get to vote on the scene they like best, with the bottom scene and contestant voted off the show. Then another scene is shot, and the voting begins again. When 3 remain, the entire pilot is shot, say, and each is shown on the air, the audience votes, and a network agrees to pick it up and run with it, or with all three if applicable. (Of course, I’m just riffing, the concept could be tweaked as needed.)
    I wonder, Lee, if it would be possible for you to pitch the show, assuming you want to run it or get involved, with Mark Burnett Productions?? Anyway, the show would appeal to all those out there who want to see a behind-the-scenes-view-of-TV-production, with a real show at stake. You’d make a great host.

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