Post by zania on Nov 12, 2012 16:00:26 GMT -5
I came across this while doing some research for my fanfic, and would you believe that we almost had another A-Team type series? It was one that Brandon Tartikoff wanted Donald Bellisario to do (although it ultimately led to the pitch that allowed for Quantum Leap to be created). Here's what was quoted on scifi.com:
I thought this was very interesting - but it also shows the process that some producers/creators have to go through in order to pitch a show to network executives. The saying that "everything old is new again" is definitely evident when they wanted Donald Bellisario to do a series that was a cross between the A-Team and the Untouchables.
So how did you sell this to the network?
They wanted me to do a series over at NBC, so I got into a meeting with Brandon Tartikoff, Warren Littlefield, and Perry Simon [the then three senior NBC programming executives]. We sat down and they pitched me a couple of series concepts that they were interested in pursuing.
Remember what they were?
One of them was called The Silver Surfer. It was about an aging surfer — "aging" being someone who was in his early thirties, heh-heh — who still hit the boards. He was the chauffeur/bodyguard/confidant of an attractive mid-forties woman, who was mayor of this small town. Everyone thought they had something going between them, but what he was, in effect, was her investigator into crimes and into problems.
The other one was about this team of misfits — kind of The A-Team meets The Untouchables — a group of misfit law enforcement officers with various talents, who get together in Chicago or someplace to clean up the town. They all drive really fast automobiles, have helicopters, jets, dress in Armani suits — why not?
So they pitched me these arenas, and said, "How about that?" And I said, "Let me pitch you an arena."
So I pitched them the story. The only thing I didn't have at that time, and I think I got it at the meeting, was, I said, "I don't want to travel back too far in time, because I want to have some sense of reality to the show." I meant that. If you don't travel back too far, you get into the stories and you understand them, you totally go with them. If you go back too far, there's an unreal element to it. If Sam suddenly leaps in with the Roman legions, or he's on an old ship sailing around the Horn, it just becomes very unrealistic. You leap him back to 1965 and put him in a '57 Chevy with a bunch of other guys and drive him up to a drive-in burger place and throw on some rock and roll, you'd go, "Yeah, that could be."
I had all that at the meeting, and they said, "Whoa! What controls all that?"
And then it just hit me: He can't leap beyond his own lifetime. That just came out: He can't leap beyond his own lifetime. Sometimes you get things you want to do creatively and you don't have a reason for them. It's what I call PCR.
Meaning?
Post-Creative Rationalization. Heh-heh. It really is. "Why does it happen? Why?" Uhhhhhhhh, because, because — he can only leap within his own lifetime! And then, out of that came my string theory about how it all works.
So it was all stuff I knew I wanted to do. When you create something, and people ask you how it works, to justify it, you go back and figure it all out. And you PCR.
So naturally Brandon and Warren, being the programming geniuses they are, saw the potential in this?
They looked at me a little askance for a while. They really went with me because they knew me and they knew my work. Both Brandon and Warren have said to me at different times, "You know, anybody else would have come in with this, we'd have probably just said, 'Bye.' But we decided to roll with you on it." They gave me an order for thirteen [episodes], then I went away to cast it.
When Scott came in, I knew he was Sam. Same with Dean.
They wanted me to do a series over at NBC, so I got into a meeting with Brandon Tartikoff, Warren Littlefield, and Perry Simon [the then three senior NBC programming executives]. We sat down and they pitched me a couple of series concepts that they were interested in pursuing.
Remember what they were?
One of them was called The Silver Surfer. It was about an aging surfer — "aging" being someone who was in his early thirties, heh-heh — who still hit the boards. He was the chauffeur/bodyguard/confidant of an attractive mid-forties woman, who was mayor of this small town. Everyone thought they had something going between them, but what he was, in effect, was her investigator into crimes and into problems.
The other one was about this team of misfits — kind of The A-Team meets The Untouchables — a group of misfit law enforcement officers with various talents, who get together in Chicago or someplace to clean up the town. They all drive really fast automobiles, have helicopters, jets, dress in Armani suits — why not?
So they pitched me these arenas, and said, "How about that?" And I said, "Let me pitch you an arena."
So I pitched them the story. The only thing I didn't have at that time, and I think I got it at the meeting, was, I said, "I don't want to travel back too far in time, because I want to have some sense of reality to the show." I meant that. If you don't travel back too far, you get into the stories and you understand them, you totally go with them. If you go back too far, there's an unreal element to it. If Sam suddenly leaps in with the Roman legions, or he's on an old ship sailing around the Horn, it just becomes very unrealistic. You leap him back to 1965 and put him in a '57 Chevy with a bunch of other guys and drive him up to a drive-in burger place and throw on some rock and roll, you'd go, "Yeah, that could be."
I had all that at the meeting, and they said, "Whoa! What controls all that?"
And then it just hit me: He can't leap beyond his own lifetime. That just came out: He can't leap beyond his own lifetime. Sometimes you get things you want to do creatively and you don't have a reason for them. It's what I call PCR.
Meaning?
Post-Creative Rationalization. Heh-heh. It really is. "Why does it happen? Why?" Uhhhhhhhh, because, because — he can only leap within his own lifetime! And then, out of that came my string theory about how it all works.
So it was all stuff I knew I wanted to do. When you create something, and people ask you how it works, to justify it, you go back and figure it all out. And you PCR.
So naturally Brandon and Warren, being the programming geniuses they are, saw the potential in this?
They looked at me a little askance for a while. They really went with me because they knew me and they knew my work. Both Brandon and Warren have said to me at different times, "You know, anybody else would have come in with this, we'd have probably just said, 'Bye.' But we decided to roll with you on it." They gave me an order for thirteen [episodes], then I went away to cast it.
When Scott came in, I knew he was Sam. Same with Dean.
I thought this was very interesting - but it also shows the process that some producers/creators have to go through in order to pitch a show to network executives. The saying that "everything old is new again" is definitely evident when they wanted Donald Bellisario to do a series that was a cross between the A-Team and the Untouchables.