It’s Official: Comedy ‘Save Me’ Gets Cast-Contingent Pilot Order At NBC

COMMENTS (10)

• How will this ever work with mainstream audiences? Many will disregard it, while others won’t even bother looking at it.

  Comment by P — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 6:52pm PDT  Reply to this post

• ^I mean’t much of the audience won’t approve of it

  Comment by P — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 6:57pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Can someone explain to me the purpose of having someone like Neal Moritz on a tv show such as this? Nobody can really do a good job of explaining how this works out. What truly is the point of Mark Gordon on Grey’s Anatomy? Sounds like Shonda has everything under control, Mark is just another pile of cash that goes out the door and apparently from what I’m told doesn’t do anything.

  In television, the writer/EP is king. A producer under a POD deal really is just…..what? What kind of talent does a non-writing EP bring to the table?

  The 70s and 80s were different.. Spelling-Goldberg I understand. Leonard ran ABC, Aaron started as a writer, in fact.

  I get it. But Mark Gordon? Neal Moritz? Gale Anne Hurd? (She was tacked onto Walking Dead since there was a rights battle on it…Darabont was put on it when it was originally at ABC, Gale came in later..)

  Neal Moritz did Greg The Bunny? Shasta McNasty if memory serves. And even Joel Silver had a few…Action, a show that was way ahead of it’s time, and Veronica Mars.

  My question is this, and I’m not “knocking” their role in these shows — I’m playing dumb and I’m asking.. why do they have these roles? Most of these shows were created by writers who have pre-existing and pretty decent credits. So what does the non-writing EP bring to the table, specifically in the form of a half-hour…

  ?

  -Stupid in Santa Monica.

  Comment by Stupid in Santa Monica — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 7:03pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • I think it’s mostly just a mechanism for big agencies to filter already big name TV clients into the mits of big-money producers – all in the name of the agencies collecting BIG PACKAGING FEES.

    It helps keep television cost astronomically high, and also in the hands of very few. But it gives studio and network executives a sense of ease (that they have someone to finger when it all goes to hell).

    But I could be wrong.

    Comment by TV Fan — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 10:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Sounds like a rip off of that Laura dern show

  Comment by Jesus — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 7:09pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Yes, what is the purpose of the pod? Why can’t writers (EPs) go directly to the studio/network like they did back in the day?

  Comment by Wondering along with Santa Monica — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 8:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • They can. A lot are afraid to. However, all an established writer has to do is set up a production company, but that doesn’t mean that a network won’t assign a POD to your project that has a deal with them. A network can always do that because at the end of the day the POD is loyal to who writes the checks.

    Comment by brick — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 8:57pm PDT  Reply to this post

• This doesn’t say good things for Bent or BFF’s that much I know.

  Comment by brick — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 8:20pm PDT  Reply to this post

• YES! I’m with Stupid! Can someone explain what producers do?? I’d love to hear someone who is a producer with a pod help explain. I’ve “developed” shows with a few and in my experience all they do is sit next to me when I pitch and then collect a check if things work out. At their best are producers who develop sort of double agents who soften the relationship between creative people and money people?? I just don’t get it!!

  Comment by Equallystupidinthehollywoodhills — Tuesday September 27, 2011 @ 9:04pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • To Stupid and Equally Stupid… I doubt you’re both really stupid, just haven’t had the experience I’ve had. I’m not in the business but go through its ups and downs as my husband is a non-writing producer, an EP with credits and experiences successful and not developing projects with several always working writers. Full disclosure: He’s also an award-winning writer who realized he prefers producing and collaborating with other writers to solo writing.

    I think you’d both be stunned to know just how many TV writers (currently staffed and with producing credits) know almost nothing about producing. I run a non-profit and I know more about TV producing than most of the writers to whom I serve drinks and meals. What’s particularly fascinating is how few of them can even develop a pitch, not to mention write an original pilot script without tremendous coaching and support. If our walls could talk! Many TV writers have built careers on sample scripts (based on existing shows – unlike feature writers who usually get breaks by writing something original). At some point, part of their deal is to get a producing credit and thus, they become “producers.” Making a show – from developing to pitching to producing to post-producing to marketing – requires talents that many TV writers don’t have or don’t want to cultivate, preferring lunch in the writers’ room to solving problems on a set (I’ve seen this time and time again). A writer fortunate enough to work with a producer who believes in writers and can get a show picked up – and for better or worse that usually means a POD producer these days – is often able to focus on the story while the producer produces.

    I took the time to write this post to shed some light from my perspective. There are awesome writer-producers… the best are mind-blowingly talented. I’m just tired of the credit grabbers who think eating lunch with JJ makes them JJ (and deny the value producers bring to a production).

    Comment by NotStupidinSantaMonicaJustTiredofCreditGrabbers — Wednesday September 28, 2011 @ 8:37pm PDT  Reply to this post