3 Ball Entertainment

Today, Eli Davidson and I pitched 3 Ball Entertainment. The development team likes me over there. They are an engaging group that really is interested in my ideas and concepts. I especially love Dan...I raved about Eli and the show that I was trying to create around her. At the time when I pitched the first time I didn't really have a solid concept for a reality show for her yet. We are getting closer, and it will be really interesting to be able to develop something with them around her. As you probably are aware, she is my career coach! She and I have wanted to do a show since 2006, and it really feels like the timing may be more right now than ever.

I forget if I posted in my blog yet my big news? I was recently interviewed for a major financial magazine and they called the day after my interview and asked me to be on the cover of the October 2008 issue of the magazine! They said they were so inspired by my story and how I invested $1,000 dollars in myself - I said it was the best $1,000 dollars I have ever spent on me...my income tripled, people responded to me better and Damn it I am GOING TO SELL A SHOW!

My Reality TV World: CBS Passed on DW

My Reality TV World: CBS Passed on DW

CBS Passed on DW

We got word today that Ghen Maynard over at CBS passed on the "Devil's Workshop" with Christopher Titus. I hadn't imagined it on CBS to begin with. I feel like the Network has programming geared toward older Americans, and is considered by many as a less hip and trendy network. Also, I hadn't had them on my vision board at all... The comments we got back - it was too narrow. I wonder now, too narrow because of audience ie. older audience and really wouldn't have the audience for it? or too narrow in concept? These are notes I want to know to see what I am missing in my concepts as I am out pitching...or not missing in the case of it just wasn't right for a certain network...becuase it needs to be on NBC!

On another note, I was interviewed for a major financial magazine regarding the career coaching I did last year with Motivational Speaker, Author and Coach Eli Davidson. She helped me triple my income and set the path for pitching my show ideas to the big guys! To make a fun story even funner...they emailed me today saying that I am going to be on the COVER!! How fun is this?! My photo shoot is set for August 1st! I had been visualizing August 1st as the big kick off to a busy end to the year selling, selling, selling my shows!!!

5 Things I have learned out Pitching

Another week and yet more reschedules. Mike Darnell's office has once again had to move our "Titus Project - Devils Workshop" meeting. It's all good in my book and I feel like when the Universe wants us to be in his office it will happen. We literally have rescheduled this meeting now five times due to his busy schedule. I'm not complaining, I'm learning to have patience!! ABC has also been put on hold to next week as well.

Thing is, before the Titus Project, I was not pitching the Networks or BIG time people like Darnell, only production companies.

The most important things I have learned during my six month pitching schedule:

1. Don't be offended when someone reschedules & reschedules. Our Assistant on the "Devils Workshop" explained to me that half of her job is to reschedule appointments. This is TV and things change all the time and its OK to reschedule on their end. Whenever the Universe decides it will happen it either will or won't.

2. Dress to impress. With Network pitches I always dress my best. Nice skirt with a great top and a suit jacket. Recently, I met with a Development person at a Production Company, who was wearing an outfit fit for the beach. I was really taken a back at how unprofessional the person's outfit was. Not to mention the fact that they didn't even get up to shake my hand or give me a hug, which I thought was terribly rude. (considering I had met this person several times!)

3. The more people you pitch, the greater potential you have to sell something. I feel that its a numbers and personality game. The more people you pitch the better potential you have to gain more interest in your concepts and $$ down the road. The more people like you and believe in you, the greater potential to sell it!!

4. A Deal takes Time! It takes so long for a deal to go down. From the creation to the pitch to the sale. My friend Dan optioned a show to MTV, and he is still waiting after 4 months for it to get thru the legal department and start up production.

5. Always keep Positive! That feeling that you are never going to sell it is going to be there. It happens to all of us! You just have to put your head down and keep moving forward and please don't listen to the naysayers...you know those people who are negative and don't believe in you! If you have great ideas and people tell you this, then you know you are on the right track!! Always do your best work no matter what. If you feel down, tell yourself "The Universe will always take care of me! Everything takes time, I will sell this show!"

Ahh Disappointment...

Wednesday nights debut of Project Runway was a big disappointment. The characters and the challenge --LAME. That is all I have to say right now. With the exception that Heidi is probably the hottest woman on the planet...Seal's one lucky man.

Project Runway - Best Show on Television

Project Runway is the best reality show on television right now. Thoughts and Comments?

My Monday VH1 Marathon

It's Monday and I am in bed! I had a small surgery this am and I now I get to catch up on my VH1 Reality Shows. Shows I watched today: Brooke Knows Best and I love Money...TWO shows that I admit will be my guilty pleasure when I am home alone and bored shows.

Brooke Knows Best. Since the family has now broken up and Nick is in jail, Brooke is breaking away from her family and getting her own place. She is very cute and her dad is so annoying! I know he loves his baby and everything, but he is the biggest overprotective nut I have ever seen. He can't get over the fact that his daughter is growing up. He can't let her be excited about being on her own and that she doesn't need his protection anymore. He is a complete freak. And he tries so hard to jokingly convince her to let him be the THIRD roommate with no avail!

Her apartment is the bomb though. Pink Sneakers and VH1 are definitely trying to give the show that look of the "Hills" and also put in cool music during those "Brooke scripted moments," where she has a small moment. In the end of the episode Brooke puts on a pouty face and tells Dad she really doesn't want him to go...COME ON NOW. She is being a total sweetheart to him but look we all know that she can't wait until he drives away in his Ford Escape rental..."Bye DAD..." They laugh as he drives away! VH1 has dumb commercials starring the two roommates that really are STUPID.

I Love Money. This one is a total guilty pleasure. 15 cast members from VH1's "Love" Franchise of shows compete to win $250k! The contestants are better on this show than they were on the "Love" shows they were originally on...PROBABLY because they are totally into winning an actual cool prize! I mean Rock of Love is a great show, but really do you seriously want to be Brett Michael's girlfriend?

That guy has had more "nasty hootenanny" than I'd like to think about and uh although the show is friggin genius, love is never gonna last with him. He still has to fulfill one more installment of Rock of Love doesn't he? So, no matter what if you compete to be his main woman on the show - in the end you will only be his tv girlfriend. Besides he wears more makeup than you and I, and he must be losing his hair - hence the bandanna...and he doesn't have the same washboard abs as he did in PLAYGIRL...

Flavor of Love. I don't think I need to say much about the show or him for that matter. Can you seriously imagine yourself with a guy with a clock, big time baby mommas and 6 kids in tow? And what about I Love NY...any guy who wants to be with her and her momma - have fun! Not only is she a hand full but her momma is a nightmare. Total bad boob job too...

Anyway, I Love Money is good for what its worth and if you are bored, home alone or with a gal pal the show is fun.

What does it take to be a GREAT Reality TV Producer?

People always ask me "what does a TV Producer do?" PRODUCERS DO MANY THINGS! It depends really on the show, but to be a well rounded producer you must...

• Befriend the Executive Producers. They are either going to make your life easy or quite difficult.


• Be able to Multi-task. I can literally do 10 things at once. You have to learn how to do it if you can't.


• Be able to write. If you can't write, you are going to suck at coming up with one sheets and Bios and profiles and scripts.


• Be a People person. You gotta have personality. People hate working with BITCHY women and WHINY guys. WE are already working 18 hour days, 7 days a week and no 7th day pay so shut your mouth and smile. No one wants to work with someone who is constantly complaining. We are all tired and were all sick of the subject matter already.


• Ability to make anything happen. You have to be able to rub two sticks together and make fire or snap your fingers and it appears!


• Always have a back up plan. When you least expect it either a casting subject, location or something will fall through. Be prepared and always have a back up. No matter what.


• Know Everyone - or know how to get to that person if you don't - or know someone who knows them so you can get to them.


• Find a story in any situation or subject.


• Always do heavy research and get to know your subject. There is always something that will pop up in Reality that the EP will say "why didn't anyone know about that?" If you had known then you would have told the EP way in advance and what was a problem wouldn't be a problem had you just DUG A LITTLE DEEPER inside the mind of your subject...


• Be prepared to wear many hats. Even if you have a juicy title on a show; you may have to hem a pair of pants, run and get a coke for someone, make copies etc...just smile and say if this is going to help you, It's my pleasure!


• LISTEN! Don't be a know it all. Everyone has a different opinion, be open to listening to others!

Greatest American Dog

CBS in its commericals states, "Greatest American Dog, one of the best reality shows out there..." "Don't miss Greatest American Dog...the new SUMMER HIT???" "Greatest All Time Reality Show?" UHH...yeah for about a minute while I was watching the commercials it seemed like it could be good...until I actually tuned in. Fun for all of about 20 minutes. I am sure that the idea sounded good at first, pitting 12 dogs against each other each week - eliminating one dog to find the Greatest American DOG. Hmm. Honestly, do we really need and want to see a dog reality competition show? The question is, how bored are you? Could it be the next franchised series up there with the likes of Survivor?! I seriously doubt it. There isn't much substance and the contestants and the challenges are lame. Pet lovers will be in doggie heaven watching this series, but for the average viewer and us REALITY junkies...surf on to another series on a different network.

The series is hosted by Jarod Miller, who seems to have appeared out of no where. Apparently, he is a pet expert combined with a lack of TV personality. As far as I am concerned he should stick to Animal Planet and the Morning Shows. I'm sure he's a wonderful guy with vast knowledge of animals and newbies have to get their start somewhere...

The judges UGH...even more depressing. Victoria Stillwell, who councils families with pet problems is clearly the best of the bunch. Wendy Diamond, an animal lover seems to me better suited on a small time cable show. Alan Reznik, is the biggest snooze out of the three. He may have a passion for dogs, but man he made me want to slit my wrists.

The Dog on the skateboard was my favorite. I say he should win the $250k.

I don't know about you, but I don't need to watch 8 episodes - 20 minutes was enough for me...

Reality TV that Sucks

It still boggles my mind to think about how crap Reality TV ever gets on the air. Take for instance NBC's series "The Baby Borrowers." NBC could have made a "Dateline Special" about this topic instead of a Reality Series for the American Public. This series was originally slated to air during the writers strike and apparently aired in 2007 and is re-airing now. Why? My guess is the network felt compelled to air it because they knew that they wasted money even producing the series. Or maybe they felt that it was timely because of the teenagers in Massachusetts having a pact to get pregnant. I was bored after 5 minutes of watching. Sometimes I sit and wonder what were they thinking? This shit could have been a one hour documentary special. I have been out pitching and everyone I pitch tells me that I have great concepts. Well, I think that my "I Write The Songs" show is a brilliant idea. I have two major production companies considering a purchase. If networks buy crap like "The Baby Borrowers" they need to start reconsidering what they spend their money on. That kind of a show may fly in the midwest but everywhere else we don't want to watch that crap. I feel sorry for those kids and the parents who pimped their babies out for this social reality experiment.

The Art of the TV Pitch LA Style

The art of the pitch LA Style includes a trip to St. John...
A little about my trip and then some about my pitches for this week...

Getting to the island of St. John was longer than going overseas! Our 24 hour journey to the island included sitting on a cramped Spirit Airlines flight for 9 hours (possibly the worst airline) and ended with the St. Thomas ferry dropping us off in St. John. Boy what a ride! And what an amazing island. (The local islanders are not the nicest people - or educated.) We jetted up the hill in our jeep that we rented (everyone on the island drives jeeps) up to our villa "Solaris." What a fine villa. We visited a different beach every day and each one was a pristine beach, with fine white sand and beautiful snorkeling! ...more later.

As for the pitches. We had two set up for my Christopher Titus project this week. One over at Fox with Mike Darnell and the other at CBS with Ghen Maynard. Well, in this town nothing is ever on time or on schedule. For the second time in a row Darnell rescheduled...the CBS also was rescheduled due to Titus. I also had another pitch set up over at A. Smith & Co. which my manager rescheduled due to the Darnell meeting being switched to next week.

I've been working on my own projects since December and am very very close to a huge sale with the Titus project. I've got three other ones that two production companies are interested in, and one that I am still coming up with the one sheet for.

What I love to do is come up with six shows, all just loglines with a premise in my mind. Then I go into the pitches with my loglines. I have found that Development people love this method. They can't stand to sit there and listen to one show for a whole hour that they really have no interest in. You can usually tell within a minute whether they are really interested or not. At the end of my pitches I reassess the ones that didn't have interest and the ones that did. Then when I go to the next pitch I only discuss the ones that are "trendy."

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to all of my new blogger friends!

I will be happily enjoying myself on the island of St. John!

I decided to buy tickets for myself and my boyfriend, after all I have been pitching my shows for the last six months and he's been working hard producing the amazing and talented Bonnie Piesse his upcoming artist -we both deserve the R&R!

I have been pitching heavily this year. I have one big bite at NBC, and two production companies interested in possibly acquiring one if not two of my concepts. When I get back I have pitch meetings set up at ABC, CBS, Fox, and two production companies.

What I need is to sell a show, so the more pitches - the more opportunity I have to REALLY SELL at least 5 of the concepts.

If anyone has any questions about Reality TV pitching, ideas etc - please do not hesitate to contact me or if you have an idea that you think I would love to hear - try me!!