An Idea is Only as Good as its Execution

Everyone has ideas. Most everyone watches television -- the average American watches over Four Hours of Television Per Day, according to the Nielsen company. That's more than half of most people's total leisure time in a typical day.

Many people who spend a lot of time watching television think they can also create shows. Haven't you ever said, after seeing a bad TV show, "I could do better than that!" But no one sets out to make a bad show (even though most television shows fail to find an audience.) Why does it happen?

It happens because an idea is only as good as its execution. It's not enough to think of a good program idea in a simple one or two sentence pitch. The devil is in the details. For example, if your idea is to create a situation comedy about an alien living in the suburbs, do you want to make "Third Rock from the Sun," "Mork and Mindy," or "My Favorite Martian?" They have the same basic premise, but each show handled it differently. This story about two sitcoms from the 1980s illustrates the point.

NBC broke through as the #1 network in the 80s after putting the Cosby Show on Thursday nights. It was a massive hit, and of course the other networks tried to copy it. CBS rushed a sitcom into production starring Flip Wilson and Gladys Knight. Flip Wilson was arguably a bigger television star than Bill Cosby. While Cosby's first sitcom after I Spy had only modest success, Flip Wilson's variety show was one of the top shows on television during its run. Yet, while I'm sure you've heard of the Cosby show, most of you probably don't know about Flip Wilson's show. That's because it was off television after a few episodes. Why?

Poor execution of the concept. The writing just wasn't funny -- the characters didn't work. And although Flip was a big success hosting a variety show, he wasn't as interesting playing a working class father.

So the lesson to be learned from this is flesh out your idea. Once you figure out your one or two sentence concept, take time to flesh it out. Think about the characters. Write out some scenarios. After all, if you're not willing to spend time developing your idea, why should the audience want to spend time watching it?