Why Did ABC Cancel "The Assets" while F/X Renews "The Americans?

ABC announced the cancellation this week of their Cold War spy era series "The Assets" after just two episodes. They planned for the series to be "limited" and complete the story arc in 8 episodes. I'm sure they didn't think the "limit" would be two episodes, however. The series was a fictionalized version of how the CIA searched for and caught one of the most destructive, traitorous turncoats in its history, Aldrich Ames, played by Paul Rhys. It takes place during the mid-80s when Ames was a respected CIA counterintelligence operative, and details the CIA's efforts to find the mole in their system. I am in the small minority of viewers that saw both episodes of "The Assets." I say small because the first episode received a .7 rating and the second a .6. No broadcast network can allow a show with ratings like that on the air, so despite my desire to find out what happened in the series, ABC made the decision to cancel. Why didn't the series work? After all, F/X's "The Americans," which stars Keri Russell as one of two deep cover Russian spies working in the US during the 80s, is a big hit. I can envision the pitch for the series and the development meetings that made "The Assets" a 'go' project. The producers probably pointed out the success of "The Americans" and said "The Assets" would be like a spy reality series, with the added hook of being based on "actual events." "The Assets" came with a major, built-in problem that probably sank the series before it began: U.S. traitor Aldrich Ames was a major character, and they wanted us to feel sympathy for him. That's a tall order for US audiences. Imagine the difficulties that a series set during the Revolutionary War would have if the producers wanted the audience to identify with Benedict Arnold There are some things that Americans just don't want to see. Of course, "The Assets" also featured Jodie Whittaker playing Sarah Grimes, the blonde CIA agent who would eventually track the traitor down. But oddly, the two episodes I saw concentrated on Aldrich as much as the intrepid woman trying to catch him. Why did one 1980s spy thriller fail and one (The Americans) succeed? Star Power is part of the answer -- Keri Russell has a television following from her days playing "Felicity". Better execution of concept is another reason. "The Americans" features great writing, sharp direction and great acting. "The Assets" writing and directing were OK, but not particularly memorable. Finally, "The Americans" doesn't feature traitors. The Russian spies masquerading as a typical American family aren't traitors -- they're patriots fighting for their country. They also give viewers an American family that viewers can root for. While "The Assets" gave Sarah Grimes a home life, the scenes didn't depict a loving home, but instead a troubled home caused by her devotion to the CIA. Her husband was understanding, but her teenage daughter was rebellious and everyone resented the time she spent on her job. In the end, an idea is only as good as its execution. "The Americans" is well executed and thrilling. "The Assets," despite the efforts of a talented group of people, was not. That's why "The Americans" will stay on F/X, and I'll be hunting Hulu for the last few episodes of "The Assets."

Set Your Creative Goals

Today's the eleventh day of 2014! Have you set your creative goals? What's that you say? You don't know what your goals are yet? Well get to work. I know, you were partying on New Year's and needed the next few days to recover. Then you spent last week catching up on work. Then there are all the bowl games, snow in the Northeast, and your last opportunity to binge watch all of "Breaking Bad." I'm not saying all of those aren't worthy or important activities. However, if you want to become a content creator, the first step is to actually create content. Write a poem, or a chapter of your novel. Finish that screenplay scene, or create a video. Grab that canvas out of the closet and start painting! Of course you can choose what content you like to create. But unless you're creating or writing or the time, you're not an artist -- you're someone who hopes someday to be an artist. This year, resolve to create specific times in your schedule to create. Drop an appointment in your schedule, just like you would for a meeting at work, doctor, or dentist. Don't take calls during that time, or check Facebook and e-mail. Make it your time to create. Even if nothing happens the first few times, keep that appointment on your schedule. Eventually, it will become your most productive time. Finally, set a creative goal for the year. Decide to finish your screenplay, novel, book of short stories or poems. Give yourself a date to finish by. Then break the overall task into segments. If you just finish a chapter for your book each month, by the end of the year you'll have a 12 chapter book to sell. Creators create. That's our job. Make sure in 2014 you give yourself time to create and a goal to achieve. You'll be amazed at the results. Write and tell me how it's going, and what you accomplished.

How to Make a Successful Pitch

In my years working in television I heard thousands of pitches, and as head of development for production companies I made a few, too. I'm often asked, "what are executives looking for when you pitch them? In my experience they are looking for two things: 1. They want to be thrilled 2. They want to believe you can do it. Let's talk about that in detail. 1. Film studio and network executives hear hundreds if not thousands of pitches a year. They hear them in their offices, of course, but also everywhere they go. I once got pitched by a caddy at the Bel Air golf course who was also a screenwriter. Most of the time, they say 'no.' But the reason they got in the business, the reason they have their current job, is because they want to be part of creating something wonderful. Nothing excites an executive more than a great story - something that they can be a part of and that might make their reputation. They want to be thrilled by a pitch -- but they rarely are. 2. However, even a great story is not enough. As I've written in previous posts, an idea is only as good as its execution. For example, it's one thing to go into a network and pitch the idea of starring Bill Cosby in a sitcom where he plays a doctor. It's a very different meeting if, like Carsey-Werner productions, you walk in with Bill Cosby himself. (see my earlier post, turn your idea into a property). Even with Bill Cosby, the two networks at the time with the biggest audience turned down the pitch for The Cosby Show, which made NBC, the network that said yes, the #1 network during the 1980s. That's why it's important to create a track record in the entertainment business before you pitch. Unless they feel comfortable with the second point, it doesn't matter how great your idea is. If you're already a producer or can show a video of your work, that will help prove it. If you haven't produced anything, try to partner with a production company that has produced shows. Pitching and picking shows remain an art, not a science. If it were a science, no show or movie would fail. However, If you keep these two points in mind -- 1. Thrill them; 2. Prove you can do it -- you'll have a much better chance.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire -- How to Make a Blockbuster

The second film in the Hunger Games series, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, is likely to gross over $500 million worldwide by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend. That's after a record pre-Thanksgiving opening day gross and a Thanksgiving Day record box office gross. It's likely that after just it's second weekend the film will be the fourth best-grossing film in the U.S. for 2013, and there's a good chance that by the end of the year the film will be the top grossing film of 2013. Remember this is only the second film of what will be four movies in the series. I hope whoever optioned the books for Lionsgate got a well deserved promotion. It's no wonder that the only growing section in most bookstores is teen fantasy adventure. It's not just the Hunger Games -- the Harry Potter and Twilight series also made billions of dollars for their movie studios and publishers. Some of these series, like the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series, have not been nearly as financially successful. The latest film in the series, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" has grossed just under $200 million worldwide. We've now seen enough successes amongst these types of films to identify certain common principles of their creation. 1. Start with a popular book series: Harry Potter, Twilight, and the Hunger Games all sold tremendously well as books. The Potter books started the practice of having parties in bookstores the night before their release. The first two Potter films were not critical triumphs, but the series had so many built-in fans they were financial successes. 2. Cast good young actors as the leads, but not stars. Jennifer Lawrence got great critical acclaim for her role in the independent film "Winter's Bone," but she was not a star when cast as Caitness. Similarly, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson had some experience, but were just about complete unknowns when they got cast as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Let the audience create the stars. 3. Surround the young stars with the best possible adult actors: Catching Fire added Phillip Seymour Hoffman to a cast that already included Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, and a host of other fine character actors. The adult Potter cast was a who's who of great English actors. Don't cast stars who will draw the focus from the young leads, but rather will help make the world believable. 4. Don't try to recreate the book on the screen. Aim for the essence of the book and some key plot points, but recognize that movies are a different medium. The Hunger Games films did that successfully by compressing the action that took months into a few days. 5. Include a strong heroine. Of course, Caitness fills that bill, but so does Hermione in the Potter books and Bella in Twilight. Your target audience should be first -- the target audience for the books, and second, their parents. If you can capture both the fans of the books and their families, you have a blockbuster. 6 Don't be afraid of including adult themes. The Hunger Games, for all of its love triangles and plucky heroines, is actually the story of a political revolution against tyranny. The Potter books are about the importance of self sacrifice for the greater good. Those themes make the action more compelling and help the films appeal to adults. 7. Keep the stakes high; make the antagonists strong. President Snow appears invincible at the beginning of Hunger Games; Voldemort is the most powerful evil wizard in the world. There's no challenge if the bad guys are easy to overcome. Most important, if you are the author or filmmaker, you have to care about the characters and the story. The Hunger Games series started because Suzanne Collins had a story she wanted to tell. JK Rowling hoped her first Harry Potter book would find an audience; by her own admission she didn't expect it the franchise would grow to its current size. The story and the characters kept her writing every day while she was on the dole in Great Britain. The first step to success is a burning desire to tell your story, and to make it as compelling as possible.

Artists are Never Out of Work

It's not surprising that the Great Recession and slow economic growth have made Americans obsessed with job security. It seems that parents and college age students pay more attention to college majors and job placement rates than ever before. In response to this concern, colleges are creating more specific majors to meet the demand for job related skills. Yet people still struggle to get hired. When companies run into financial trouble, like the Tribune company did recently, they lay off or fire their workers. Sometimes they lay them off even if they're not in financial trouble. After all, if you can run a business more efficiently, you should. If that means restructuring to eliminate positions, that's what a business owner should do. That's capitalism. No jobs immune from economic problems. That is, except for artists. If you're a writer, filmmaker, musician, designer, painter, or poet, you're never out of work, as long as you keep creating. You may not always be paid, but you can always work on your art. What's more, you never know when your work will spark enough of an audience interest to support you. The stories of artists who jumped from poverty to affluence are legion -- JK Rowling was living on the dole in England while writing the first Harry Potter book; the Beatles barely got enough to eat during their gigs in Hamburg, and Robert Townsend financed his breakthrough film, "The Hollywood Shuffle," by signing up for dozens of credit cards. It's important to believe in yourself while you're finding your voice and creating your content. If you want to tell your stories, paint your pictures, or create any content at all, you have to be in for the long haul. History is full of big companies that went out of business when technology changed. We no longer have blacksmith shops, buggy whip companies, and pretty soon we may not have any printed newspapers. The skills you learn as an artist -- the ability to create and finish a project, analyze and improve it, and create products that move people -- are always in demand. What's more,great art lasts forever. We're still reading the Illiad, performing Shakespeare's plays, and enjoying Monet's paintings. What legacy do you want to leave? Artists are never out of work, as long as they keep working.

Kill Your Darlings: Indie and Hollywood Philosphy

"In writing, you have to kill all your darlings." - William Faulkner This quote from Faulkner refers to revising your writing to remove material you loved, if it makes the piece stronger. It's also the title of a recently released indie movie starring Daniel Radcliffe as the young Allen Ginsburg, the Beat poet who wrote “Howl” and other iconic works. The film is a portrait of the artist as a young man, based on the true story of Ginsburg’s formative years at Columbia University, where he first met Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. According to the script Ginsburg and the young beats came under the spell of the charismatic Lucien Carr, who encouraged them to create a New Vision. The movie features a lot of hanging out in New York jazz bars during World War II as they develop new forms of self-expression. It also depicts benzedrine and other drug use, and Allen Ginsburg explicity exploring his sexuality. There isn't much great poetry in the film; the film ends with Ginsburg starting to write poems in his personal style. Clearly, this film is not aiming at a mass audience, despite Radcliffe's star power. The cast is uniformly excellent, and includes a post-Dexter Michael C. Hall and the immensely talented Jennifer Jason Leigh as Ginsburg’s institutionalized mother. This makes the second film about Allen Ginsburg released in three years (“Howl” was the other) in a period where we’ve seen no films about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. To be fair, we have seen two films about Lincoln – Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and of course, “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.” I’m surprised the film got made at all – it’s a downbeat story about a literary figure whose most famous poem, “Howl,” debuted over 50 years ago. On the other hand, the Beats appear to fascinate some filmmakers, despite their spotty box office record – the recent movie version of Kerouac’s “On the Road” lost money, as did the most recent film about William Burroughs that starred Johnny Depp. The fact that it got made says a lot about the type of projects that attract actors. Radcliffe said he was attracted by the high quality of the script. Remember that many actors see themselves as serious artists. Appearing in indie movies with meaty roles provides them opportunities to demonstrate their acting ability. These types of roles can also win Academy Awards that you can’t get for big budget sci-fi sequels. The fact that films like “Kill Your Darlings” continue to get made should provide inspiration to content creators everywhere. Don’t give up on your passion project. If your script gets into the right hands, you might capture a star. Just understand that you could be in this for the long haul. It can take years, sometimes. Finally, be ruthless when revising your work. Faulkner’s advice for writers keeps being repeated because it’s often true. It’s often the work that’s most precious to you that requires the most revising. Take it to heart.

Neil Simon's Mistake

If you enjoyed the plays or movies Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Biloxi Blues (among many others) you've enjoyed Neil Simon's work. He's one of the most successful and funniest modern writers. He's won several Tony and Emmy awards and was nominated for four Academy Awards, all while making millions of dollars from his writing. He became known early in his career for helping rewrite shows out of town before they premiered on Broadway. His play doctoring work was how he got the nickname of "Doc" Simon. I've been a fan of his work for many years, and had the good luck to work as an assistant on his play Actors and Actresses. As Neil Simon writes in his memoir, "Rewrites," his talent as a writer did not always translate into business. In 1965, after Barefoot in the Park and Odd Couple were big hits on Broadway, Paramount approached Simon's business manager to buy the company that held all the rights to those two plays. Paramount offered $125,000, which was a significant amount of money in those days. Simon had misgivings, but because his business manager told him it was a good deal, he ultimately decided to sell. That meant that Neil Simon, the creator and author of the play "The Odd Couple," received no money from the run of the TV series, or any ancillary revenue from DVDs and videocassettes. He receives no royalty money from stage productions of Barefoot in the Park, which is still performed all over the world. For a $125,000 fee, Simon literally gave up tens if not hundreds of millions in revenue. In his memoir Simon takes responsibility for this decision. He says, "No one forced me to make the deal. It was a judgment call, and I let the wrong person sway me in making that judgment." Of course, when he made this deal in the sixties, very few people realized the amount of money one could make from ancillary markets for content. However today we expect that the number of outlets for our content will continue to expand in ways we can't even predict now. Hence the phrase in many content contracts - "all rights in all media currently existing or that may exist, in perpetuity." Never sell all rights to your content to a third party. If your business manager tells you to sell all your rights, get a new business manager. If your content reaches a good sized audience, it may provide you with an income for many years (see my earlier post about Norman Greenbaum, who still lives off royalties from his one hit, 'Spirit in the Sky.'). Of course, like Norman Greenbaum, you should license your content to third parties for distribution and collect your fees and royalties; just don't sell all the rights. I've advised never to sign any contract without having it reviewed by a lawyer. Don't even bother having your lawyer review a contract asking you to give up all rights to your content in perpetuity. Just don't sign it. I should add that Neil Simon wrote a lot more hits, and made a great deal of money from them. Even with this success, it still bothered him that he no longer owned the rights to two of his greatest plays. Learn from Doc Simon's mistake. Own your content.