How TV Series Are Conceived Created and Developed
California Television Series Lawyer Sebastian Gibson: How TV Series Are Conceived Created and Developed
How TV Series Are Conceived Created and Developed. There are any number of ways in which television series and limited series have been conceived and developed. The most common way is when a producer options a book or script created by someone else. Just as common a path to a series development is pitching the series to a producer, studio or network.
Sometimes the creator of a TV series will also be a writer or simply direct a few episodes. In other cases, the creators may produce the series but not write or direct for it.
Some series are created and developed the traditional way, optioning a book. But there are just as many more unique paths taken which result in the creation and development of a TV series.
Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Killing Eve, Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Sherlock, and The Simpsons all offer amazingly different routes to people’s TVs.
California Entertainment Lawyer and the Law Firm Sebastian Gibson
From Malibu to San Diego where California Entertainment Attorney Sebastian Gibson graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law, to his current offices in the Palm Springs area and Newport Beach to London where he has practiced law extensively, California Entertainment Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is the right choice for all your entertainment film and television productions, projects in development and film and TV agreements for productions in the U.S., the UK and around the world.
With offices in the Palm Springs area where Live Nation will be opening a new arena in 2021 to Palm Desert to the eastern portion of the Coachella Valley where AEG subsidiary Goldenvoice produces the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Music Festival, California entertainment attorney Sebastian Gibson is the Coachella Valley’s premier entertainment law firm.
California Television Series Lawyer Sebastian Gibson
The law firm of California television series attorney Sebastian Gibson not only has Southern California covered, from Palm Springs to Orange County, but we have the world covered as well from London where some of the finest films and television series continue to be produced.
For many years one of the world’s most iconic entertainment law firms for modeling and publishing, representing models and writers throughout the world, Sebastian Gibson is on track to becoming one of the world’s leading law firms for music, film, television, theater and worldwide entertainment events in addition to its expertise in the fields of modeling and publishing.
Examples of How TV Series Are Conceived Created and Developed
In the example of Game of Thrones, it might not have been enough to want to option George R. R. Martin’s book, A Song of Fire and Ice. The creators of the HBO series first had to answer a question posed to them by the author presumably to see if they had actually read the book and if so, if they were truly and completely all in on making a series which could be streamed for cable.
The Game of Thrones series path’s to development came when the creators and eventual primary writers of the Game of Thrones TV series, D. B. Weiss and David Benioff were given permission by the author of A Song of Fire and Ice, George R. R. Martin to pitch the series to HBO.
However, first the creators had to reach out to the author’s agent to obtain a meeting with the author, and then after a five hour meeting with George R. R. Martin had to be able to answer the author’s question, “Who is John Snow’s mother?” Apparently, they got the answer right.
The TV series, Breaking Bad was reportedly conceived when the show’s creator and writer Vince Gilligan was commiserating with a fellow writer about their unemployment and jokingly stated the solution for their unemployed situation would be to put a meth lab in an RV and drive around the country cooking meth and gobs of money. As it turned out, they found a better solution.
Killing Eve was developed as a TV series in the traditional way after producer Sally Woodward Gentle, who runs Sid Gentle Films optioned Luke Gennings’ novel Codename Villanelle and was able to get the project fast-tracked with BBC America after it was previously developed by two other British broadcasters.
Fans of the TV series, Seinfeld will remember The Pitch episode when Jerry and George decide to pitch a series to NBC “about nothing.” That’s not how the TV series was conceived and developed, but the episode was funny nonetheless.
Seinfeld was not actually about nothing. It was created to be about everyday stuff and weird parts of life television had never focused on before. If they couldn’t say words “too dirty” for television, they used phrases that in fact made the subject funny. It was created to be rapid, with quick cuts and a method of filming which revolutionized TV.
The TV cable series, The Sopranos, took a traditional route in the television entertainment industry. The creator, David Chase, was an experienced producer for more than 20 years before he created the TV series and pitched it to numerous TV networks who all passed on it. Eventually, he pitched the project to HBO and the rest is crime family history.
The concept for The Mister Ed show concept was taken from a series of short stories by children’s author Walter R. Brooks, the first of which began with one called, The Talking Horse. Sonia Chernus, who was the secretary of director Arthur Lubin, introduced Lubin to the Brooks stories and is credited with developing the concept for television. With having the horse only talk to one person, it could, as conceived, cause a variety of opportunities and frustrations.
The pilot for Mister Ed was actually financed by comedian George Burns. Even with a horse who was trained to move its lips when a trainer touched its hoof, the director was unable to interest a studio in the series. So Lubin instead found a sponsor, sold the series into syndication to over 100 stations and when it was received well, CBS finally picked up the series.
Mister Ed’s ability to talk never had to be explained. In the first episode, Wilbur expressed an inability to understand how the horse could talk. In response, Mister Ed simply said, “Don’t try. It’s bigger than both of us.” This goes to show, perhaps, that simplicity may be the best answer for unexplainable aspects of a concept, especially if it comes from the horse’s mouth.
Rod Serling, who was already famous for writing televised dramas and for criticizing TV’s limitations and censorship, wrote or adapted nearly two-thirds of the episodes of The Twilight Zone and as the episodes were in genres including fantasy, science fiction, suspense, horror, and psychological thriller, he conceived of using science fiction as a vehicle for social comment (thereby avoiding sponsor and network sensors less concerned with social comments made on TV when contained within a genre of science fiction), often concluding the episodes with a macabre or unexpected twist, and frequently with a moral.
The concept of using a fictional setting in effect for social comment works just as well today as seen by The Handmaid’s Tale which explores themes of women in subjugation in a patriarchal society and how they gain independence from their society and the state’s control. The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel, speculative fiction like the novel, 1984, which explore social and political structures. The book was written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and is set in a near-future New England.
The concept of the Sherlock TV series was developed by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, both Doctor Who writers. Reportedly, while they were in Monte Carlo for an awards ceremony, producer Sue Vertue, the wife of Steven Moffat, encouraged both Moffat and Gatiss to develop the project before someone else had the same idea. Apparently, they beat others to the punch.
No discussion how a TV series or limited series gets conceive, developed and made can be complete (nor is this discussion) without some mention of the longest running TV series of all time, The Simpsons.
Producer James L. Brooks was reportedly working on the television show, The Tracey Ullman Show, when he decided to include small animated sketches before and after commercial breaks.
Brooks had seen some of cartoonist Matt Groening’s comic strips, and asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts. Reportedly, while waiting in the lobby of Brooks’s office for the pitch meeting, he hurriedly reformulated his version of a dysfunctional family which eventually became the Simpsons.
A team of collaborating production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Interestingly, Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network which reportedly prevented Fox from interfering with the show’s content, and this explains how episodes on The Simpsons have been able to take a number of quite hilarious shots at Fox News.
A Simple Concept for Creating Some of the Best TV Series
When you think for it, there is a common thread running through many of the longest running TV series that have been on the air. It’s friendship. It’s really that simple.
Cheers was a place where everybody knew your name. The Big Bang Theory was about a group of friends, nerdy friends. Mork and Mindy had a great friendship, and then they fell in love. Mash was about a group of friends as well. It just took place in war torn South Korea. And despite the funny Seinfeld episode, The Pitch, in which Seinfeld and Costanza pitched a TV series about “Nothing,” it was really about a group of friends and the funny, weird things that happen in life to friends.
Consider the TV series, Friends. It was about love, relationships, careers, and life, but most of all, it was about friendship, friendship when a person is single, in a big city and your friends become your family.
California Entertainment Attorney Sebastian Gibson: How TV Series Are Conceived Created and Developed
If, as a California entertainment lawyer I was to be asked what is the best way to get a TV series made from a concept, it would be to advise the person to study how to write a cohesive book, attend writers’ conferences and classes to hone their craft as a writer, seek a literary agent to have the book published by a traditional publisher, and then hire an agent to shop the book to producers. Ask anyone who’s done this and they’ll tell you it’s not easy, but it’s a well-worn path to getting a TV series on the air or a film option. Even if a book you write and have published doesn’t sell many books, or is never optioned for a film or TV series, there’s something greatly rewarding about writing and publishing your first book.
California Entertainment Attorney and the Law Firm of TV Series Lawyer Sebastian Gibson
California entertainment attorney Sebastian Gibson has been called “Brilliant” and “A Legend” and is a cum laude graduate of UCLA. He has law degrees both from the University of San Diego School of Law and from Cardiff University in Wales where he graduated magna cum laude.
With these dual law degrees in the U.S. and Great Britain, and over 40 years of combined experience both in London and California, Sebastian Gibson is the international entertainment law firm to turn to for music events, festivals and world tours, music, film, television, songwriting, film music licensing, film and TV production agreements, publishing, modeling, athlete representation, and other creative aspects of the entertainment industry in the U.S., the UK and around the world.
California Television Series Lawyer Sebastian Gibson
Focused on bringing great film projects to UK film producers who recognize the unique voice of British actors, directors and crews and as a California entertainment powerhouse working with actors, musicians, songwriters, novelists, models and athletes from offices just near enough to Hollywood but far enough from the congestion of LA, Sebastian Gibson is the right choice and the law firm to choose for all your entertainment endeavours from California to the UK and throughout the world.
California Entertainment Attorney Sebastian Gibson has been named one of the 2022 Top Lawyers by the prestigious Palm Springs Life Magazine for the past 12 years in a row and is one of the most acclaimed lawyers in the Coachella Valley of California. He has written for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal Newspapers, is a published novelist and wrote and recorded the music and lyrics for the musical, Shake in London. He has a top rating of “Superb” by Avvo, their highest rating, which rates attorneys all across the U.S.
How TV Series Are Conceived Created and Developed? Usually through book or script options. Sometimes though, it’s just dumb luck.
