Animated “Worst Pitch Ever”
Did you hear the one about the animation producer who showed up at a pitch meeting drunk and proceeded to fall asleep in the middle of his spiel? Or the extremely nervous producer who asked the development exec to pitch the show for him? Or the fellow who threatened to sic Sumner Redstone on the Nickelodeon bigwig who turned him down?
The animation industry’s development people have heard them all. In fact, all of the above – and then some – actually happened to them, and with a little prompting they’ll be glad to share the war stories of their ‘pitched’ battles with you.
It’s great to have a passionate vision for your show, but in more than one instance – at least for Linda Simensky, PBS Kids’ senior director of programming – that passion crossed the line into outrage. “Each of my jobs has had one of these,” she recounts. “They get frustrated I’m not seeing the brilliance of their project and they start to yell.
“Rarely do you tell them their project’s no good. Instead you say it’s not working for me, and lay out the reasons. Most people are okay with that, but every now and then someone will go just nuts – ‘you’re crazy, you’re absolutely wrong.’ There was one time I told a producer his project wasn’t quite right for us. He started trashing all our programs, explaining how he’d save us but all our other stuff was just complete crap – sure, that completely makes me want to work with you.
“The first one I remember was when I was at Nick. When I passed on his show he turned around on his way out and told me ‘I’ll be calling Sumner Redstone’s daughter so you will be doing this project.’ I said ‘okay great, bye.’
“One pitch I got was from an incredibly passionate person. I hadn’t even passed on it yet, but by the end I was being yelled at – ‘this project could’ve saved the world!’ I started getting nervous at that point. The takeaway is you don’t want to work with that person, even if the next thing they walk in with is brilliant.”
Disney TV Animation vp Mike Moon looks back at “a few pitches that ended with a beat of silence and then an apology from the artist. What did he apologize for? What he just put me through. A pitch that ends with an apology is probably not too good. I had one recently from a fellow who was so nervous he just handed me the proposal – ‘can you just read this?’ I was expected to pitch the show to myself, which was kind of unusual.
“Prior to Disney I worked on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends at Cartoon Network. After the show had been on the air, someone came & pitched me A Home for Abandoned & Forgotten Imaginary Friends, which is pretty amazing. When I mentioned the comparisons, it was ‘oh yeah…’ they were very aware there were some similarities there. That was a little awkward.
“One time I had a couple of superhero shows pitched. When I asked what their superpowers are I was told it didn’t really matter, which I thought was interesting for a superhero. We’ve had other pitches that include ‘what do you want us to make this?’ or end with ‘hilarity ensues,’ neither of which are good signs. It’s really important that people know their show. Everyone’s time is so valuable these days, when you walk into one of these meetings, knowing what you’re pitching is crucial.”
While Nickelodeon’s development vp Eric Coleman recalls pitches for “singing toothbrushes, a family of math symbols and a sloth that never, ever moves… I’ve blocked out the rest,” he’d rather offer advice to producers currently putting their projects together:
“Make an impression, break through the clutter. Come in with a show concept with a unique voice, a compelling visual style, a truly original premise, break-out characters, etc.;
It's important to convey your idea as a series, not just a one-off pilot idea. How can the characters and themes sustain for 60 episodes? If the show is supposed to be funny, you need to demonstrate that, not just promise it. And since this is animation, great artwork always helps.
Don't pitch 10 shows, don't pitch shows that are inappropriate for that network, don't talk about the Consumer Products potential instead of the characters, don't pitch knock-offs of other shows on the network, and don't pitch shows about singing toothbrushes.”
The person who came to visit Ramsey Naito, Cartoon Network’s vp of long-form programming may win the Worst Pitch Ever prize. It’s an encounter that took place before she joined CN and one she’d rather not describe in detail. “Let’s just say it’s not a good idea to come in drunk, half asleep and smelly, and then fall asleep during the pitch before you’ve hardly said a word. That’s not a good idea.”
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