Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the holy grail of independent productions. © 4Kids Ent.

“Back then it was possible to get a pre-sale based on your presentation, but that’s happening less and less now. There’s no low-hanging fruit anymore. You basically have to have the show in production, have your financing in place and show the network at least finished footage if not actual episodes before they’ll buy it. It’s a challenging business model, but for the right people with the right skill sets and the right approach — there is opportunity to make a good show that can last and last. The holy grail for the independent producer is to come up with a Power Rangers or a Ninja Turtles.”

Even though his studio is Tom Warburton’s Kids Next Door home base, Curious Pictures’ exec producer Richard Winkler also endorses the co-production route. “We like a mix of different business models. The secret ingredient to whatever success we’ve had is diversity. We like to keep our eggs in multiple baskets.

“In a co-production deal, usually half the production budget comes from the sale of U.S. TV and home video rights, and the rest of the world makes up the other half.” Winkler works with a Canadian production partner to take advantage of that country’s production subsidies: “Their system is complicated and fairly restrictive, but set up right it can generate significant production financing for a country of thirty million people. You have to deal with an elaborate point system based on what country’s passport is in your director or writer or editor’s pocket, and you’re also required to spend 75% of your budget in the country.”

Unlike Antonucci, Winkler doesn’t look at working with production partners as inevitably leading to creative conflicts. “I was warned about that going into the process, but picking the right partners is like casting a film — casting is everything. If you pick the wrong partners who have suggestions in conflict with your vision, then you have a problem. If you and your partners are creatively in sync, then it works.”

Curious has worked with a single partner, Canada’s Blueprint Ent. on two projects to date: the 2D Hey Joel! (currently on VH-1’s shelf) and the stop frame sketch comedy The Wrong Coast for The Movie Network. “We have a strong history of mixed media — doing things in more than one format. Most of the cable networks with studios in L.A. are primarily 2D; we can do mixed media as well as 2D. That’s part of our collaborative approach: we’re not taking money out of their studio, we’re doing something they might not necessarily be the best at.

Blueprint Ent. independently skewers the system within the system on The Wrong Coast. © Blueprint. Ent.

“On a certain level we’re competing with the networks’ in-house studios. They have a built-in incentive to feed their existing capacity and keep their development departments busy, but I prefer to look at it as an opportunity to collaborate, to take projects to them that we like or vice-versa, and develop them together from a very early stage.”

One long-time industry observer/player — who prefers to go nameless for the moment — takes a more acerbic view of the current power relationship between the networks and producers, particularly as to how it impacts on a show’s aftermarket: “Way back in the day Normal Lear said ‘There’s no such thing as independent producers — only dependent producers,’” this observer notes. “It’s very frustrating to be in the business today because the networks control absolutely the amount the pay you and the handling of all rights post network.

“I have a very fair deal with the people I’m in business with, but if they did not absolutely control the product, I might be able to do it differently and perhaps more effectively from my perspective. It’s very frustrating if you have some original marketing ideas that don’t fit into their strategy of the week. As wonderful as the often the people in the networks are, they’re wonderful from the standpoint of serfdom.