Cartoon Network’s Michael Ouweleen began with a Birdman. © Cartoon Network.

“In development” is an entertainment industry term that, if a writer or producer is lucky comes right before ‘in production’ (and hopefully not ‘in turnaround’). It’s the job of the development executive to shepherd a project from its first greenlight to its slot on air. As the middleman (or woman) between the creator and the network s/he is in the tricky position of balancing the needs and wants of parties who may have different, if not opposing ideas of what a show should be.

It’s not a job for the faint of heart. In fact, it’s one requiring people skills that would put a U.N. diplomat to shame. Where does this rare breed of executive come from? When it comes to TV animation, how do they learn the skills necessary to deliver the goods – i.e., a hit show?

The answer to the first question is, you’d be surprised. Cartoon Network’s Michael Ouweleen started out in the advertising game. A series of commercials with British animation great Paul Vester led him to collaborate with Vester on a proposed series. “My first experience with development was on the receiving end,” Ouweleen recalls. “We produced a pilot for Linda Simensky at Nickelodeon. It wasn’t picked up, nor should it have been. It wasn’t Linda’s or Eric Coleman’s [Nickelodeon’s head of development] or anybody’s fault. It was a cautionary tale about development.”

Ouweleen joined Cartoon Network’s on-air promotion department in 1996, back when Mike Lazzo and Simensky were handling development. “While I was running on-air I dreamed up a couple of show ideas for the network. Then Adult Swim came along and I got to do a show myself, which I’m still doing, writing and producing Harvey Birdman – I learned a little more about development that way too.” About a year ago Ouweleen – already the network’s creative director – was put in charge of its development efforts as well and now oversees staffs in both Atlanta and at the Cartoon Network studio in Burbank.

“We don't want people who want to be in development for other networks. They should want to just develop animation, and, more specifically, just Cartoon Network animation; it doesn’t serve us well if they want to be in NBC development. On flip side, we can’t just hire fanboys either — somebody who knows everything about animation and thinks that makes them a good development person. They have to understand when a character or a story is sitting in front of them and when it’s not.”

Nick Weidenfeld, Adult Swim’s manager of program development, never expected to find himself shepherding cartoon series to air. “I was doing an article for Esquire about Adult Swim, it was going to be the first in-depth story about the Channel. The story never got published, but Mike [Lazzo] took me out to lunch and offered me a job.”

In Weidenfeld’s case, his reputation as the editor of the alternative magazine While You Were Sleeping had preceded him to Atlanta. “Mike had never heard of it – it’s a young, niche sort of satirical magazine. All the Adult Swim staff, especially the art director and the head of programming, one of the Space Ghost writers had seen it, which really shocked me. Mike said ‘I don't leave my house much, but if all my people like your magazine, there must be something there.’ That was definitely an edge – I didn't think anyone read my magazine.”

Peter Gal, Nickelodeon’s director of development, and David Wiebe, director of programming at Kid’s WB! share honors for the strangest animation development career path. “I was actually a criminal defense lawyer,” recalls Gal. “I worked as an L.A. County public defender. I loved it but I wanted to do something creative. Back in college I wrote and performed in sketch comedy troupe I founded. I loved being part of the creative community and decided I wanted to do something in entertainment, so I took job as assistant to Richard Ross at the Disney Channel.”

Wiebe also served in the public sector – the military-industrial complex, to be exact. “I came from working for a Department of Defense contractor in Washington. My job was turning government manuals into accessible web pages. I’ve always been an entertainment junkie – I went to every movie on opening weekend and watched way too much TV for my parents’ liking, including animation. At the time my wife and I had no kids, no mortgage. If we ever were going to make a really crazy decision like moving across the country and starting a career I had no experience in, now was the time to do it.”