Development executives sit through pitches each and every day and have seen it all -- from the dull reading off sheets of paper to action-packed pitches complete with singing dogs, marching bands and Aunt Rosemary singing the national anthem. Everyone knows a great pitch starts with a great series concept, but in addition to that what do the executives from top networks like to see? What makes them cringe and what impresses them? Here they let us know which elements are really important and surprisingly, the bottom line turns out to be pretty casual — professional, but casual. So leave the singing dog at home and take some of their advice:

Kevin Kay, Vice President/Executive Producer, Development, Nickelodeon.

Kevin Kay
Vice President/Executive Producer, Development, Nickelodeon

Kevin Kay: I think shorter is better, especially for the first go-rounds. It's more about selling an idea than it is about selling a series, because I think you don't know whether you have a series or not until you really get into the whole bible and the designs and the stories that you're going to tell. But shorter is always better. I'd rather see two pages than twenty. Funny pictures. That's the key to me. There's got to be something that makes me laugh. Something that I can look at right away and it's visually either hysterical or different. That's gonna get my attention. Nothing that looks like the other stuff that we do. I think the biggest mistake people make is they say, 'I got the next Rugrats.' I already got the Rugrats. I'm fine. If I need the next Rugrats I'll call up Klasky-Csupo and they'll give me the next one. I've said this before, but I think it sort of hits the nail on the head. That picture you drew on the napkin at the bar last night where you woke up the next morning and you looked at it and you thought, 'What was I thinking? No network's ever going to buy this. I should stop drinking.' Then you put it in the bottom drawer of your desk. That's what I want to see. I want to see the idea that seems like it might be a little too outrageous or a little too over the top, because that's gonna probably be different than what everyone traditionally walking in the door thinks I want to buy. So, given that, the other thing is tell me a story. We're in the kid's business, and the family business is built on good storytelling. So, if somebody comes in and pitches me a story that sort of gets me from A to B to C and lets me know that they know how to tell a story, especially, for a young writer that I don't know or a young artist that I haven't met. If you can come in and tell me a story that's going to capture my attention and keep me riveted or laughing for five minutes, then, I can kind of get the sense that you can do that on TV too. I think that's the key.

Heather Kenyon: How would you want artwork presented?

KK: I think it doesn't really matter. It's different for everybody. It's great to see some character designs and some background designs. Or a key frame, a great scene, that's in the story. The best way and the ultimate would be to come in and tell me the story of your pilot and show me a couple of key frames that go along with it that show me the characters and what the world's going to look like. But, it doesn't really require that. Some people are not artists and some artists are not good writers. I think it's up to the network or the development executive to be able to have the vision that there's somebody in front of me that has part of the skills and knows how to do enough that we can help them do the things that they can't do. Or that they don't yet have the talent to do. It would be great to see some boards in whatever condition, whether it's the drunken bar napkin, or the big presentation boards. That's great to see, but I think it's different for everybody. The other part is it's also about personality. The best example is when Stephen Hillenburg pitched me SpongeBob. He had a whole board. He's an artist and he's a filmmaker. He had boarded out the whole story. That would have been great in and of itself, but he took me through the board playing all the characters himself and doing the voices and singing the songs. And it was hilarious...it was like, 'Wow. This guy is funny. He gets what's funny and he has all the other skills to go along with it, but he understands these characters and he knows this world.' I think that's part of it. You've got to sell yourself.