Jonathan Rosenthal, Vice President, Development, Fox Kids Network.

Jonathan Rosenthal
Vice President, Development, Fox Kids Network

First of all, don't deliberately take a long time -- you are pitching a concept for a television show, not a novel. If the person you are pitching responds to your idea it will be natural to spend a few minutes talking about it, otherwise limit yourself to 10-15 minutes.

Second, figure out who the show is about -- who the stories will revolve around and what those characters want. (As well as any weakness that may keep them from attaining their goals.)

Third, don't ever just read from your materials. As one of my colleagues here is fond of saying, "If that's what you're going to do, you might as well have just sent it in the mail. I can read." Tell a story (a short one). It should feel like I'm being pitched an episode of a show that already is on the air.

Fourth, do your research. Don't pitch inappropriate things to inappropriate people, even if you are doing so just to get the pitching experience.

As far as having art or something written to leave behind -- this is always a plus, but not critical. And as far as written leave behinds go, keep it short and sweet.

Other things I would suggest would be to rehearse the pitch at least a few times, and just to have fun. Best of luck and see you in the conference room.

Linda Simensky, Vice President of Original Programming, Cartoon Network.

Linda Simensky
Vice President of Original Programming, Cartoon Network

When some people ponder pitching to a network, I think they imagine themselves standing in front of huge foam core blowups of their characters, pitching to a boardroom full of serious network executives. When others tell me about the pitches they think we want at the Cartoon Network, they suppose that we want to see wild acting and jumping around. Some people apparently think that we'd like them to come in and read their pitch out loud to us...

The truth is none of those is quite the right situation for pitching to Cartoon Network. Sometimes I just tell people not to even call it a pitch, just to come in and show us their artwork and tell us what kind of cartoons they'd like to make. That's how we like to start the development process.

As for what to bring, a person looking to make a cartoon for Cartoon Network should have an overall idea of what the show is about, some characters designs and descriptions, and about four or five story ideas. The material can be rough, there can be several versions of the designs, and there can be Xeroxed pages from sketchbooks. Just these few simple items usually can tell us if the idea is right for us. No need for theme songs, storyboards, scripts or letters of recommendation. The artist should just be able to come in and tell us about their idea and what they want to do.

What helps more than anything is if an artist can bring along something that communicates his or her sensibility to us. That intangible sensibility is what makes one show about two dogs seem brilliant, and another show about two dogs seem boring and predictable. Artists have been able to communicate their sensibility through their personal films, Websites, comics, sketchbooks, etc. Even if something has nothing to do with the show being pitched, it's still helpful.

Since we deal almost exclusively with artists, our goal has been to keep the process relaxed and casual. And someday, when we change the name of pitching officially to "just come in and show us your designs and tell us what kind of cartoons you'd like to make," then everyone will be able to relax a little more.