"As one who has successfully accomplished both, which do you consider the
most difficult: Getting a first novel published, or getting a first TV
series on the air? I'm not speaking in terms of the amount of work
involved, rather I mean the difficulty in overcoming the odds against you
in each respective field."

This is a no-brainer. The TV series is the hardest. To write and sell a
novel, you need just write the novel; once it's out there, you don't have
to have written 15 prior successful novels to get it sold. The book is
judged on its quality and marketability, and if it's good, somebody buys
it.

My first novel, DEMON NIGHT, sat in a closet for, oh, about 2 years
(having written it just for myself) until my agent got wind of it, sent it
off to a NY affiliate, who sent it to an editor/publisher, who bought it
on sight. This was when I didn't really have much of a name in TV (which
actually works against you in literary circles), so that wasn't a factor.
Now, obviously, that's an extremely fortuntate and atypical series of
events, but still indicative in this sense....

People come to me and say they want to sell a TV series. I try and tell
them it's impossible if you don't have a credit list an arm long. Not
difficult, we're not talking here degrees of difficulty or "overwhelming
odds," there ARE no odss. It's simply impossible. Can't be done. Hasn't
been done.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. What a network wants is someone who's shown he
or she can run a series, write for TV, and produce for TV. (Or film for
those who've crossed over.) If a network is going to spend upwards of $22
million for a series in one year, not even COUNTING what's spent on
advertising, marketing, publicity, overhead and the like, they need to
have a certain comfort factor, they need to know that the person knows
what s/he's doing, and is an experienced writer/producer or, preferably, a
full-blown show runner.

You don't have to have that for novels. The odds of selling a first novel
are, from what I heard somewhere once, about 1 in 6,000. The odds of
selling a first TV series if you don't have credits are 0.

If you *do* have credits, the odds are still massively stacked against
you. Every season, the networks put maybe 10-15 shows each into
development. That refers to as little as a single pilot script order, or
as much as multiple scripts, a produced pilot, or pilot plus X-number of
episodes. Of those 10-15, maybe 4 or 5 will ever see the light of day.
The rest simply vanish. So that's about 50 possible series per year (and
that's a very generous figure). There are around 6,000 members of the
Writers Guild.

Most writer/producers go through several development deals before ever
getting anything on the air. And B5 wasn't my first in that sense. I
developed series for CBS, ABC, syndication groups, re-developed the V
series for Warner Bros., and others. It's a very, very long progression
to this particular chair.




jms

> It's a very, very long progression to this particular chair.- jms

"Well, I'm glad you're in it, that it fits you so well, and that you're as
comfortable in it as you are."

Well, yeah, mostly, until every second Thursday when they hook it up to
the wall socket....




jms

"If this is the case (which I know it is), how come there is so much out
there that is, in a simple word, terrible? I mean, if some of these shows
are the ones that DO get through all this, I shudder to think about the
ones that don't."

Because so much of TV is formulaic, and because the networks often get
into the process too much, knocking off all the corners and edges that
make a concept interesting. I think that's starting to change, but we'll
see how far it goes.

"Also, does this set-up mean that established writer/producers can easily
get something through that never would otherwise (Steven Bochco and "Cop
Rock" comes to mind...)"

Yes. The networks often make long-term deals with major producers and set
aside stuff sight unseen. The 10:00 timeslot is basically "owned" by a
very small group of producers, with the rest of the prime-time hours a bit
more up for grabs.

"On a completely different note, you've written some plays-- how much of a
Producer role did you take on some of those, and how much did you enjoy
that aspect of it-- how does theatre compare to TV?"

I had zip involvement as producer, and wouldn't have been qualified to do
so. I enjoyed it immensely, and plan to get back into theater one of
these days.





jms