Saturday, December 18, 2004

A FEW MORE WORDS ON TV SPECS

My agent friend Liz says:

Yes, 3-4 years is the lifespan, but with a great spec you can usually
squeeze out a bit more. It helps if the show is still on the air. A
brilliant X-files could last the entire run of the show, plus a few years
afterwards. This was because a) a brilliant spec means it's not tied too
closely into the particular arc of a particular season - instead it uses the
rules and characters as a launching pad of inspiration and b) successful
shows spawn copycats and have far reaching influence, so tonally an X-files
could be a great spec years after X-files was cancelled, simply because other
shows are trying to capture the X files vibe.

A great spec is a great spec. They might sit on the shelf, but they're solid
writing samples.

My questions are: (a) are there still shows with the same tone and structure but on the other hand (b) are people well and truly sick of reading specs based on that show.

Personally I also think that if all your specs are cancelled shows, it suggests that it takes you way too long to write a spec. Which suggests you're slow. Which is never good.

11:22 AM

1 Comments:

I have heard of people getting jobs based on specs for cancelled shows but in such a case the spec has to be even better than ever. And you shouldn't have only cancelled show specs because that would make you look like a slow writer as you suggested.

--Jeff

By  Anonymous, at 11:45 PM  

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