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SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot
“A devastating chronicle of an aborted series.” Publishers WeeklyFor every hit TV show, there are a hundred misses...thousands if you include the ones that never made it past their pilot, the sample episode of the proposed series.
This is the inside story of one of those doomed TV pilots, a would-be 1990 sitcom about presidential speechwriters first titled E.O.B., then The War Room, and finally Word of Mouth, developed by the acclaimed writer/producer team of Bruce Paltrow, Tom Fontana, and John Tinker, fresh off of their Emmy award-winning success St. Elsewhere and in huge demand by the networks. The producers granted journalist Daniel Paisner unprecedented access, revealing for the first time exactly how television gets made... and how it doesn’t.
SHOW is a ground-breaking book about television that hasn’t lost its impact or relevance with the passage of time...remaining unmatched for its insights into the pilot production process. Now it’s back in print with the author’s new introduction and an afterword by Phoef Sutton, the multiple Emmy award winning writer/producer of Cheers and Boston Legal.
Praise for Show
“Paisner takes us through the process from inception to turn-down, documenting in almost day-to-day detail the messy mechanics behind the high gloss of network television. What it shows best is the screwball randomness of network television, where the unlikeliest premise can command enormous resources and generate a monster hit--or not.” Los Angeles Times
“Show has made me re-live the many pilots I have worked on... and even though much has changed, much has remained the same. I don’t know whether to thank you for that or curse you!” Phoef Sutton, from his Afterword
“If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, successful TV shows, on the evidence of the cautionary tale at hand, almost have to be accidents of nature...” Kirkus ReviewsOriginally published as Horizonal Hold
This is the inside story of one of those doomed TV pilots, a would-be 1990 sitcom about presidential speechwriters first titled E.O.B., then The War Room, and finally Word of Mouth, developed by the acclaimed writer/producer team of Bruce Paltrow, Tom Fontana, and John Tinker, fresh off of their Emmy award-winning success St. Elsewhere and in huge demand by the networks. The producers granted journalist Daniel Paisner unprecedented access, revealing for the first time exactly how television gets made... and how it doesn’t.
SHOW is a ground-breaking book about television that hasn’t lost its impact or relevance with the passage of time...remaining unmatched for its insights into the pilot production process. Now it’s back in print with the author’s new introduction and an afterword by Phoef Sutton, the multiple Emmy award winning writer/producer of Cheers and Boston Legal.
Praise for Show
“Paisner takes us through the process from inception to turn-down, documenting in almost day-to-day detail the messy mechanics behind the high gloss of network television. What it shows best is the screwball randomness of network television, where the unlikeliest premise can command enormous resources and generate a monster hit--or not.” Los Angeles Times
“Show has made me re-live the many pilots I have worked on... and even though much has changed, much has remained the same. I don’t know whether to thank you for that or curse you!” Phoef Sutton, from his Afterword
“If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, successful TV shows, on the evidence of the cautionary tale at hand, almost have to be accidents of nature...” Kirkus ReviewsOriginally published as Horizonal Hold
287 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 19, 2023
About the author
Daniel Paisner
88 books32 followersDANIEL PAISNER is one of the busiest collaborators in publishing. He has written over 70 books, on topics ranging from business and sports to politics and popular culture, including 17 New York Times best-sellers.
He is the host of the popular podcast "AS TOLD TO: The Ghostwriting Podcast," featuring long-form, free-wheeling conversations with some of publishing's top ghostwriters/collaborators - a production of the Writers Bone Podcast Network and available wherever podcasts gather.
He is also the author of the novel, "Balloon Dog," just published by Koehler Books. A darkly comic tale of longing and legacy, "Balloon Dog" tells the story of a brazen art heist gone wrong and prompts readers to consider what it means to leave a mark and what it takes to be swept up in the same currents that move almost everyone else.
Paisner's work has been profiled in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN: The Magazine and on National Public Radio. (In a recent New York Magazine article on how to write someone else's memoir, he was referred to as the "most prolific living ghost" - a title that may or may not have been meant as a back-handed compliment.)
He is co-author of best-selling books with tennis champion Serena Williams; NFL great Ray Lewis; Emmy Award-winning baseball analyst and former All-Star pitcher Ron Darling; MSNBC News personality Mika Brzezinski; the late New York City mayor Ed Koch; and, Academy Award-winning actors Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Quinn, among others.
Recent books include "Blue: The Color of Noise," with ground-breaking deejay Steve Aoki; "It's Up to Us," with former Ohio governor John Kasich; and "Powershift," with FUBU founder and "Shark Tank co-star Daymond John.
He has also collaborated on books with former world champion longboard surfer Izzy Paskowitz; bail bondsman Ira Judelson; legendary high school basketball coach Bob Hurley; and, the late Gilbert Gottfried, the brilliantly potty-mouthed comedian.
Over the years, Paisner has worked with dozens of "ordinary" individuals with extraordinary stories to tell, including Krystyna Chiger, whose chronicle of her family's horrific ordeal in a Polish sewer during the German occupation, "The Girl in the Green Sweater," makes an important contribution to the literature of the Holocaust. The story is the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film, "In Darkness," from director Agnieszka Holland.
Perhaps his most notable collaboration has been the best-selling account of a New York City firefighter's epic tour of duty at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, "Last Man Down," written with FDNY Battalion Commander Richard Picciotto. The book was #1 on the London Times best-seller list and remained a top ten seller in the U.K. for over six months; it reached the #1 spot on the Amazon.com.uk "Hot 100" list.
Paisner has also written several books of his own, including "The Ball: Mark McGwire's 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream," which was hailed by Amazon editors as one of the best sports books of the year. If you want to really make him happy, consider reading one of his previous novels: "Obit", "Mourning Wood," and "A Single Happened Thing." They're pretty good. "Balloon Dog" might just be his best yet, but if you'd like to build up to it and read them all in the order they were written, that would make him happy as well.
For more information, visit his website: www.danielpaisner.com.
And to learn more about the art and craft of ghostwriting, visit his podcast website: www.astoldtopodcast.com.
He is the host of the popular podcast "AS TOLD TO: The Ghostwriting Podcast," featuring long-form, free-wheeling conversations with some of publishing's top ghostwriters/collaborators - a production of the Writers Bone Podcast Network and available wherever podcasts gather.
He is also the author of the novel, "Balloon Dog," just published by Koehler Books. A darkly comic tale of longing and legacy, "Balloon Dog" tells the story of a brazen art heist gone wrong and prompts readers to consider what it means to leave a mark and what it takes to be swept up in the same currents that move almost everyone else.
Paisner's work has been profiled in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN: The Magazine and on National Public Radio. (In a recent New York Magazine article on how to write someone else's memoir, he was referred to as the "most prolific living ghost" - a title that may or may not have been meant as a back-handed compliment.)
He is co-author of best-selling books with tennis champion Serena Williams; NFL great Ray Lewis; Emmy Award-winning baseball analyst and former All-Star pitcher Ron Darling; MSNBC News personality Mika Brzezinski; the late New York City mayor Ed Koch; and, Academy Award-winning actors Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Quinn, among others.
Recent books include "Blue: The Color of Noise," with ground-breaking deejay Steve Aoki; "It's Up to Us," with former Ohio governor John Kasich; and "Powershift," with FUBU founder and "Shark Tank co-star Daymond John.
He has also collaborated on books with former world champion longboard surfer Izzy Paskowitz; bail bondsman Ira Judelson; legendary high school basketball coach Bob Hurley; and, the late Gilbert Gottfried, the brilliantly potty-mouthed comedian.
Over the years, Paisner has worked with dozens of "ordinary" individuals with extraordinary stories to tell, including Krystyna Chiger, whose chronicle of her family's horrific ordeal in a Polish sewer during the German occupation, "The Girl in the Green Sweater," makes an important contribution to the literature of the Holocaust. The story is the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film, "In Darkness," from director Agnieszka Holland.
Perhaps his most notable collaboration has been the best-selling account of a New York City firefighter's epic tour of duty at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, "Last Man Down," written with FDNY Battalion Commander Richard Picciotto. The book was #1 on the London Times best-seller list and remained a top ten seller in the U.K. for over six months; it reached the #1 spot on the Amazon.com.uk "Hot 100" list.
Paisner has also written several books of his own, including "The Ball: Mark McGwire's 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream," which was hailed by Amazon editors as one of the best sports books of the year. If you want to really make him happy, consider reading one of his previous novels: "Obit", "Mourning Wood," and "A Single Happened Thing." They're pretty good. "Balloon Dog" might just be his best yet, but if you'd like to build up to it and read them all in the order they were written, that would make him happy as well.
For more information, visit his website: www.danielpaisner.com.
And to learn more about the art and craft of ghostwriting, visit his podcast website: www.astoldtopodcast.com.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 24, 2023
Daniel Paisner's SHOW is an important historical document chronicling the making of a television pilot in the 1990's. A lot has changed since Bruce Paltrow, Tom Fontana, and John Tinker began their quest to put a series about presidential speech writers on the air, but what hasn't changed is the difficulty of getting quality work from page to screen. The challenge of casting, the nonsensical studio notes, the network changing direction - these bumps, among others, conspire to make success a Sisyphean task. Paisner's unlimited access to the inner workings of the process delivers a harrowing tale that resonates just as strongly today, in the age of streaming. SHOW is an essential read for anyone who watches TV (you know who you are). You'll find yourself marveling over how your favorite series ever made it to your living room.
Displaying 1 of 1 review