Remember Marc Cherry
Happy Friday!
I took a few weeks off from the newsletter due to a number of factors.
One, I tested positive for Covid for the first time. I got very lucky, I had mild symptoms for half an evening before going on the antiviral, Paxlovid, but it still put me behind in my life in general. Julie’s family came to visit in the middle of it. Fortunately I tested negative in time to enjoy spending the rest of the week with them.
After a week of not being able to have a drink because of the meds I made margaritas on Memorial Day and I’ve been obsessed with perfecting them ever since. I finally ditched the mix and grabbed some limes and simple syrup. I’m proud to finally announce I finally nailed it yesterday. I’ve also been obsessed with buying and cutting up pineapples, mangoes, and cantaloupe, lately, mostly to use them as delivery devices for Tajin. Yay, summer!
My day job has also kept me pretty busy. Quick rundown:
I have two feature pitches on the same day next week, one with a producer and one with a studio. Not an ideal situation but I have them both fully developed. Now it’s just about rehearsing and being able to switch gears easily.
It can get kind of monotonous going over and over them at home so I started taking my pages to outdoor locations where nobody bats an eye at me talking out loud to myself. Occasionally, once a year or so, I’ll spend the afternoon at the Langham Hotel or The Huntington Library in Pasadena. I feel like varying the setting and level of distraction helps get me ready for any curve balls. When Julie was in grad school at Cal State I talked to a bunch of students who did their homework at Disneyland. If I lived closer I’d do that. If I could get through the whole thing while being hassled by Stormtroopers at Galaxy’s Edge then I could surely nail it on a zoom.
I turned in a pitch doc to a producer for another feature OWA that I’m in the running for and I turned in a concept document to the studio for the sci-fi series that I sold. Waiting on notes from both of those and figuring out next steps.
I did a bunch of research on directors for my feature spec, HALF-LIGHT, and turned in a list of the names I was excited about to my managers and the producer. This is the movie that was inspired by the first verse of Kate Bush’s song, “Hello Earth.” (It’s been so much fun to see her resurgence thanks to STRANGER THINGS!)
It’s been eight months since I last received a paycheck for writing. Since then I’ve done an enormous amount of unpaid work in the hopes of getting paid work. In addition to writing a ton of pitches and concept documents I’ve had four staffing meetings in the past year, none of which panned out. Every now and then I stop and wonder, “Am I already retired and just don’t know it?”
Then I remember Marc Cherry…
A couple of weeks ago I started rereading a few chapters of Desperate Networks before bed. If you’ve never read it I highly recommend it. It’s Bill Carter’s highly detailed account of the inner workings of the four major broadcast networks during the 2004-2005 television season. I was simultaneously inspired and terrified when I first read it but it’s even more fascinating now as a time capsule of the art and business of making television. We’ve been through at least two full revolutions since then. Everything is different and somehow also nothing has changed.
The first time I read it I had just broken in with EXTANT and I was encountering many of the “characters” from the book on my journey with that show. One of my favorites was a guy named Chris Ender who I met when he was the EVP of Communications at CBS. One day I was walking into the admin building at Radford for a meeting and spotted the TWILIGHT ZONE brick on the walkway to the entrance. Chris saw me lying down next to it to take a selfie and we got into a big conversation about how it was a major inspiration in my life. A couple of days later a box arrived at my office at Culver Studios. Chris sent me a bunch of TWILIGHT ZONE merch, including bobble heads and shot glasses. They’re sitting next to me on my shelf at this very moment.
A few months before my journey with EXTANT started I crossed paths with another “character” in the book when Marc Cherry came to Cal State Fullerton (his alma mater) to do a Q&A. Julie’s teachers knew I was an aspiring writer and graciously extended an invitation for me to watch. Marc was hilarious and charming and I remember coming away from that Q&A feeling inspired and with a renewed spirit. I found that inspiration all over again when I went back to this book.
Here’s the long story, short. Quotes in italics are from the book:
“In the summer of 2001, Marc Cherry, scriptwriter and showrunner, was flat broke, without job prospects, and worried about his impending fortieth birthday.”
I was in the exact same position when I saw him do the Q&A.
Prior to that he’d been a writer for, and ultimately the showrunner of, THE GOLDEN GIRLS. After that he developed and sold a number of pilots, and he had a show called THE FIVE MRS. BUCHANANS that lasted one season on CBS. Now he was on a cold streak that had stretched from months into a couple of years.
While he was visiting his mom one dat they were watching a news report about a young mother who confessed to killing her children. Marc said, “Can you imagine being so desperate you would do that to your own children?”
His mom said, “I’ve been there.”
Her response lit the fuse in his imagination.
“Without a regular paycheck, Cherry had been subsisting on $30,000 he borrowed from his mother. Facing this obvious turning point in his career, he knew he had to try something bold—and his conversation with his mother about Andrea Yates was percolating in the back of his mind. What if he could write a flat-out brilliant spec script, something so undeniably good someone would have to buy it?
Cherry convinced himself that he had to “write something for the express purpose of showing everyone how fucking smart I am.”
Marc spent a year writing the spec for DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. He knew it was a make or break moment for his career so he kept rewriting and revising, fine tuning it, and zeroing in on its singular tone. When he was finally ready he handed it over to his agent, Marcie Wright, who submitted it to executives that were fans of Marc’s, but she submitted it as a comedy.
Everybody passed.
It was a devastating blow.
Cherry and an independent producer named Peter Tortorici tried a different plan of attack. As a one-hour drama with a dark comedic tone, it would be unlike anything on television at the time. They tried a bunch of places and again, passes across the board.
Then… Cherry found out that his agent had been embezzling from him!
He fired her, obviously, and signed with new agents at Paradigm who came up with a whole new angle:
“Within days, Andy Pattman called with a fresh thought: Maybe DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES had been positioned all wrong. Pattman said, “The problem with this is that you pitched it to all the comedy places and you’re calling it a satire. We need to call this a soap opera and sell it as a soap opera.”
After a couple of minor tweaks, the script started making the rounds again and it found two major champions at Touchstone in Heather Kadin and Julie McNamara (who I was fortunate to cross paths with when she was the head of drama at CBS Studios) who helped shepherd it through the hurdles at Touchstone and ABC.
“The pilot of Desperate Housewives had reached 21 million viewers, eclipsing the just-established record of Lost to become ABC’s most-watched new series opener in a decade. Housewives also scored a 9 rating in the 18-to-49 audience, a number which was about three times ABC’s overall prime-time ratings average for the previous season.”
When I read Marc’s story this time I found myself white-knuckling through the twists and turns, even though I knew it turned out okay for him in the end. At this point I’ve managed to get two shows on the air. I sold a couple of other projects after that, one that died on the vine and one that I got fired from that’s still going without me. I have firsthand knowledge of how a writer’s fortunes can turn on a simple twist of fate. The only thing you can control is the work you put in. I still believe in the thing that kept me going for the twenty years before I broke in: one script/show can turn it all around.
Last words from Mr. Cherry:
“I have now lucked into this show that looks to be this worldwide phenomenon,” Cherry said. “And what makes the story fascinating is that I was less than nothing in this town. My career was, for all intents and purposes, over. It’s a fascinating story to tell, not a fascinating story to live. But it’s one of those things where I go, I’m becoming like a legendary anecdote: Don’t give up hope; remember Marc Cherry.”
I'm thinking about him a lot these days!
Wisdom From Mike Tomlin
I’m not really a sports fan so I’m not sure why I clicked on the link to watch this interview with Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin but I’m so glad I did. There’s so much transferrable wisdom to a career in show business, particularly when it comes to leadership.
The two major quotes that stuck with me were:
“Don’t seek comfort.”
“You can’t do ordinary stuff and expect unique results.”
Both of those hit me hard, especially as I’m going through all of these pitches and starting a new feature spec. Selling original ideas isn’t getting any easier, despite the number of buyers looking for new shows. You have to take risks to cut through the noise. Ordinary stuff isn't going to do it.
Mike Tomlin on Pitt legacy, Super Bowls, Flores Hiring & Future without Big Ben | The Pivot Podcast — www.youtube.com SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUnxiP7q4RDDyeioZFZLnXA?sub_confirmation=1GET MERCH HERE: https://www.pivotpodcast.comA man who needs no int...
I Was On the Screenwriter's Rant Room Podcast
I had a lot of fun talking to Hilliard Guess last week, we had a ton in common. Check it out!
Hilliard Guess' Screenwriter's Rant Room - 408: Executive Producer MICKEY FISHER on Stitcher — www.stitcher.com In this episode Hilliard has a super fun, 2 hour conversation with executive producer Mickey Fisher (one of the nicest, most giving guys we know) who created/developed such shows as EXTANT, REVERIE and wrote/produced on the series JACK RYAN, MARS and THE STRAIN! We talk about Mickey's long 20 year journey to becoming one of those Hollywood overnight success stories we all hear about. Mickey goes deep into lessons learned on his way up, working and struggling in theater as an actor and playwright, how he pivoted to an indie filmmaker and later realized that those career choices helped him to be prepared for when Hollywood finally did open the door and gave him his first green light to series... ON HIS 40th BIRTHDAY! We also talk about his amazing tips on pitching, growing/learning fast in writers' rooms, producing episodes, being kind to everyone and so much more! Follow Mickey on Twitter @MickeyFisher73 and don't forget to subscribe to his Newsletter: extantstorytech.com Check out the ScreenWriterRR website at www.screenwritersrr.com for information, merch, or our Pateron! Support the show via the Patreon link. Remember support is love! We invest countless hours per week to deliver the actionable content that goes into this podcast. Connect with Us: Chris Derrick on Twitter Hilliard Guess on Twitter Mickey Fisher on Twitter The Screenwriters Rant Room on Facebook The Screenwriters Rant Room on Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/screenwriters-rant-room/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/screenwriters-rant-room/support
Yodas of the Week
I was so mesmerized by this video of Ariana Grande in the recording studio. The focus, the talent, the drive to keep making it better, all while keeping the spirit of play. This is a gifted artist fully in the zone.
ariana loops on Twitter: "i need a full documentary of ariana grande in the studio https://t.co/dDkajpYYwe" / Twitter — twitter.com “i need a full documentary of ariana grande in the studio”
RRR fucking rules. One of my favorite movies of the past five years, hands down.
RRR Trailer (Telugu) - NTR, Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt | SS Rajamouli | 25th March 2022 — www.youtube.com From Indian Filmmaker SS Rajamouli (Director of Baahubali) comes India’s Biggest Action Drama #RRRMovie, in theatres March 25th, 2022#RRRTrailer #RRR BookMy...