Comments on: Question About Pitching

By: Jeff Nevins

Jeff Nevins — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Hope your project goes well.
Just read your Creature Tech- great work.

I had seven pitch meetings for The Perfect Pet, but it was passed on. At least I developed my pitching and boarding skills.
The characters and story have come a long way. Maybe I can do something w/it down the road. They encourage more ideas, though, which I've sent.

Take care.

By: Jeff DeGrandis

Jeff DeGrandis — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t worry cousin Doug. I did a triple blog posting the other night and got triple the feedback!
Heh! Heh! Heh! Talk to you soon Doug! Jeff

By: Jeff DeGrandis

Jeff DeGrandis — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Hey Doug; I agree on a lotta stuff and feel it’s case by case with the pitching process. This is one of my favorite parts of making a show too. It’s case by case and taste by taste as we go from studio to studio. I’ve the best and worst of rooms to pitch to. Rooms where nobody would crack a smile. We all have to ignore that and go into our own tunnel-vision and let the show take us through the pitch. Even then, you’ll be surprised that an executive liked something and wants to see it again. Some executives in a group won’t let their guard down in front of the others. But, I must say most of my show pitches have been fun for me and the group I entertainingly pitch to. I make pretend I’m a gameshow host and the people in the room are my contestants and they’re going to play the cartoon game with me. Disney was always a hard room to pitch. One night my partner Bill Kopp and I put together a dozen pencil drawings and pitched the variety “Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show!” and sold it in 16 minutes. Figure that? It was the right place at the right time. They wanted a high powered, funny show to run a similar venue as the Ren and Stimpy show. Wow! We did do a bit of development with Disney, but for the most part, Gary, Tom and others left Bill and I alone to do our thing. It was a rare time. The show didn,t last for more than a season cause Disney had a hard time marketing a new creature like this. We did get Spaghetti and Meatballs in a can and a few promos at Subway. But it was all good. Animation has gone through cycles, like everything else. Not only cartoons but other things in society. I believe we’re at an up-cycle again. A renaissance of animation again. The public is smarter on what they like and don’t like. They’re aware of technology due to marketing and other means. This allows executives to feel a little more free in their thinking and greelighting of projects. Yes, we are truly fortunate to have studios like Nickelodeon / Frederator allowing artists like us to produce cartoon shorts together like the old days of animation. And thank God there are companies that will take a risk in cartoons they initially believe in. Yeah; we do have to compromise here and there and not lose the integrity of the show presented. Sometimes it gets better as we work together. This is happening during my second Frederator pitch. We sit to close in a vacuum as we develop new shows and it’s good to get feedback. It takes a lot of guts and hope your investment comes back in toy revenue. Thanks, Doug!!!!

By: Dave Levy

Dave Levy — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Points taken. I suppose the business of deciding the publics’ taste is always a crapshoot to some degree. If it wasn’t, Czar Nicholas the II and his family would still be sitting in St. Petersburgh right now.

By: Doug TenNapel

Doug TenNapel — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I’m with you Fred, in that it’s wrong to lay the woes of an entire system of network pick-ups on one show…especially when there’s an Invader Zim we can kick all around the block in Catdog’s place. (I’m kidding Jonan, don’t sick your cult of goth conformists after me…nor my lawyer’s wife.)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The funny thing about that is, Jhonan’s fan base would probably sick themselves on some one, I am one of the few sane fans of Zim haha. I just finished reading all of what you guys wrote, I had no idea that happened with CatDog, no wonder it was on so long and in such an in and out way, I remember they stuck 1 new episode on tv a year or two ago, and it confused the Hell out of me. I thought they were going to try and kill us slowly with another order of that show!

By: Frankie Coleman

Frankie Coleman — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I forgot to put my name on the last post! that was me right up there, sorry to double post like this.

By: Dave Levy

Dave Levy — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

My “so what?” is answered by “how many cool cartoon pilots didn’t get made at Nick because of money that went to things like Catdog?” Mistakes like this put the squeeze on the next things, making networks more and more cautious in greenlighting shows.

By: Fred Seibert

Fred Seibert — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

My only point David is that everyone makes mistakes. As loathe as I am to defend network executives[ ], them’s the breaks. And the one who said ‘yes’ to CatDog had a pretty great feeling and vision for the show. The artists didn’t deliver, and that’s how it goes sometimes. It’s too bad, but frankly, no shows didn’t get made because of it. In fact, that period was one of the most prolific for the Nick studio. Personally, at the time, I was annoyed they got such a big order -it got more money and attention than some of our shows- but, that’s showbiz. Always has been, always will be. No bitterness allowed.

By: Aliki Theofilopoulos

Aliki Theofilopoulos — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Nice discussion.. I am getting a lot out of reading…thank you.