TV Development and Pitching 101: Do You Have What it Takes?

Not everyone who makes it into a commissioner’s office exhibits the ideal qualities for a successful pitch (and that goes for people on both sides of the desk). I’ve attended countless development meetings and I’ve come to recognize the recurring characters who inhabit Development Hell. Which one are you? Click through and take the quiz to find out. (Photo by DVIDSHUB CC BY 2.0)

Fiendishly Difficult TV Crossword Answers

Here are the answers to last week’s puzzling crossword – how did you get on? (No need to strain your eyes: click through for a bigger version).

Be sad: get ice cream

You need one of these in your office… British artist Demitrios Kargotis, has invented Dr. Whippy, an ice cream machine that asks you several questions to ascertain how stressed you are and then dispenses a dose of ice cream depending on how stressed or unhappy you are – the more in need of cheering up, [...]

The Fiendishly Difficult TV Development Crossword

For the chance to win a copy of the forthcoming book Greenlit: Developing Factual/Reality TV Ideas From Concept to Pitch have a go at this fiendishly difficult crossword. All the answers are related to TV and especially development and pitching. Answers may be single words, phrases or anagrams.
The first person to correctly answer all the questions wins a copy of Greenlit, hot off the press. If no-one has answered correctly by the deadline, all the entries will be entered into a draw: the first name to be drawn from the hat will win the book.

Closing date: Saturday 14th August at 05.00 BST. Click through to get going. Good luck!

How to Build a Marshmallow Tower

On the marvellous TED Talks Tom Wujec reveals how a team-building problem involving dry spaghetti, a marshmallow and one yard of tape reveals that toddlers are more creative and collaborative (and successful at solving the problem of building a tall tower with the marshmallow at the top) than MBA students. Fortunately for us, architects and [...]

Hot Guys Reading Books

So we’ve had property porn and weather porn – here comes new something to fuel your acquisitive aspirations and and put you in awe of the beauty of nature: Hot Guys Reading Books. It is one of those ideas that is so simple and so obvious that it is complete genius (and it’s a blog [...]

Development Insider: Commissioning Steers

Back by popular demand is the Development Insider who tells it like it is. This week, commissioners get skewered:

Sky recently revealed they want “dynamic and challenging subject matter about the contemporary world.” Bravo declared that “programmes need to stand out; we want ‘did you see?’ moments that will get people talking.” Five “want to tackle mainstream subjects in interesting new ways and find talent that help pull an audience to our shows.” No shit… (Photo by das.viereck CC BY-SA 2.0)

People of Public Transit

A little frivolity for the end of the week that will make you think long and hard about your pubic image and wardrobe choices for next week’s commute. People of Public Transport is user-generated photo site that documents strange sights on planes and trains. My favourite is this photo, which defies concise description, so you’ll [...]

Five Worst Reality Shows That Actually Made it Onto TV – According to Gawker

Snarky website Gawker has done a round up of The Five Worst Reality Shows That Actually Made it onto TV My Bare Lady – Fox Reality; Ty Murray’s Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge – CMT; The Search For The Next Elvira – Fox Reality Channel; Transamerican Love Story – Logo; Space Cadets – Channel 4. Looks [...]

Tired of London

If you are heading to London and need some offbeat, and reliable, suggestions of things to do, or are a Londoner all out of ideas what to do, check out Tired of London, which lists one new idea of something to do each day. Current suggestions include: Eat pie and mash at F. Cooke’s in [...]