Where Do Those Ideas For Television Series Come From?
The following vignettes are contributed by my beloved husband, whose favorite stories include ones in what he terms the HOW IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED category.
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Brandon Tartikoff was the head of programming for NBC. He held periodic “pitch” meetings with various producers, during which the producers would pitch their ideas for new television series. Tartikoff was famous for having ideas of his own which, most times were quite superior to the ideas of the producers.
During one such pitch meeting with Stephen J. Cannell, Tartikoff reached for a piece of paper and his pen and started scribbling. Cannell, thinking Tartikoff was making notes about the concept he was describing, started to really get into it. When he finally wound it up, Cannell asked Tartikoff what he thought of the idea. Tartikoff handed him the piece of paper.
Written on that paper was:
Mission Impossible
The Dirty Dozen
“And Mr. T Drives The Truck”
From this little note sprung …The A-Team.
At another such meeting, with another producer, Tartikoff handed over a piece of paper that read:
MTV Cops
This became …Miami Vice.
The classic pitch meeting that produced a show was held between Aaron Spelling and his partner at the time, Douglas S. Cramer, and executives from ABC, at Spelling’s luxurious digs. Spelling and Cramer spent over 7 hours pitching one idea after another, only to have the ABC guys shoot them all down.
Finally, in total exasperation, Cramer got to his feet and said, “You know, the only thing that will suit you guys is a show about some island somewhere where a guy can go and get all the booze and broads he wants!”
Almost in unison, the ABC guys said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s it!”
And this developed into …..Fantasy Island.
As an aside, the original Fantasy Island was to star Orson Welles, and his assistant was to be a beautiful young girl. Unfortunately, Welles died before the pilot was ready to be shot. It was then that Ricardo Montalban was brought in to play the lead character.
When Montalban assumed the role of Mr. Roarke, the beautiful assistant was dropped. In her stead, as everyone knows, Roarke’s assistant became the midget Tattoo (Herve Villachez).
ABC was not happy. “What happened to the beautiful girl assistant?” the execs wanted to know.
To which Doug Cramer replied, “Ricardo Montalban is beautiful enough by himself.”
