Interview · moment 20 of 32
Pitching Pilots, Spike TV, and Learning to Do It Yourself
from #179 - Sal Vulcano | The Tim Dillon Show · #179
4 min
Guest
Sal describes the group's process pitching roughly 20 shows, an early deal with Spike TV that went poorly due to inexperience, and their decision afterward to self-fund a pilot to maintain creative control.
- Tim's guest explains how a $20,000 down payment on shared housing was transformative while waiting for a show deal that never aired.
- They pitched roughly 20 TV shows, sold 4 of them, and filmed about 4 pilot presentations.
- Their first scripted show got offers from both Fox and Spike TV; they chose Spike despite Fox offering more money because it seemed more boutique.
- Working with Spike and an inexperienced production company was a learning experience but not the best one.
- Even with early contest success and agent representation, the group still had full-time jobs while pitching shows.
- Spike gave them $75,000 and asked for a five-to-six-minute pilot presentation, but the production company decided to deliver the full 30 minutes instead.
- By overextending themselves on the Spike pilot, they spread themselves thin, lost quality, put in their own money, and didn't deliver what was asked.
- After learning from the Spike experience, they decided to make another pilot completely on their own for $5,000 using volunteer friends and their own money.
- The DIY pilot got into festivals but didn't get picked up, though they nearly landed a YouTube deal.
- Multiple game show pilots also failed to get picked up, yet surprisingly nobody in the industry held it against them.
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