Television Development:
Companion Content
Chapter 2
Pretty Little Liars Pitch
This is the pitch script I. Marlene King wrote for her Pretty Little Liars pitch to ABC Family. Among the many notable qualities of King's pitch are the simplicity and conversational style of her writing, which belie the richness and complexity of the show she pitched. It all sounds simple and fun, yet the pitch manages to offer enormous detail of character, world, concept and story.
Pretty Little Liars Pilot Story Outline
This was the draft of I. Marlene King's Pretty Little Liars pilot story outline that ABC Family development execs approved, commencing her to write the pilot script.
Pretty Little Liars Pilot Character Breakdown
This is the character breakdown that Pretty Little Liars casting director Gayle Pillsbury created in consultation with the pilot's EPs and network and studio casting executives, which was submitted to the Breakdown Service and read by talent agents all over LA and New York.
The Vampire Diaries Pilot Look-Book
This is the look-book that Vampire Diaries pilot director Marcos Siega created in March 2008 to give the network and studio development execs and presidents a sense of his visual gameplan for the pilot. A section of wardrobe fitting photos—to offer an idea of the style of costumes Siega and the producers had in mind—has been omitted.
Pretty Little Liars Pilot Production Day 1 Call Sheet
Here is the call sheet for the first day of the Pretty Little Liars pilot production. Interestingly, most of the work of this day was tossed out when the roles of Aria's parents were recast. The only work that made it to air from this day was the last scene on the schedule, the nighttime scene between Aria and Emily, Scene 57, where the two girls share their concerns that Alison may be back. While the pilot was shot in Vancouver, the rest of the series, including the pilot reshoots, was shot on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California.
Chapter 7
Pretty Little Liars Pitch
This is the same document posted above, under Chapter 2, but it’s included here again as companion content to Chapter 7 because so much of that chapter is about the Pretty Little Liars pitch.
This is the pitch script I. Marlene King's wrote for her Pretty Little Liars pitch to ABC Family. Among the many notable qualities of King's pitch are the simplicity and conversational style of her writing, which belie the richness and complexity of the show she pitched. It all sounds simple and fun, yet the pitch manages to offer enormous detail of character, world, concept and story.
Pretty Little Liars Pitch Character Chart
In general sellers avoid leaving leave-behinds with network buyers, but when a pitch references as many characters as I. Marlene King's Pretty Little Liars pitch did, this character chart was provided to minimize confusion. ABC Family development execs glanced at the chart as King referenced the numerous characters she had in mind for the pilot (many of whom wouldn't actually survive the development process).
Cold Dead Hands Pitch
This is a pitch by Scott Gold, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist turned screenwriter. This unconventional pitch succeeded in selling the project to SundanceTV. Unfortunately, the project didn’t move forward to production, but it's a beautifully written pitch.
Chapter 11
Pretty Little Liars Book Proposal
As discussed in the book, pitches in the publishing world are delivered as written documents, known as "book proposals" rather than as oral presentations like in Hollywood. Pretty Little Liars began as a novel series before it was a TV series, and the book series began with this book pitch written by novelist Sara Shepard in coordination with editors and executives at Alloy Entertainment. Six publishers threw their hats in the ring when they read this proposal and bid for the rights to the book. HarperCollins won the auction and wound up publishing 18 Pretty Little Liars novels. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Pretty Little Liars Pilot Script Production Draft
This is the last production draft of the pilot script. Compare this to King's pilot story outline posted under Chapter 2 and note how much the scenes, stories and structure evolved throughout the development of the project.
Chapter 13
Blink Pilot Script
This is Vera Herbert's Blink pilot script. As discussed in the book, Herbert wrote this as a writing sample while she was a writers' assistant on Awkward. Her agent Margaret Mendelson (then at Gersh, now at CAA) thought it held a lot more promise than that. She shopped it to networks and the CW bought it while Herbert was working as a 23 year-old assistant. The sale and the fact that the network greenlighted the pilot to production catapulted Herbert's career. She's now a Co-EP on This is Us.
Chapter 15
FX Networks Research Charts
These two charts, produced by the research department of FX Networks, demonstrate the proliferation of scripted series over the past five years as well as the expansion of online streamers in the marketplace of scripted series TV development and programming.