It's one of TV's most mind-boggling dramas, as exhausting as "24," as random as "Deal or No Deal" and as unpredictable as "Lost." You can't catch the action on the small screen, but the results — for better or worse — determine the future of prime-time television.
It's pilot season, a Hollywood rite of spring that network executives use to evaluate which shows to green-light for the fall schedule. For those in the business, it's a make-or-break process that has as much to do with dumb luck as talent.
"There have been times in the process where I've had to flip a coin to decide what to do," said actress Paget Brewster, veteran of 16 pilots — sample episodes — for shows that either never made the cut or were quickly canceled. "But it's the way it is for a reason. There is a lot of money at stake and a lot of people's jobs at stake."
It may sound insane to base a career-defining move on a heads-or-tail toss, but keep in mind that the whole system is a long-shot gamble.
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According to Nellie Andreeva, TV editor for the Hollywood Reporter, the machine revs up shortly after Labor Day, when executives listen to an endless number of pitches. (He's a cop! Who's blind!! And has a talking dog!!!)
Each honcho then orders about 100 pilot scripts that are due right after the holidays. From that batch, each network selects about 20 to be filmed.
Andreeva estimated that among all the networks, 55 comedies and 45 dramas are now in development. Of those, only a couple dozen will get invitations to the May "upfronts" in New York, where networks announce their new schedules to advertisers.
To accommodate the tight deadlines, all these would-be hits wind up fishing in the same talent pool at the same time — which, contrary to popular belief, isn't very deep.
"It's like pro sports. There are people you want on your team, and that group is finite," said "Lost" executive producer Carlton Cuse. "Everybody's chasing the same actors and the same writers, and it's all on this clock. I don't think that's necessarily the best way to nurture something creatively."
Director Jon Amiel, whose background is in British television ("The Singing Detective") and feature films ("Entrapment"), said he was shocked by the "insanity" of it all when he started helming pilots for network series such as "The Wedding Bells" and "Reunion."
"It's like an entire Japanese (fishing) fleet lighting into the same shore of mackerel, all at the same time," he said. "It's a spectacularly senseless process."
Actors have a particularly grueling swim. After weeks of trying out, they might get no nibbles at all, or be forced to choose among various projects, none with any guarantee.
"It's absolutely horrible. Dreadful," said Sean Maguire, a cast member on CBS' "The Class," adding that it's not unusual for a performer to go on three auditions a day in February and March.
"Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence calls it a "ludicrous process" that has little to do with making a successful TV series. In reality, "there's no scenario where (performers) have one chance to nail it and, if you don't, you never get to do it again," he said.
