Valentines

Here are some Valentine's thoughts from my old pals back when interesting people could afford to live in New York.

Two from Sam Henderson.

He can be stalked via http://themagicwhistle.blogspot.com/

And one from the elusive Greg Fiering.

Monroe Board

After the (very detailed) bible, FX contracted us to script and board a pilot episode.

John Freeman Gill wrote the script in collaboration with Sam Henderson, who boarded the whole thing.  John has since written some great features for "The Atlantic" and done a number a cover stories for the New York Times.

I like how the board hints at the eccentric style of animation which would push the comedy.

As you can see, it was a full length story.

Administration changes at the network contributed to this project being passed on.  I still think it's, in essence, a great idea.

Fortunately for Sam, his experience boarding this helped him land a job writing for Spongebob Squarepants. Any comedy show would benefit from having him on staff.

The Monroe Doctrine

We followed up our pitch meeting with FX with a brief summary of the series.  I'm sure I still have it a box somewhere.

It consisted of a few drawings and a simple recap of the basic premise of the series.

They then contracted us to develop a "bible" and a pilot storyboard.

In retrospect, the bible may have been too well developed.  We just had so many ideas for the universe of the show.  It was a world Sam Henderson had been exploring for maybe a decade. Most of the characters and storylines were good, but to someone who hasn't been with the core group for a while the side characters might take on too much weight.

It would be like creating a pitch for "The Simpsons" with a bunch of stories about Apu.

Our pitch bible -"The Monroe Doctrine" - had five chapters.

1) Series Overview

2) Our Hero (such as he is)

3) Main Characters and Locations (Home.  Office.)

4) Supporting Characters

5) Categories of Stories and Episode Premises

The book was also filled with art.

And sample dialog.

There was some concern that Sam didn't have enough "writing experience" so we brought in a writer for him to work with.  In typical Ink Tank fashion, that writer had no more professional experience than Sam. 

John Freeman Gill did a great job in helping flesh out the characters and writing the bible and pursuant script.

Overall, I think the bible was too deep.  There are funny characters and distinct world, but the voice of the main character (and thus the audience's connection to the world) gets lost.

Even so, I still think it's a strong idea for a television series.

Developing Monroe

Now, to begin a little tale of development and, ultimately, disappointment. Perhaps we'll find a new twist which will turn out happy for us all, for the time being we'll rest at disappointment.

This will be the first of a few posts chronicling the development of a series concept with the great Sam Henderson which we put together a few years back at The Ink Tank.



Our story begins, innocuously enough, with me saying "Hey, my pal Henderson is a hilarious cartoonist. If anyone has a natural voice for a hit comedy show it's him!"

The process began by combing through his published work looking for good characters and settings to draw stories around.  This was made easier by the great volume of work he had already produced.  At that point he had several self published comics, followed by a run with Alternative Press and his trade paperback "Humor Can Be Funny" was just about to be published.  Another collection had been published by a small press and was out of print.  This would serve as the foundation for our show.

Right around this time the studio's entertainment agent, Jim Arnoff, let us know that F/X -then a fledgling cable network -was keen on developing animated properties.

Cable networks were still smarting from passing on "South Park" which had done the rounds and been passed on by everybody before landing at Comedy Central and effectively re-inventing the network has a home to (hit) original scripted comedy.

Our first meeting was at their offices.  24th and Broadway.  Brian, Sam, Jim and I went.  I don't remember who was in the room from F/X (I was just happy to be there) but I do remember they were three fairly muscular guys.  Jim is also a pretty muscular guy.  Sam and Brian, well, they're not.  And neither am I.  It was like jocks versus nerds or maybe one of those development guys went on to produce "Pros vs. Joes" inspired by that meeting.

Mezzomorphs aside, they loved the pitch.  It was just a few drawings and some talking.

Eager to hear more we followed it up with a "bible" later in the week.

But that's a story for later.