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08 May 2012
“An associate producer is the only guy in Hollywood who will associate with a producer.” – Fred Allen
Neely: I hope Fifteen Digits had a successful launch.
Let’s turn to television and the show you have on the air right now, “Breakout Kings.” I loved that pilot when I first read it and was shocked beyond belief (and it actually takes a lot to shock me) when FBC passed on it in favor of, what was the name of that New Orleans show that lasted 3 episodes?
Nick: 2 episodes. It was called “Lone Star” – not sure where it was set (Neely laughs). They decided to bring back 5 shows, or rather they decided to pick up 5 shows instead of “Breakout Kings.” None of those shows are on the air right now and “Breakout Kings” still is.
Neely: “Breakout Kings” has an incredibly unique history because even though FBC in their infinite wisdom passed on the show, one of the first to come out of Peter Chernin’s independent banner, they allowed Chernin to shop it elsewhere.
Nick: FBC was very kind to us when they decided not to pick up the show. They didn’t have to let us shop it but they did. I’m really appreciative of that. Everyone involved was.
Neely: That’s what I call shocker number one and it probably wouldn’t have happened if it had been anyone other than Chernin (maybe Spielberg, but it’s a really short list).
Nick: They were very cool about it. Peter Rice was kind enough to call me and he was a gentleman about it. He said, “Any other year, this show would have been picked up.” We were their highest testing pilot by far. It wasn’t really close. But they really felt strongly about “Lone Star.” They also felt strongly about “Chicago Code” and Shawn Ryan is a friend of mine so I wanted “Chicago Code” to do well. “Terra Nova” had some really big names behind it, so they had hopes for that too…
Neely: But “Terra Nova” didn’t get on the air that season, either.
Nick: It didn’t, no. And they also wanted to give “Lie to Me” and “Human Target” another chance. So they had a tough decision to make and they made that decision. They didn’t have a crystal ball. But if you’re asking if I was heartbroken, I was. If you’re asking if I was incredibly appreciative when FBC said they weren’t going to stand in the way of us trying to sell it someplace else, I was appreciative. And that’s where Peter Chernin was worth his weight in gold because he made a million phone calls and so did WME. Ari Greenberg and Rick Rosen really got behind the show. It was a million to one shot that A&E would pick up the show and they did!
Neely: That’s my shocker number 2.
Nick: Shocker number 2 that someone else would pick up the show?
Neely: Yes, but the shocker was that it was A&E.
Nick: Yeah! That is a shocker because it is a network that airs mostly unscripted series. They do have “The Glades,” and a new show that they’re going to come out with that’s a western that I don’t know too much about. But they picked us up when we were knocked down. I had left 20th for a couple of weeks and took a job at ABC. You have to understand. I went from having phone calls with 20th about where we wanted the “Breakout Kings” offices to be to five or six days later them saying that the show hadn’t been picked up. And the day after the show wasn’t picked up, I went back to the studio to have conversations with people there, kind of like a… what’s the right word?
Neely: Post-mortem.
Nick: Yeah. You know, like a coda where you’re wrapping things up.
Neely: I guess a kind of epilogue.
Nick: Anyway, I went over to 20th to have a conversation with them about what I would be doing next and when I tried to enter the lot, my ID no longer worked.
Neely: (Both laughing) Oh My God!
Nick: (still laughing) And literally the day before we were having conversations about what writers we could hire and where our offices would be and how we were the highest testing pilot. And 24 hours later I couldn’t get on the lot. (Neely really cackles) That’s Hollywood for you. And so it was really weird for me to take a job at another studio. It was good for me to get out there and spread my wings. They had asked me to go and help Chris Mundy who was running the “Criminal Minds” spin-off – help get that show off the ground and then they would let me develop. So I went over there to work for Chris who’s a total gentleman. I really liked Chris a lot and I liked the writers over there too.
I was there two weeks and I got a phone call that “Breakout Kings” had been picked up and I hadn’t even finished unpacking my office completely. I had kind of set up, but not really, and I had to pack everything back up. I remember my last day. I was there late trying to get an outline done for “Criminal Minds” just so that I wouldn’t leave them hanging.
Neely: (laughing) Unlike Mandy Patinkin.
Nick: (laughing) Exactly. And then we got on the air at A&E, it was a miracle. And you should give A&E a lot of credit.
Neely: Absolutely! It was a super high risk move for them.
Nick: It’s a high risk move and it’s their development people saying, “We know we developed our own stuff, but we think this pilot that other people developed and shot is better than the stuff we were working on. So we should bring it in to this network.” That takes guts and that takes confident, secure people, I think.
Neely: Yeah, because one of the reasons that a lot of things that are really really good don’t get on is because development executives, or rather development departments in general, have such ego-involvement that they only want it to be something that they’ve brought along from the beginning.
Nick: Yes. And A&E did not have that ego. A&E said that this was a good show and they wanted it on their network. In fact, they called WME… Bob DeBitetto called WME and said, “We watched the pilot and what’s the catch? What’s the problem that we’re not seeing? Are there issues with the cast? Are there issues with the showrunner? Are there people going out on benders all night? This show is great. Why did this not get picked up?” And the answer was that it was just a decision made by FBC. And by the way, they had every right to make that decision.
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