In TV land, pilots never die

If you're going to pitch a pilot to television network execs in L.A., one key word is 'patience'. Another is 'persistence'. Here is an interesting article about a handful of pilots that are finally getting picked up by the networks, after their creators have re-worked and re-tooled them for years. One example is Numb3rs, which didn't make the cut the first time around. The creators went back to the drawing board, pitched it the next year, and now it's a successful series. Another example is Monk, which was originally created for ABC but never got off the ground. A network exec moved from ABC to USA, where Monk found a following.

One of the most extreme cases comes this year. For eight years, writer Paul Haggis (Crash & Million Dollar Baby) has been trying to get the series, The Truth About Joey Ice Cream on the air. It's a show about four Irish brothers who keep finding themselves tangled up in the mob. Sound familiar? It should. We reported on it last month, when NBC finally picked it up as The Black Donnellys. I actually kind-of prefer the original title because it's quirky. Did the show really change that much or is it just because Haggis is hot right now? Probably the latter. It's the same for Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the very-hot-right-now Grey's Anatomy. She developed a journalism-themed series one year before Grey's and now has been asked to re-develop it.