They Gotta Be Kidding

It's astonishing the TV shows that get greenlighted these days. Television executives are like a group of 7-year old boys. It doesn't matter how intelligent and socially adjusted they are as individuals, put them together in a group and they instantly dumb down. Years ago I was writing a biopic of the first Mayor Daley of Chicago for a major network, and in a script conference one of the vice presidents said to me, "remember, we don't want this to be a political movie." Yeah, right. I tried an experiment a while ago to see just how far I could push the envelope. I pitched an idea for a new reality show called Out On a Limb about a group of quadruple amputees training to compete against each other in the triathalon. I expected the executives to throw me out of the room. Instead they sat there like a bunch of monkeys, scratching their chins and glancing at each other in search of clues as to how they should react. Finally one spoke up. "You know," he said, "that might just work." Scary.