The One That Got Away...

While we wait for SIEGE to kick into gear, and the inevitable rewrites that pre-pro will bring, I thought it might be fun to regale you with some of my brushes with near-success.

As long-time readers may know by now (Hi again, Mom!), SIEGE will be the first thing I've written that actually makes it to screen. (Knock on wood). But.. prior to giving up on Hollywood and escaping to Atlanta, I made my play for greatness in LA, and had quite a few near misses.

In late '99 the dot-com boom was in full swing, and Hollywood wanted in on it. Any self-respecting mogul with a rolodex and some buddies with cash to burn wanted to start up an interactive interest of some sort. Pop.com. Icebox. DEN. iCast. Entertaindom. The list goes on.

My partners and I had a strong background in that world, and found an eager partner in Hollywood legend and movie mogul Mike Medavoy. He was looking to spread his wings and had interesting friends with great connections and deep pockets. So we started up a company.

Early on we met with one of the angel investors and board members. He was a very powerful player in the radio world, having founded one of the country's leading syndication networks. He had an upstart LA radio personality he really wanted us to create a property for.

We went to work, trying to come up with something interesting that fit this "convergence" space of radio meets internet. In the end, our pitch was THE CONVINCE ME COUNTDOWN. A nationally syndicated Top-40 style show, but heavily focused on the personality. And without Arbitron or Nielsen or anyone else determining the lineup. Nope. It was to be the first arbitrary Top-40 countdown. The internet audience spent time voting and chatting with and otherwise cajoling the host to pick what they wanted to hear. And he would go based on internet preferences, with the caveat that he could always over-ride fan opinion in lieu of his own thing. For example, you're Madonna and you have a new single? Show up at the studio to be on the show, chat with the host and audience and BOOM... #1 song in the countdown.

It was a concept of debateable quality, but it fulfilled a number of goals, including involving the audience, and most importantly, building up this fresh-faced DJ.

So the day came for us to pitch the radio host. We'd created one-sheets, put together a flash demo of how it'd work, even done some basic show scripting. We gathered at the Radio Mogul's office, and the DJ came in. A squirrley little guy.

"Hi, I'm Ryan Seacrest," he said, with a warm smile and a firm handshake.

We exchanged introductions, sat down and gave the pitch. He really liked it. At that time he was a local market guy, and the idea of a nationally syndicated show seemed like the bigtime to him.

We had a great meeting, and left agreeing to have our respective agents work things out (he'd brought his with him... a guy who, it just happened, had previously repped one of my partners).

A few days passed, and we heard nothing.

Then a week.

Then two. We put in repeated calls to his agent. Nada. Finally we got ahold of Ryan and his guy.

"Listen guys, we love the idea, but we're going to have to pass. Ryan's been offered some kind of variety show thing, and, well... it's TV."

"You've gotta be kidding me," we objected. "Like Star Search? Good luck with that pal. 2 months from now you'll be back doing local radio and will wish you'd taken this fantastic opportunity."

We hung up, shaking our heads. We were incredulous that he'd have the gall to pass on such a cool radio concept for something as lame as hosting... no... actually now that I think of it, it was CO-hosting with Brian something or another... a freaking lame-ass sounding talent show called AMERICAN IDOL. Idiot.

Of course, we know how this story turned out. He's a gazillionaire, dating models, and I'm still a dot-com donkey, living in Atlanta, praying for them to start production on a C-movie.

That wasn't the last time American Idol would spit in my face, either. But that's another fish tale, for my next post...

Charlie

Technorati tags: Ryan Seacrest, American Idol, Mike Medavoy, Radio, star search, b movie