An alternate TV universe
The Hollywood renegades at the Other Network are bringing legendary failed TV pilots to a comedy club near you. And they're better than what got on the air.
By Carina Chocano
Oct. 24, 2002 | Where do TV pilots go when they die?
If they're lucky, they go to Moomba, a nightclub in West Hollywood, on Friday nights. Since last August, Beth Lapides and Greg Miller, the creators of a long-running alternative comedy series, the Un-Cabaret, have been screening unaired pilots to the packed nightclub as part of a series called the Other Network. An instant hit, the Other Network is now hitting the road. This weekend the series will present three different nights of failed programming at the Knitting Factory in New York. And clubs from all over the country are calling Lapides and Miller, asking if they can become "affiliates."
"In Hollywood, so much great work gets produced that never reaches an audience," Miller says. Every year, the networks produce about 130 pilots, only about 30 of which ever make it to the small screen in your living room.
"The problem," says Miller, "is that it costs a million dollars to make a TV show, which means that the networks have to know that advertisers want to buy it, which means the advertisers are guessing what their audience wants to see." He adds, "People do great work, and there's a huge audience that wants to see what's out there, what they're not seeing, what TV could be."
As the producer and host of the Un-Cabaret, Miller and Lapides have always counted comedians and writers among their friends. Over the years, they kept hearing stories about pilots their acquaintances had made, shows that nobody but network executives, focus groups and the creators' families ever saw.
"What would happen," Lapides says, "is that we would have these dinners and someone would say, 'Oh, yeah, when I did "Five Houses" ...' And someone else would say, 'Oh, I really want to see that!' You never got to see the work your friends were doing. So, that was one of the reasons. Our approach has always been to show the work we want to see."
Lapides believes that audiences sense that television is "part of a system that is broken." Television programmers rely heavily on focus testing and corporate decision-making. "But the thing with the whole focus-group system," says Miller, "is that it seems as if it's being market tested to people, but the way the actual focus groups go, people are encouraged to complain about the shows and find fault with them. And if you start picking at anything you can have issues with it."
Unlike focus group audiences, the Other Network's audiences are made up of men and women of different ages, from college kids to older people. Rather than play to a strict demographic, the pilots play to audiences with a shared sensibility. Part of what the Other Network has tried to do is show that there is an audience for television that is not made and selected by committee.
"In my dreams," Lapides says. "There is a hole in the TV dial for a thing called the Other Network, which is a place that has shows of a different ... uh, diff ... oh, just better!"
Lapides and Miller say they're trying to provide a new frame for watching TV. "I like to say our focus groups are really focused," Lapides says. "And it's good to see how people will respond if they are set to enjoy something, rather than to pick it apart. I think it does show there is an audience for more experimental and eclectic television.
"But the networks tell you, 'Just make the pilot over and over," she says. "People tuned in, they liked it, that's what they want to see." Taken out of the context of testing, audience reactions are often different. Some pilot creators have noted, for instance, that the aspects of their show that went over well with live audiences were the same things that they had to battle the network to keep. And some of the things that failed live were things the networks insisted on including.
"The less cookie-cutter something is, the more original and authentic a pilot is, the more it will probably be somewhat problematic," Lapides says. "The pilot episode of a TV show is never the best episode, because you're laying out the territory. TV is a serial narrative form. It's not like watching a movie. When you watch a pilot you watch for potential."