Um, since we're all new here, in general when I say "this business," I'm referring to the entertainment industry. Film and TV in particular.

So the way this business works. I know some people working at a largish animation production company that I'll call Prodco. Some months ago I found out that they were looking for pitches for a TV series they were going to propose to a popular Canadian animation network that I'll call Network. This show was going to be an Adult Swim kind of thing aimed at older audiences for post prime time programming. A half hour block composed of three parallel seven-minute segments. So Prodco was going to go in with a wide variety of short series concepts and see if they could find three that Network would go for.

I wrote up a few ideas, including "Apocalypse High," which has become kind of a running gag for me whenever I need something to pitch. It's "Apocalypse Now" set in High School. Because the only way to improve on Shakespeare or various other classic stories is to transpose them to High School so you can put a lot of beautiful teenagers in them.

Prodco politely passed on that one. But they liked "Learn Talikan With Cousin Lubu," a parody of those foreign language learning videos where people have really forced discussions about how to find the Post Office or what restaurant they want to go to. It features four earnest, but deeply messed up, young language students from all walks of life and the twisted old man they (very unwisely) accept as an authority on everything because he's a native speaker of the language they're grappling with. Tragic misunderstandings mix with the characters' various personal agendas and prejudices and everything inevitably spins off the rails with horrific results. Imagine a cross between Intermediate Spanish and "Happy Tree Friends."

So they added that one to their package, and someone was off in New York pitching one of my ideas to a TV network. Cool, but what are the odds anything will happen? Pretty long.

Months go by and I kind of forget about it. The head of Prodco doesn't really want to be in the TV business anyway. He wants to steer the company more toward features. And I haven't heard anything so I figure it's one more dead end.

Then a couple days ago I get a call. Prodco wants to option Learn Talikan. Don't get all excited. This is the classic "dollar option." Basically, it sounds like the show is sort of a wash. But Network really wants to work with Prodco. So they're going to pick one of the ten or so pitches that went in originally, and they're going to give Prodco some development money to create a series bible and a couple episode synopses and see what happens. They don't know which one yet, so Prodco wants to option all of them and then, if you're the creator of the one Network eventually taps, you'll come along for the ride and get paid.

Now if you stop and think about that, you'll realize how weird it is. This isn't happening because Network thought any of those ideas they got pitched had any potential. They haven't even picked the property yet. They just want to be working with Prodco on something, and they don't really give a damn what. Someone at Network just realized that they're the biggest animation outlet in Canada and Prodco is one of the biggest animation producers in Canada and it's kind of weird that they're not doing anything together. And it probably gives somebody some political capital within Network somewhere.

So that's my nibble for the week. Odds are still that nothing will happen. There were like ten other pitches up for that thing, though someone at Prodco says it's more like one in five because a bunch of them they obviously aren't going to pick. But still, odds are nothing will come of it, and even if it does, the odds of actually going to production are infinitesimal because that's not the point. It's about working with Prodco, not actually accomplishing anything with them. But I can now say that I had a series concept optioned by Prodco and, even though it doesn't mean a damn thing in reality, in the industry being able to say you were optioned by Prodco carries some weight. That's how this business works.