ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how young people can break into the ranks of TV development. For people who aspire to careers as development executives at networks, studios or production companies, two strategies are examined. The first is the assistant route. Most development executives working in Hollywood today began their careers as assistants, and most recommend that jobs as assistants at talent agencies are the best pathway into development, despite grueling hours and occasionally difficult bosses. People who are already established in their careers can consider the lateral route into development, finding a job at a network or studio in one of the ancillary fields like publicity, program research or marketing and promotion and moving laterally within a company into the development suite. The chapter also explores the path to TV writing careers that most working writers recommend, jobs as writers’ assistants or script coordinators in the writers’ rooms of TV series in production.
