How about "I have yet to see enough American television series with the kind of worldbuilding or structure that would lead me to believe that extensive precommission show bibles are a common practice"?

The second was that you would get laughed at for handing in a fifty page show bible alongside your pilot script in the Irish and British television industry.

I don't think you would ever need to hand it in at pilot pitch, but it wouldn't necessarily hurt to have it written, even if the network suits never know it exists.

How about "I have yet to see enough American television series with the kind of worldbuilding or structure that would lead me to believe that extensive precommission show bibles are a common practice"?

That's probably a reasonable accurate take on the subject.

I don't think you would ever need to hand it in at pilot pitch, but it wouldn't necessarily hurt to have it written, even if the network suits never know it exists.

For the, God forgive me I shouldn't be saying this, series I'm developing, the pilot and bible were handed in together. And it wasn't pitched to a network exec 'cause, well, no such thing exists here.

And it wasn't pitched to a network exec 'cause, well, no such thing exists here.

Oh my dog.... It's like a magical happy land full of happiness. Not much cash, compared to Hollywood, but a magical happy land nonetheless.

I'm just saying that Spring's assertion that assembling a show bible that loosely sketches out the first two or three seasons before you've even pitched the show is unreasonable is, I think, unfounded.

Being in comics fandom, all I can do is laugh and laugh and laugh at the idea of continuity.... (Dick Grayson quit his gig as Robin! No, wait -- Batman fired him! Wait -- it must have been polar bears!) When they're backed into a corner, they either (1) create Earth-10 (or whatever they're up to), or (2) OMGWTFINFINITECRISIS!

Oh my dog.... It's like a magical happy land full of happiness. Not much cash, compared to Hollywood, but a magical happy land nonetheless.

If you're frugal, you might make it to the next series without dying of starvation or the cold or something. But, if we're lucky, we might get time to do things right.

Not much cash

This, speaking as one who works for the commercial arm of the biggest player in the magical happy land full of happiness and would really like to be able to pay off her credit cards sometime this centuty...is not a point which can be understated.

That's probably a reasonable accurate take on the subject.

Unassailable, really.

My best friend writes for Canadian TV, and I've heard her talk about pre-pickup show bibles. And they're certainly not throwing around the luchre.

I don't mean to imply I think show bibles guarantee anything. I mean, they can be a bible of really bad idea that the writer reconsiders in time to get a brilliant series out of it. Or a writing team can do just brilliantly without one.

However, in looking at Lost failings, I doubt a show bible would have made it worse. A mere plan would have made it better.

A mere plan would have made it better.

Honestly, I think they've had at least this much this whole time. Maybe even not more than a single page of bullet point summarizing their vague ideas, but I think they've met at least this minimum from the beginning.

I know some people may feel otherwise, but it's the reason Javi was hired in the first place -- to help develop long term arcs for the show when the pilot hadn't been written yet -- so they were at least somewhat thinking long term.

Well, if they had a plan, they must not like it much. Because they say stuff in public and then contradict themselves and don't follow up, etc.