Horizontal Hold: The Making and Breaking of a Network Television Pilot [Paperback]

Daniel Paisner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2000

"A riveting, revelatory account of the economic, creative and pop-cultural forces shaping the entertatinment fare available on home screens"Kirkus Reviews Absurdly funny, trenchant, and provocative, this outside-looking-in account of the stillbirth of one particular telvision series is a must read for every serious and not-so-serious television viewer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author of The Imperfect Mirror: Reflections of Television Newswomen has already made it clear that he doesn't think much of network TV fare, and this devastating chronicle of an aborted series offers ample justification for his attitude. Paisner details the genesis of a pilot episode about a group of presidential speechwriters who work near the White House, a concept that evidently sounded better to originator Bruce Paltrow (fresh from his triumph with St. Elsewhere ) and his co-workers than it does to the reader. Filmed in New York City, then retitled and reshot in Los Angeles with a new cast, the pilot failed to win the bankers' approval in either version. But the story of its death--with producers hyping themselves, the networks demanding tried-and-true situations, the creators proudly pointing to their use of a "real" laugh track (a reorganized tape of actual studio audience response)--makes for an impressive revelation of contemporary cloud-cuckoo-landspelling and punctuation per Webster's .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Television pilots--those one-shot programs that aspire to the rarefied air of prime time--constitute a facet of the television business that is little understood by the viewing public. The author was granted access by producer Bruce Paltrow ( The White Shadow , St. Elsewhere ) to observe the creation of a sitcom pilot about presidential speechwriters. At first titled E.O.B. (for Executive Office Building, where such writers toil), the show underwent two title changes, a shift from New York to Hollywood as a production site, and a cast makeover. Paisner offers some interesting observations, but it seems clear that this show was doomed from the start (it never aired). Ultimately, insider books carry more punch when they describe something tangible. For large media collections.
- Thomas Wiener, formerly with "American Film"
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (June 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595092853
• ISBN-13: 978-0595092857
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,280,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Paisner is one of the busiest collaborators in publishing. He's written over fifty books, on topics ranging from business and sports, to politics and popular culture, including eleven New York Times best-sellers.

He is co-author of best-selling books with tennis champion Serena Williams; MSNBC News personality Mika Brzezinski; real estate developer and co-star of "Celebrity Apprentice" Ivanka Trump; Ohio governor John Kasich; former New York City mayor Ed Koch; and, Academy Award-winning actors Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Quinn, among others. He is currently completing projects with former world champion longboard surfer Izzy Paskowitz and legendary high school basketball coach Bob Hurley.

Over the years, Paisner has worked with dozens of "ordinary" individuals with extraordinary stories to tell, including Krystyna Chiger, whose chronicle of her family's horrific ordeal in a Polish sewer during the German occupation, "The Girl in the Green Sweater," makes an important contribution to the literature of the Holocaust. The story is the basis for the forthcoming film, "In Darkness," from Academy Award-nominated director Agnieszka Holland.

Perhaps his most notable collaboration has been the best-selling account of a New York City firefighter's epic tour of duty at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, "Last Man Down," written with FDNY Battalion Commander Richard Picciotto. The book was #1 on the London Times best-seller list, and remained a top ten seller in the U.K. for over six months; it reached the #1 spot on the Amazon.com.uk "Hot 100" list.

Paisner has also written several books of his own, including "The Ball: Mark McGwire's 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream," which was hailed by Amazon editors as one of the best sports books of the year. If you want to really make him happy, consider reading one of his novels, "Obit" and "Mourning Wood."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Dated Retelling of TV Pilot Process, June 7, 2009

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Mediaman "TVviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Horizontal Hold: The Making and Breaking of a Network Television Pilot (Paperback)

This 1992 book (which appears to have been republished in 2000) tells the story of how a failed show from the St. Elsewhere producers goes from idea to pilot to rejection. It's nice that the author had access to some of the major Hollywood TV players, but the picture that he paints is one of elitists who think the American viewing public is stupid. In some ways the author also mirrors those attitudes, and the book ends up slamming middle America as much as it condemns the entire network pilot process.

The main characters include the late Bruce Paltrow, who was the St. Elsewhere producer that the author claims created "one of the most critically acclaimed programs in TV history," that is of course now long forgotten and not anywhere near as good as critics then claimed it was. (Even the creators of St. Elsewhere slam Paltrow in the book.) Also there is John Tinker, son of former NBC head Grand Tinker, and Oz creator Tom Fantana.

These creative types moan that television for the masses is idiotic so they attempt to come up with classy "realistic" material that will win them Emmy awards. But they actually create absurd shows (like St. Elsewhere, which ranged from a doctor mooning the camera to an autistic child in the final episode dreaming the whole series!) that are often fantasy versions of real life. They think they are writing Shakespeare for the tube--and because of their elitist status they have no connection with the real world of the average viewer.

So pilots they come up with include a high school drama with a "hip, young" cast (wow--that's inventive!), a half hour sitcom about family life that Paltrow based on his own family (including wife Blythe Danner and daughter Gwyneth, who sound like loonies), a "period drama" called 1761 (about London during the pre-revolutionary war!) and a half-hour comedy about a Donald Trump-like character who juggles his wife, his lover, his wife lover's lover, etc.

Don't those sound classy?

The author seems to think these guys can do no wrong, especially Paltrow. So he gives their negative view of the network executives and the idiotic public. The book is filled with nose-in-the-air demeaning comments about the industry and the viewers.

So while it's kind of interesting to hear about how they took the story of White House speechwriters and turned it into a 1991 pilot that never made it to the air, it would have been much more interesting to hear about a show that actually did get picked up as a series (the somewhat similarly themed West Wing?)--and then include comments from other perspectives, such as the condemned executives and the demeaned viewing public. Instead this ends up being a narrow, lop-sided story of a TV show no one ever heard or nor cares about.