Every year Hollywood touts the next big thing and regales us with tantalizing teases — it is called the television “pilot” season. Beginning in January and continuing into early May, we hear some of the biggest names in the business being cast in upcoming television shows. There is the flush of excitement and rush to broadcast every juicy tid-bit of who will be co-starring and how much money was spent on each of the shows. Yet there is a dark-side to the glossy glamour being painted across the industry news pages — many, if not nearly all of these hotly anticipated shows will never air.
Pilot season is merely a testing ground to see if any of the pitched ideas are worthy of spending obscene amounts of money so that the show can air on broadcast television. It is like inviting a hundred beautiful girls to a debutante ball, parading them through dress shops, dressing them up to the gills in ribbons and lace and then one by one determining if any are worthy of going to the ball. In the end, perhaps half-a-dozen are chosen.
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