"The timidity of American broadcast networks could end up being a theme of today's talk," producer and director Alan Poul warned towards the beginning of his recent Master Class at the Banff World Television Festival. It did, in fact, emerge as a recurring theme as he reflected on his career.
Poul's resume includes television classics such as Six Feet Under ("the five greatest years of my life") and My So-Called Life ("something extraordinary"), as well as the films Candyman and Woman on Top, among others. He's currently the executive producer of Swingtown, the CBS summer series about three couples in the swinging 1970s, which debuted to some controversy earlier this month.
The creator of Swingtown, Mike Kelley, brought the concept to Poul when the producer had an exclusive deal with HBO. The show seemed like a perfect fit. HBO didn't disagree, but with Big Love and Tell Me You Love Me already on their schedule, "they felt another show about multiple partners would be too much for them to handle."
"We thought, shit, there's no where else we can take this, except possibly Showtime." So, wisely, they took it to Showtime, who expressed interest but wanted more time to commit to funding the pilot. While waiting, they got a call from CBS indicating that network head Nina Tassler was interested. "Is it April Fool's Day?" Poul wondered.
He said Tassler had seen the script as a writing sample and "flipped for it." Turns out, not only did she have an affinity for the '70s herself, but "her aunt and uncle wrote a book called Open Marriage that defined the phenomenon we're depicting in the show. So she had a very intimate relationship with the material."
Most such meetings involve the producer and writer trying to convince the network why they should buy the show. This particular meeting involved the network trying to convince them they should sell the show to CBS.
"We said we're not going to sell it if they're going to turn it into a network show," Poul recounted, telling Tassler they had a list of non-negotiable demands: "The underage daughter still has to smoke pot, the crazy neighbour lady still has to do coke, our leading lady still has to take the Quaalude and we have to want her to take the Quaalude, and they still have to have sex with their neighbours. If you guarantee we can do all those things on CBS, then yes, you can buy the show. She said you have my word."
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