Today, another tidbit from show biz manager Bernie Brillstein, from his 2004 book, “The Little Stuff Matters Most.” This one is from the chapter, Always Have a Back-up Plan. He tells about a presentation he and puppeteer Paul Fusco (creator of the puppet, “ALF”) made to (then) NBC honco Brandon Tartikoff:
“Unfortunately, Patchett got lost in a long-winded explanation of the puppet and the backstory and right away I knew we were going into the toilet…But Fusco and I had a contingency plan. I kicked him under the table. He took ALF out of his garbage bag, put it on his hand, did the voice, sneezed, wiped his nose, and then smeared it on Tartikoff’s sleeve. ‘I get it!’ said Tartikoff, laughing. ‘Let’s go!’ Boom. Deal. We walked out with a pilot order.”
As you may know, the show was a huge hit and is still seen in reruns all over the world.
Brillstein advises: “The first step to a back-up plan is asking a simple question: ‘What if?””
One version of this I advise is when you're presenting an idea to someone, always have at least one more idea that you can also present, at least briefly. If the first one isn't getting a good reception, you can say, 'Actually, I've been working on something else as well--can I give you a quick summary of that one, to see whether it might more along the lines of what you're looking for?"
