How to do you come up with a winning kids’ show? Follow along as we discover how Deb Manchester did it:
- First she was an audiologist for 15 years, but then decided the job wasn’t fun anymore and went back to school to learn animation.
- Then she tore her Achilles tendon and was in a cast for six months. Unable to find a fun cover to keep her toes warm in winter, she designed one and a business opportunity in making and selling them. The ones for kids featured alien creatures she designed.
- She wrote a kids’ book to go with the covers and took it to a book fair, where three producers looking for new animated TV properties. One hooked her up with Phil Roman, executive producer of “The Simpsons,” who advised her to create a demo.
- She made two demos, each fifteen minutes long, and pitched them to network executives for two years. All of them turned her down.
- For a few years she visited more than 100 schools to get feedback on the characters and stories from kids and teachers.
- She also pitched the characters to two science museums, two of which used her cartoons in their children’s education programs.
- American Public TV said they’d distribute her show…if she could get the production funding.
- She spent six months writing a business plan and improving her pitch. At a presentation, she landed a benefactor who put up the money and gave her total creative control.
- Now “The Zula Patrol” is watched by two million kids on NBC and public stations on Saturday mornings and the characters also feature on Zula World, an online site built by IBM.
In between some of these steps, she supported herself by designing websites and working part time at her old occupation. Elapsed time between her career switch and her show getting on the air: eleven years.
Easy, huh?
(This post is based on an article in the Los Angeles Times by Alex Pham. You can read it here.)
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