August 27, 1998
Kevin Abbott, the writer/creator of The Hanleys, called me recently and threw out an idea. Brillstein-Grey, a well-known and respected production company, also producers of The Hanleys had approached him with a possible idea. That would be "packaging" the director, Gil Junger, him, and me and making an offer to ABC. That would mean, as I understand it, that if ABC would agree to pick up six episodes, Brillstein-Grey would produce the pilot. That's a wild idea.
Today, Kevin and I met just to touch base really. He's working these days on Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place but is eager and anxious to put something new together for next season in his free time. So we just talked about ideas and what might or might not work. Kevin also has an unproduced pilot that went through the system a couple of years ago but did not reach the finish line. He gave me a copy of that to look at as a possible project for all of us.
Most importantly, I really just want to stay close to Kevin because I'm keen on his writing, especially for me, he's in good with ABC these days, and simply because he's a nice guy. So this was hopefully just the frist step of many in what could be a fun, interesting process.