Investor's Business Daily, August 7th, 2007
Entrepreneurs looking to launch an innovative start-up -- and sell it for big bucks -- could learn lessons from Norman Lear, creator of a string of TV hits in the 1970s.
Among the lessons?
Knock on opportunity's door. In the late 1960s, Lear noticed a squib in Variety about a popular British sitcom, "Till Death Us Do Part." He bought the American rights, revamped the show for a U.S. audience and unveiled it with a new name, "All in the Family."
Nix the naysayers. In 1969, ABC financed two pilots for "All in the Family" -- then rejected the project. No other network was interested. The show, focusing on bigotry and other issues, was a hot potato no TV programmer would touch.
Yet Lear was unfazed. While working on other projects, he relentlessly talked up the show to friends and industry execs.
His break came in 1970, when he heard CBS was overhauling its program schedule. It was catering to younger urban viewers. Lear met with network execs and touted the show as a perfect fit with their new target audience. In January 1971, "All in the Family" premiered on CBS. Within five months, it topped the Nielsen ratings.
Build a pipeline. Playing off the success of "Family," Lear and partner Alan "Bud" Yorkin quickly followed up with "Sanford and Son," based on the British sitcom "Steptoe and Son." Lear then launched two "All in the Family" spinoffs: "Maude" and "The Jeffersons."
From "Maude," Lear developed "Good Times." By the late '70s, he'd created a TV empire. Shows ranged from "One Day at a Time" to "Fernwood 2-Night."
Find new customers. When CBS turned down his pilot for the soap-opera spoof "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" in 1975, Lear flew 23 execs -- representing more than 100 independent TV stations nationwide -- to Los Angeles, and entertained them in his home.
The point? To show them the "Hartman" pilot and sell the show directly to the stations -- a revolutionary idea before cable became a viable option. Most of the execs signed with Lear. In January 1976, "Hartman" premiered on more than 90 stations.
Create quality. On several series, Lear demanded up to eight rewrites per episode. "He got people to perform at their highest" levels, writer-producer Charlie Hauck told IBD. "It's not that you felt you were being whipped. You felt you were being inspired."
"I'm like a dog hanging on to a bone -- I'll hang on forever until the show is right," Lear said shortly after "Family" premiered.
Package it well. To emphasize the warts-and-all realism of "Family," Lear pioneered the use of videotape in the sitcom genre. Videotape -- which mainly had been used for variety and talk shows -- offered a stark, windowlike view of the Archie Bunker household. It later became a sitcom staple.
Maximize it. Lear's focus on innovation hiked the value of his production firms year after year. By 1985, his inventory of hits enabled him to sell Embassy Communications and Tandem Productions, with partner Jerry Perenchio, for $485 million.
