QUANTUM LEAP
(Spec Script)
Written by
Gillian Horvath
A little bit of backstory: I'd been an intern at Universal TV, and was working as an assistant on a show on the Universal Lot, so I knew a few executives who were willing to read my material. This script impressed them enough to recommend me to the QL producers. The QL folks were reluctant to read a QL script for the usual legal reasons, so I hurriedly finished a draft of a Northern Exposure spec I was working on at the time, and the combination of those two scripts got me a pitch meeting at QL.
Spec scripts walk that fine line between fanfic and producible episode. They need to feel filmable, but in my opinion they need a hook that goes a step past what an average episode would do. I had a note to myself stuck to my working notebook at the time, with a quote from JD Salinger: "Write the book you would want to read next." And under, I'd added "Write the episode you would want to see."
I still want to see "Lost Weekend."
(more about my QL pitch meeting after the jump.)
Spec scripts walk that fine line between fanfic and producible episode. They need to feel filmable, but in my opinion they need a hook that goes a step past what an average episode would do. I had a note to myself stuck to my working notebook at the time, with a quote from JD Salinger: "Write the book you would want to read next." And under, I'd added "Write the episode you would want to see."
I still want to see "Lost Weekend."
(more about my QL pitch meeting after the jump.)
