How’s this pitch for a TV series?
Our hero wants to be a screenwriter, but his first script doesn’t sell. Nor does the next one. Nor the next. The rejections go on for several seasons – about 10 years, actually. Then, in the last episode, our hero decides to give up and try a different kind of writing, but not before sending out one final proposal. Sayonara, screenwriting dreams. Adios, au revoir, auf Wiedersehen.
But here’s the epic twist: The proposal sells and gets turned into a TV series!
What genre would that be? Career horror? Wannabe-writer fantasy? For David Anaxagoras, it was a decade-long reality show.
The Orange County native is now hunting for digs in Los Angeles as he leaves a room at his parents’ house and a career as a preschool teacher for his job as creator, writer and co-executive producer of a new kids’ show for Amazon’s online video service. That puts him alongside the likes of “The X Files’” Chris Carter as one of the writers developing Amazon’s latest slate of original programming.
Anaxagoras’ show is called “Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street,” a live-action adventure show aimed at the elementary school audience.
The world of Normal Street – a suburban setting with a touch of magic that makes it something more than normal – is based in part on Anaxagoras’ experiences growing up in Santa Ana in the 1970s. For example, a homemade frog gig – a fork stuck into a broom handle – that crops up in the pilot episode was like one Anaxagoras found in the Santa Ana River as a kid.
“I think when you’re 12, whatever you are experiencing at that time becomes part of your DNA as far as your influences go,” he said.
Anaxagoras, 45, came to writing in a roundabout way. His family moved to Mission Viejo when he was 12. He went to El Toro High and then UC Irvine, but dropped out after landing a full-time job working with children at the YMCA.
Eventually, he went back to school and got a degree in child development from Cal State Fullerton, as he continued in his career as a preschool teacher. But he had always wanted to be a writer, and he pursued it on the side.
He took extension courses in screenwriting at UCI, then put a halt on teaching for a couple of years while he earned a master’s in screenwriting at UCLA.
His passion was for live-action children’s stories: “big-budget splashy adventures with kids at the center,” he said. These were the kind of movies he had loved as a kid; they are also movies that Hollywood isn’t producing anymore, making them a tough screenplay sell.
Last summer, he learned about Amazon Studios’ “open door” development process. Amazon lets anyone send in a pitch for an original series. The odds are long – thousands are submitted but only a handful selected – yet it’s a rare path for outsiders to have easy access to the TV industry.
The seeds of “Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street” had been germinating in Anaxagoras’ mind for years.
“I thought, ‘I’ve always had that one idea for a TV show. … I’ll write my TV pilot and that will be that.’ I had no expectations.”
About a month later, Amazon called back. By September, he was shooting the pilot episode.
“It was a pretty magical experience,” he said. “It was literally the best week of my life.”
Amazon puts all the pilots it commissions online for viewers, who help choose the shows that will be turned into full-fledged series. “Gortimer Gibbon” was one of six selected, after drawing comments like this from the pilot watchers: “There was nothing in this show we did not like. It had a perfect script and perfect cast. Can’t wait for the next adventure!”
A release date has not been set for the full season, but the pilot is still available on Amazon Prime Video.
The six new series – two for children and four for grown-ups – include “The After,” a science-fiction adventure from Carter, and “Transparent,” a comedy-drama from Emmy nominee Jill Soloway.
Despite the heady company, Anaxagoras understands that writing may not pan out long term. He didn’t quit his preschool job; he’s on a leave of absence.
After 20 years, “It was a little unnerving to finally say goodbye to the day job,” Anaxagoras said. “I’m certainly a better person as a human being for having been a teacher.”
But he doesn’t want to go back.
“I’m really hoping this writing thing is going to be a full-time job for the rest of my life,” he said. “It feels really good.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7724 or mhewitt@ocregister.com
