For a moment, let's say the phone rings, you pick it up and on the other end is my good friend Jay Francis -- The Disney Channel's V.P. of Original Series Development. Jay starts by telling you something you already know -- namely that Disney spent $5.3 billion to acquire the rights to the Power Rangers franchise and that while they've done pretty well with it, interest in the series has declined and, with it, revenues (toy and merchandise licensing sales).
Jay then tells you he's been told by his boss to do something to energize the series and that's why he's calling you. (Your heart is now like a triphammer, at 92% of its maximum heartbeat rate.) He's putting the ball in your hands.
Then you start thinking about it. While you sure don't want to lose the assignment, you tell Jay, "But you guys have tried that before." He laughs and says, "You're telling me?! What, like sixteen times." He pauses, then says, "I'm looking for something entirely new; something earth-shattering. Maybe a new locale, a new dimension, a new time. I don't know. I'm calling you because you're not one of those cookie-cutter Hollywood writers. You're a fan and from what I've learned about you, you're a genius. Dazzle me with your brilliance."
You're ready to start, but let's come back to reality for a second: Jay's right. You are just a fan. Nothing wrong with that. But it means you don't have a lot of experience in working with broadcasters, so you're not 100% sure what Jay and Disney are really looking for. And what's often important is not what you want, but what the broadcaster wants. Sure they want success. But they define success differently than you do, for a variety of reasons.
No need to second guess this because, lucky you, you've got me as a consultant. So before you develop that series, let me give you a few bits of advice from the perspective of someone whose been in the children's entertainment industry for a loooooong time.
First and foremost, don't completely revert to MMPR, even though you may love it. The idea here is that you're thinking like an entertainment industry executive; not a fan. Entertainment industry executives are concerned about revenues and while there is strong interest in the original series, that's not going to do a great deal for toy and action figure sales because most fans already have a huge amount of action figures. Even with newer (young fans) the MMPR action figures are out there and in today's economic climate the parents of young kids are going to get the smart idea that they can buy those figures on Ebay for a lot less than they could the re-released original figures.
What you'll need is to create new characters and new vehicles for a new series in order to create new action figures and new playsets that consumers will buy. The trick is to hit on that earth-shattering concept Jay talked about. Learn from the PR incarnations you didn't care that much about. Think about why you didn't care as much about them and think about what elements you would need in a totally new PR series that would shatter the earth. (And hey, maybe shattering the Earth has something to do with it.)
That said, you also want to pull in many of the fans who have been disgruntled about where the franchise has gone. So it's not a bad idea to think about bringing back one or two of the old and much-loved characters. (And if you're thinking about a certain cackling witch who forever resides in my heart, then you're on the right track.)
So that's the deal. I'm not talking fanfic here. I'm talking about creating a whole world and storyline for a new show that's going to kickstart PR. And the real trick is: you gotta do it all in one page! Why one page? Because that's all the time Jay's boss in the Roy E. Disney Building in Burbank is going to have to initially spend on this.
On the other hand, if he likes the one page he reads, you're gonna get a second call from Jay telling you that you're green-lighted to go into development. (That kind of call, btw, is what the good Lord created champagne for.)
Hey, it's a long shot, but like Rocky told Clubber Lang just before they duked it out, "Go for it!"
And have fun.
