My Crazy CBS Pilot Trainwreck

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I was still wrestling with the idea of quitting television. But over the past year, I had spent so much energy getting my love life back on track that I didn’t put any [energy] into figuring out what I would do if I quit. Plus, I’d been living on savings and needed a job. So, for lack of a better option, I decided to pursue another blind script deal in the fall of 2006. I told myself that the lessons I’d learned and the equanimity I’d gained since Bridge and Tunnel [a pilot script developed for Fox that didn’t go forward] would make for a better experience this time around.

You know what they say about that river in Egypt.

I had a meeting at CBS Studios, whose head of drama development was an intelligent, personable woman named Julie [McNamara], whom I remembered from a general meeting years before. I had a good feeling about her and thought that working with someone new would broaden my horizons.

Julie proposed a project that was already in development at CBS: an adaptation of a novel called ¡Yo! by Julia Alvarez. The president of CBS Entertainment, Nina Tassler, was reportedly passionate about the book, and Salma Hayek was attached as a producer. I knew of Salma only as an actress, but her producing career was off to a successful start with the ABC dramedy Ugly Betty, a remake of a Colombian telenovela.

The executive responsible for bringing Ugly Betty to America was Ben Silverman, a young hotshot who had also co-opted the British series The Office and turned it into NBC’s number-one comedy. I had no idea how I was getting involved with these high-profile people. It was like stumbling into the Land of Oz.