You’d expect a four-time Emmy-award-winning producer to put out his latest offering on TV, but when Bill Schultz and co-creator Jim Manos, Jr. pitched their animated dramedy Jimmy Stones to the networks, they weren’t pleased with the response. There was interest, but the duo would have been required to change the format of the show to match the style of the platforms they were pitching.
Unwilling to sacrifice his team’s vision, Schultz is looking to put his show online, supported by crowdfunding dollars. The idea is to build up an online audience whose size will impress a network enough to put it on air, in an unadulterated format. That doesn’t mean Schultz and team aren’t open to suggestions, as long as they’re coming from the right place:
With Jimmy Stones, we’re offering people a chance to actually get their scripts covered, a chance to give story notes, a chance to get their name in the credits. We’re really opening up the kimono. It’s like a Wiki collaboration, and we’re looking at doing that throughout the series. So, yes, when we get to a big television network series, then that would have to fall away but while it’s of the people it’s of the people. This platform we’ve created really offers people a chance to do something they’ve never done before.
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For more about the show and planning behind it, read: So What Do You Do, Bill Schultz, Emmy-Winning Animation Producer?