711 - The State of Pitching

John welcomes back Aline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Devil Wears Prada) to ask, what do executives expect from a pitch these days? They look at the typical structure of a pitch deck, how that differs from lookbooks, how pitches have evolved over the years, and best practices for pitching on Zoom.

Also, what happened to single-lady sitcoms? If you remember Monday nights in the 90's, you know what we're talking about. We reflect on what they did for the culture and how social media and reality TV may be taking their place.

In our bonus segment for premium members, Aline tells us what it was like being back on the set for The Devil Wears Prada 2. Gird your loins, people!

Links:

• Preorder the Scriptnotes book!
• Scriptnotes LIVE at Dynasty Typewriter in LA, November 30th! Only a few tickets left!
• Dick's Sporting Goods Launches Entertainment Studio by Etan Vlessing for The Hollywood Reporter
• The Ladies of Monday Night
• I Love LA on HBO Max
• The Diplomat on Netflix
• Shotdeck
• Stranger Things pitch deck
• Paramount Makes Big Buy of Comedy Spec Script 'Bald Eagles' by Borys Kit for The Hollywood Reporter
• Big A## Calendar
• Rareform bags
• Aline and John talk about writing memorable endings on YouTube
• Preorder the Scriptnotes Book!
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription (now with fewer emails!)
• Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
• Scriptnotes on Instagram
• John August on Bluesky and Instagram
• Outro by Aline Brosh McKenna (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.