This is an excerpted transcript of mediabistro.com's "How to Pitch to TV and Cable Networks" workshop held June 6, 2006 in New York, conducted by former programming executive Laurie Scheer. Sign up now for an eClass with Laurie: Pitch That TV Show or 12-Week TV Writer. Register for Laurie's upcoming classes in New York: Intro to Writing for Women's TV and Cable Shows and Writing and Producing a TV Pilot.

You've got to put your pitch into one good, solid line, that they've got it. And you see it right here. "An NYU student becomes a nanny for a family living on the Upper East Side, but they turn out to be the family from hell." Family from hell. And it tells me everything. You don't have to go through the picnic, the vacation. You know, everything went wrong. One quick, wonderful one-sentence. Wherever you go, you're going to tell people your idea this way. You don't give it away. You tell me enough of it, but you're not going to give it away. This is a way to protect what you're writing. You want to protect your ideas as much as possible. You don't know who to trust. That's the first level of protection. They're going to steal it. Some of them steal it from you more than someone at a production company, although that can happen also. So, this is a way to protect it. Make sure that it's right, everybody gets it. You go from there. So, you need a log line.

The next thing is a synopsis. And there are two versions of this. This is a synopsis, not a treatment. A synopsis is generally one page. It is a fiction, prose version of your scripted show. A treatment is usually something that's ten to 125-plus pages. It's a very long, written-out version of what your series is going to be. To add to this, some production companies, some producers, say that a treatment is a one-page thing. And others say a synopsis is something that's more lengthy. I can't tell you which production company's going to say what. All I can tell you is, "Ask." When they say, "Can we see a synopsis," say, "Do you mean a one-page summary, or a larger document?" And they will tell you what they mean by "synopsis."

More here, AG members.