The Strange Art of Picking a TV Title
3/6/12


Titles Considered:

"The Whole Truth"
"Scandalous"
"Scandalized"
"In the Spotlight"
"Leave the Bastard"





Robert and Michelle King (Show Co-Creators):


Michelle: It wasn't titled when we pitched it to [Scott Free Productions president] David Zucker. We had spoken about Alicia being the good wife, so when he called our agent to say, "We loved the good wife," that became the title.



Robert: When we were shooting the pilot, we got a call from the studio. They said we had to start thinking about a new title. It was the last three days of shooting.

I remember being in Vancouver, and we just got a legal pad and started writing down everything that came to mind. I think I have that piece of paper somewhere.



Michelle: We must have generated 75 to 100 titles.



Robert: Strangely, the one that rose to the top was "The Whole Truth"; there was a show on ABC called "The Whole Truth" that came after. The studio liked it, but the network thought it was a little generic.

There were some based on the word scandal: "Scandalous", "Scandalized".

There was some playing off the publicity aspect: "In the Spotlight".

There was a ridiculous one: "Leave the Bastard", which David was championing. I don't know how seriously he was taking it, but "Leave the Bastard" had a little play there for a while.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/picking-tv-titles-friends-lost-examples-297288