#27 to Neil Saiki

George MacArthur 3 Kari Court Lindsay Ontario Canada K9V 6B7 705-878-9878 geomac@cogeco.ca georgemacarthur.com January 29 2013

Neil Saiki 2099 El Rancho Dr Santa Cruz CA 95060-1120

Dear Mr. Saiki: In 2011, I wrote and submitted a reality TV series proposal to the major networks.

The series is based on the ongoing pursuit of the Sikorsky Prize, featuring three principal teams, Gamera, you (soon to be Cal Poly?) and me. I am a forty-five year old grade nine dropout and self taught engineer. My main line of work for the past thirteen years has been violin bowmaking. My strong interest in human powered helicopters goes back some twenty-four years. I put aside my own work when I learned of the Nihon University Yuri 1 project of 1994, however, the slow progress of everyone since then and a recent breakthrough in a nagging design issue of my unconventional model has led me to resume.

Time allocation and financing for such a costly project is a problem, so I decided to finance my construction through the development and production of a reality television series that would follow the day to day activities of three intriguing teams. Because the winner will be determined by the NAA, my potential involvement in production and as a competitor is merely a point of trivia, albeit an interesting one.

I initially submitted proposals to CBS, NBC, and ABC, and was declined. On August 28 2012, I couriered a proposal to the Discovery Channel. While Discovery (for obvious reasons) offered the greatest probability of success in obtaining a green light, the broadcast networks were apt to be more generous in budgeting for production, if they were inclined toward the series, and that is why I followed this particular submitting order.

An advantage manifested from this decision. By the time I was ready to go to Discovery, I had learned a few essentials about production, pitching ideas, and other interesting things from my repeated failures with the others. I understood that a new approach would be necessary.

I decided to send my proposal to John Hendricks, Founder and Chairman of the Discovery Channel, because of his long history with the University of Maryland.

Mr. Hendricks was good enough to give it to Julia Wagman, Head of Development.

Ms. Wagman emailed me on September 9 2012 indicating she "received the materials under Mr. Hendricks advisement" and requested the project be submitted for review through their preferred method of the Producer’s Portal at the Discovery website, facilitating easier electronic dissemination among the development team.

Discovery emailed a decision on November 27. They were passing on the series, without providing details for the pass. I countered with proof that the series was inadequately reviewed, consisting of my unvisited internet links that contain essential supplementary information. A lengthy dialog ensued where I pressed for the precise reasons for their declining unconditionally. After considerable pressure, the only tangible reason given for the pass was that the "content is not a match" for the network.

I have to admit this response from Ms. Wagman greatly annoyed me. I could think of many reasons why they might decline, all of which I was prepared to work on, but the one they gave, that the planet's premier network for science and technology shows could not envision interesting content emerging from a series about human powered helicopters being built by two top tier engineering schools and an enigmatic autodidact, was preposterous, and I told them so, in clear yet civilized terms. I was prepared to work through every reasonable objection or obstacle to realize this series, but rejecting the idea specifically on content is highly unreasonable. In fact, the content of near real-time engineering of human powered helicopters is the most indisputable quality of my idea.

My only recourse was to contact Mr. Hendricks again, to let him know that a cutting edge series about three hungry teams chasing the Sikorsky Prize was dismissed without sufficient consideration, reportedly because the content is unsuitable for Discovery.

However, I believe my letter to him has been held up due to the minor friction, and thus he is likely not privy to the pass or the correspondence that has taken place between me and the development team.

The reason I am contacting you only now is because I was under council to maintain confidentiality until priority of conception was secured. Now that I have this in writing via multiple rejections, I am free to communicate.

I believe Mr. Hendricks would have an interest in seeing this series realized in spite of the decision already rendered by Ms. Wagman and her team, and I hope you will consider contacting Clark School Dean Darryll Pines, to discuss things, as Dr. Pines is obviously in the best position to speak to Mr. Hendricks.

The series would function much like other existing competition shows. Content would be culled from the day to day activities of planning, construction, and testing of the helicopters, with the interaction of the participants captured and presented to the viewer. Each of the three teams would occupy about a third of the airtime of any given episode, varying slightly depending on particular content and storylines for any given week. The filming locations would be College Park MD, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo CA, and Toronto Canada.

While there is a small risk that some team will capture the Sikorsky Prize during development or early in production, no television project is entirely risk free, and had any network signed on when I first contacted them, I would have been proven right already, seeing as the prize remains unclaimed.

If anyone were to argue that the series could go on indefinitely without a winner, my answer would be, as long as ratings are high, the longer the better. If the series goes on for an extended period and viewership declines precipitously, it can simply be cancelled, just like every other show that has ever been cancelled since Philo T. Farnsworth invented television.

If anyone were to argue that a grade nine dropout has no chance of defeating two top tier engineering schools, I might even concur, but would go on to counter that from the creative story arc side of things, I remain an intriguing hook, and the probability of me winning is entirely unimportant. What matters is whether I can project a high degree of technical competence and the potential of producing a helicopter that will fly.

To satisfy this concern, I remain open to the scrutiny of everyone.

There are particular challenges in producing a competition based series that is not arbitrarily contrived and thus largely steered by unseen producers, as virtually all reality shows are, but there is nothing that cannot be overcome with creativity and imagination.

The general tone and tenor of the show would be of spirited but friendly competition, in contradistinction to the real or contrived animosity between competitors that has become a staple of virtually every reality show of today.

Mr. Saiki, I would be pleased to hear from you.

Sincerely,

George MacArthur