Want to Sell a TV Show? Study Eric Kripke's Original 'The Boys' Pitch

If you are currently trying to figure out how to pitch a TV show or build a pitch deck that cuts through the noise of Hollywood development, well, send showrunner Eric Kripke a thank-you note, because he just laid out the perfect template.

Kripke showran the Amazon show The Boys, which was one of the highlights of my last five years of TV viewing. It's based on the popular comic book and felt like a realistic look into America as it took on what it would actually be like to live in a world where people have superpowers.

There are lots of lessons writers can learn from the pitch doc he just tweeted out, so let's take a look.

1. Grab Them by the Throat

A great pitch establishes the tone immediately and has a hook that makes the audience grab onto the story. Well, this one starts with a bunch of F-bombs that get the reader paying attention right away.

It challenges these preconceived notions we have about heroes and also shows us why the show will be relevant today in just a few sentences.

When you write your own logline or introduction, don't try to please everyone. Define your box early and be unapologetic about it.

2. Use "Tone Mashups" Wisely

Everyone wants to make a TV show that's popular. So when you're picking comps, make sure you choose shows that inspire people.

But don't feel you need to stick to TV; you need to pick titles that are so singularly defined people know what you're talking about right away.

Kripke nailed his mashup by layering multiple specific influences to create a distinct cocktail:

"An early Guy Ritchie movie, meets Deadpool, meets Inglourious Basterds, meets a Denis Leary rant, meets The Raid."

Notice how he isn't just naming big movies that were successful; he's naming very specific vibes. We know what he means by all these titles, and if you've seen The Boys, we also know he delivered.

When brainstorming your next project, ask yourself: What is the specific DNA of my story's tone? And how can I use some popular titles to really get to the point?

3. Subvert a Universal Trope

At its core, The Boys works because it flips a massive pop-culture trope on its head. Kripke’s pitch describes conventional superheroes as "idiotic amateurs who think that just because they have powers, they can somehow fight crime."

He highlights a brilliant, logical flaw that people should think about when watching superhero fare. Then he talks about how that gap would leave room for an original TV show that plays on a world that has gotten stale

The lesson for writers? Find something the audience takes for granted and break it. Show us the dark, realistic, or comedic underside of a familiar concept.

4. Ground the Chaos in Emotional Reality

If you want to sell a show, it's all about the characters. And this pitch doesn't rely on just style; there's substance here too.

Kripke made sure to anchor his wild sandbox in a rock-solid genre framework. This is a show about the powerless vs. the super-powerful in conflict. And he leans into the idea that we have a covert, CIA-backed Dirty Half Dozen team of regular humans taking on superheroes.

This gives us real stakes that we can imagine rooting for people within, and we can see why this struggle would take covert people with big personalities to pull it off.

Whether you are writing a sci-fi epic or a quiet indie drama, your script's core conflict must be driven by human stakes.

Summing It All Up

Whether you're pitching a TV show or a movie, it helps to see how the pros organize their thoughts and bring the message to buyers. The next time you're prepping an idea to take out, come back and reread this pitch.

Internalize the lessons and then put your own work down on the page.

Let me know what you think in the comments.