Streaming is the default viewing option for scripted series these days, so it’s hard to imagine that a decade and a half ago, the upstart SVOD platforms, as we called them at the time, were a very risky proposition. Bestselling author Michael Connelly reminded us of that, as he remembered prolific TV writer-producer Eric Overmyer, who died March 16 at the age of 74.
“About 15 years ago, I met with Eric Overmyer in New York City to try to convince him to be the showrunner/creator of a TV show based on my books about Harry Bosch,” Connelly wrote on IG next to a photo of himself, Overmyer and Bosch star Titus Welliver. “I had met Eric once before, and he had spoken very knowingly about the character of Bosch.”
The pitch to Overmyer, a Treme co-creator and Homicide, Law & Order and The Wire writer-producer, wasn’t straightforward.
“There was a catch. The show was going to be on this new form of television watching called streaming. Amazon was dipping its toe in it, and Bosch would be its first drama,” Connelly added. “My producing partner, Henrik Bastin, and I were halfway through our sales pitch when Eric cut us off and said, ‘I don’t know if you are auditioning me or I am auditioning you, but I’m in.’ And so it started.”
(L-R) Executive producer Eric Overmyer, writer Michael Connelly and executive producer Henrik Bastin on the panel for ‘Bosch’ during the Amazon Winter 2016 Television Critics Association tour
Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Amazon Studios
Bosch went on to become Prime Video’s longest-running series to date at seven seasons and its first franchise, spawning two spinoffs, including Bosch: Legacy, which Overmyer and Connelly co-created and executive produced.
It also reignited TV interest in Connelly’s work, helping to pave way to another successful, long-running adaptation, Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer.
“We went on to make 98 episodes of one of the best detective stories ever told on television,” Connelly said about Bosch. “It wouldn’t have happened without Eric. Now he’s gone but the stories he told will live on. Rest in peace, my friend.”
Here is his post.