Hanson Launches “The Finder” in Hollywood

By Joshua Sackheim — 09/16/2011
A lot goes into making a television show and no one knows that better than Hart Hanson.
Since the early 90s he has been working as a television writer in both Hollywood and Canada. Six years ago he created the hit Fox series “Bones” but Hart is quick to point out that the show’s success sometimes still surprises those in charge. “We were under the radar and invisible for so long that I guess they forgot to cancel us or something and all of a sudden we had an audience and here we are going into our seventh season,” Hanson joked.
Hanson, who received a B.A. from University of Toronto and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. He originally wanted to be a novelist but after a stint writing manuals he found his way into screenwriting.
Hanson found out the number of a producer of a Canadian show called “The Beachcombers” and just started faxing him ideas. “I didn’t know how to sell a script but I thought that would work and around about the 15th idea he had me in to talk to him.”
He spent the next 10 years writing for Canadian television and In 1998 came to the States to work in Hollywood. “It was very nerve wrecking because I was almost 40 and I had been told if I wasn’t a co executive producer or an executive producer before I was 40 I’d never make it down here.”
He made it just under the wire by producing a show called “Cupid” and although it only ran for 14 episodes it snagged him an overall network deal with ABC. That is something he says is very helpful for a writer, especially one pitching a new series. “It’s helps to have an overall deal because they’ve invested in you. They pay you a certain amount of money to not pitch to other studios so there is an inventive for the studio to listen to you.”
Hanson is now working on a new series he created called “The Finder,” which didn’t premiere with a traditional pilot. Instead the network introduced the characters into a mid season episode of Bones. Think of it as a spinoff between two shows but one didn’t exist yet.
Overseeing those two shows definitely keeps Hart Hanson busy. But he claims it’s doable with the great teams who work on both shows.
Check back in October for WEBN’s half-hour special, “The Emmy Experience.”