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Pomona College Magazine is published three times a year by Pomona College
550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Online Editor: Mark Kendall
For editorial matters:
Editor: Mark Wood
Phone: (909) 621-8158
Fax: (909) 621-8203
PCM Editorial Guidelines
Contact Alumni Records for changes of address, class notes, or notice
of births or deaths.
Phone: (909) 621-8635
Fax: (909) 621-8535
Email: alumni@pomona.edu
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From Tomes to the Tube
Studying English at Pomona turned out to
be perfect preparation for Susan Levison 96's role as a Fox TV
executive.
By Mark Kendall
English major Susan Levison ’96 graduated magna cum laude from Pomona
with plans to become a professor. She went on to get her master’s degree
at Boston University, focusing her studies on 20th Century American
poetry.
 Believe it or not, all this turned out to be perfect preparation for her
role today as an executive at the Fox Broadcasting Co., known for
attracting younger viewers – and its share of controversy. There she
deals with modern American poetry of another form, sifting through
script after script in search of the next hit.
“I’m a child of the ’80s and I grew up with so many classic shows,’’
says Levison, who cites Cheers as a favorite. “I’ve always loved
the medium. It can get to 40 million people at once. It can get to all
of America.”
Looking back at her Pomona days, this shift from tomes to the tube
shouldn’t come as a shock. She performed as part of the five-college
improv group Without a Box, working as director her senior year. After
grad school in Boston, she returned to Los Angeles, where she studied
acting at the Groundlings. But she quickly realized the business side of
entertainment was more interesting to her than the performance side.
She landed an assistant’s gig with Creative Artist’s Agency, working
long days sending out scripts to clients and agents. While there, she
met a lower-level network exec who became her mentor, and, in 1998,
Levison landed a job as an assistant in the alternative programming
division at Fox. At the time, that division handled late-night shows,
sketch comedies and animated series. Then along came the “reality TV”
show Survivor on another network in 2000, and the scramble was on
to find more reality hits.
Rising from assistant to executive, Levison worked on ratings winners
such as Temptation Island and The Simple Life, before
shifting over to the drama division, which more closely fit her
interests. Today, as vice president for drama development, she plays an
important part in the network’s search for new shows.
The quest for the next TV hit requires a winnowing process as daunting
as anything on Fox’s American Idol.
In the summer and fall, Levison and other execs hear about 400 pitches
for new shows. As the choices narrow, it becomes the job of Levison and
other execs to pitch the shows they like. By January, the network is
ready to order up 10 pilots. Later comes a meeting, attended by News
Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and President Peter Chernin, where the
five or so new shows that will make it on the air are chosen. “By the
end of the year, five people love us and 395 people can’t stand us,” she
says.
But writers shouldn’t feel helpless. “If you are talented, there is no
doubt in my mind you will be discovered,” she says. “We can’t succeed
unless we find talent. We are looking everywhere.”
And she notes the television executives don’t take their duties lightly.
“I think what people don’t realize is how hard we work and how much we
care,” she says. “It takes so much work to make even a mediocre TV
show.”
Levison once had to give up her birthday and head to the Four Seasons
Hotel to convince heiress Paris Hilton to proceed with The Simple
Life. That sort of task simply comes with the territory of being a
TV exec. “It’s a lot of fun,” says Levison, who aspires to head a
network someday. “You can’t take yourself too seriously.”
Fox sometimes takes flak for its programming, but that doesn’t bother
Levison. “We push the envelope and we’re very unapologetic about it,”
says Levison. “And that’s our brand.”
Levison credits Pomona with teaching her to how to evaluate material and
to write in a clear, crisp manner. These days she’s always toting around
scripts to read, but Levison does manage to find time for other forms of
literature. Lately, she’s been carrying a copy of Dickens’ Nicholas
Nickleby.
And when the Hollywood Reporter recently profiled Levison as one
of “35 executives who represent the future of industry,” Levison said
she turns to the written word for inspiration. "I often find it
fantastically inspiring to read a great book,’’she told the trade paper.
“It inspires me to dig in creatively on what I'm working on at the
moment."
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