Smith and Wiley & Sons have plenty of potential content: There are more than 1,000 "Dummies" titles, with better than 150 million copies of the franchise in print.
"Whatever topic you can think of, there's a 'Dummies' book for it," Smith told Daily Variety. "There's such a plethora of information, and these are books -- not pamphlets."
Smith and Weed first began exploring the idea of a "Dummies" partnership several months ago. "We met with them at the Licensing Show in New York after Mark Itkin at William Morris set us up," he said.
Weed said he and Smith will try to create programming that emulates the tone of the book series. "Our goal is to bring relatable information to the small screen in a manner that will be both educational and entertaining at the same time," he said.
Deal with Wiley calls for A. Smith to work closely with the publisher to develop ideas. "We're not just licensing the name," Smith said.
Clearly the "Dummies" books provide a lot of material to work with. The only downside is that there is already a lot of how-to tv and video programming including networks like the Food Network and HGTV that are devoted entirely to specific how-to niches.
