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When staring up at the wall of insurmountable obstacles standing in the way of a novel breaking through to publication and reaching a broad audience, I'm reminded of another success story - about how someone's creative vision overcame early set backs and all-but-certain failure to reach critical and popular acclaim.

But this story is not about a novel.

It's about a TV show.

In 1989, NBC aired the pilot of a new sitcom.  Critics and audiences were unimpressed; the pilot bombed and plans for a full season were scrapped.  But one NBC executive, believing in the show's potential, ordered four new episodes, which aired a year later in 1990.  The ratings were just high enough to justify a second season.

In 1991, the second season began, but after a string of low ratings, NBC pulled the show and put it on hiatus, leaving it seemingly dead in the water.

And then, two months later, NBC rolled the dice one final time, giving the sitcom the cushy Thursday night spot after Cheers.

The rest, as they say, was history.

After 9 seasons, that sitcom's critical acclaim (winning 10 Emmys, 3 Golden Globes, and a slew of awards from the Screen Actors, Directors, and Writers Guilds, respectively) was matched only by it's popular acclaim (seasons 5 - 9 finished in the top 3 in terms of audience size).

Not bad for show that almost didn't make it.  For a show that claimed "to be about nothing."

Even the show that TV Guide called "the greatest television program of all time" needed a little luck.

And a whole lot of perseverance didn't hurt.