Akron native, author Michael Buckley takes 'The Sisters Grimm' series to Apple TV+

Akron native Michael Buckley envisioned his book series "The Sisters Grimm" as a television show, and 20 years later he's getting his wish.

The 56-year-old author, who grew up "all over" Akron, had to settle for a series of nine books that made the New York Times best-sellers list instead – totaling sales of more than four million copies, he said.

Not bad for a guy who left Akron and a job at the Beacon Journal in ad sales for an internship on "The David Letterman Show" in the late 1990s for other career aspirations.

"I came to New York with big dreams of being a comedian, and I did stand up in the city for several years, but I really wasn't making much traction," he said during a recent Zoom interview. "Believe it or not, there's more than a couple standups in New York, so there was a zillion competitors."

Needless to say, that career didn't work out. But he was able to parlay personality and a sense of humor – that remains evident while speaking with him – into assorted gigs with MTV, Nickelodeon and the Discovery Channel, allowing him to network.

"The Sisters Grimm" series born with the speck of an idea

He was inspired to create the characters of 11-year-old Sabrina and 7-year-old Daphne after reading the "Annotated Brothers Grimm," he said. A note mentioning the brothers had siblings served as the jumping off point of familial connections. He was shocked upon learning no one had come up with the idea before.

In the first book, the sisters meet their grandmother Relda , who resides in a town of fairytale characters, and learn their heritage. They eventually join forces to crack local mysteries while working to solve the biggest one of them all – the disappearance of the sisters' parents.

"I went to bookstores and libraries thinking somebody's had to have thought of this and nobody had, so that's when you panic because of those kind of 'duh' ideas," he said. "Of course, they don't come very often, and you have to get those done as fast as you can because I truly believe in the voice of the beehive that all the ideas are sort of circling around us and somebody's going to get the idea if you don't."

Buckley, who's authored another series, "Nerds," initially hoped his TV contacts would help him get the series into development, but that wasn't meant to be then.

"They were like, 'it's really nice, but I think it's a book.' And then I'd be like, 'what?' And I have ADHD, and when somebody would tell me I should write a book, I'd get so angry. I was like, why don't I just go to the moon? That would be just as easy for me."

His then wife and eventual editor provided a solution.

"We found a publisher almost right away, and my editor and my ex-wife taught me how to write books, and then that's what I've been doing for the last 20 years."

Surprise success comes to Michael Buckley with 'The Sisters Grimm'

He thought there would not be a huge audience for the book because it was about two little girls and their grandmother solving mysteries. He was wrong.

"My sensibilities were always very much like Steven Spielberg and those kind of filmmaking things were big inspirations on me, and I wrote the books with that sort of sensibility of you drop the character into the action immediately," he said. "You spoon feed them the exposition throughout the rest of the book, and it ends with a giant cliffhanger. And it turned out that it worked, and now the book is in 22 languages. And yeah, I think we've sold around maybe a little more than 4 million copies and growing. It still sells. I still get royalty checks for it."

Transitioning to streaming on Apple TV+

The last book in "The Sisters Grimm" series, "The Council of Mirrors," published in 2012. Apple TV+, the tech behemoth's streaming service didn't launch until 2019. It came to them after having been optioned several times by others. It landed there for a six-episode first season, Buckley said, because of his representation and because someone finally understood the material. Sabrina, a tween, can be grating.

"It takes a little while to like her, and that's how she likes it," he said, "and that's not something that people were super excited about turning into a movie or a TV show. Little girls are supposed to be sweet and easy, and Sabrina Grimm is hard and complicated. So, it took me a while to find the right team."

That includes finding the right team to guide the show creatively. While Buckley has experience running a show on a series, "Robotomy," he's not as immersed in production of "The Sisters Grimm."

"I'm in the writing room and I'm one of the executive producers," he said, "and I've told them, keep me out of the boring stuff and include me in the fun stuff. And that's kind of how I like it… I don't want to be the boss. I want to show up late and hover around the donut table and then go in and work 20 minutes and go home."

And while he's grateful for the experience, despite believing "The Sisters Grimm" would have been a great series to start, there's been a shift in what he thinks now.

"I mean, I wrote the books hoping that people would read the books and if we're going to adapt it, that's lovely, and I hope it finds a gigantic audience, but I'm also hoping that it acts as an enormous ad for my books," he said. "I mean, I would love a brand-new generation of people to discover this. Like I said, it has never stopped selling."

The show should find an audience given that the series is complex enough for parents to enjoy it with their children, not as a babysitter.

"That was the goal. Absolutely," said of that. "When I wrote these books, I hoped that parents would read them to their kids, and if I was going to ask the parents to read them that I should at least try to entertain them too. And so, there's plenty of stuff in these books that a kid is not going to get lots of jokes they don't understand, but that wasn't for them. It was for their mom and dad and grandma and aunt and uncle, and hopefully the show has the same kind of energy."

If it works that way for others, it should find its audience and a second season. Will there be one? Buckley's not saying.

"Fingers are crossed," he said. "Let's just say that."

George M. Thomas covers a myriad of things including sports and pop culture, but mostly sports, he thinks, for the Beacon Journal.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron native's book series 'The Sisters Grimm' find home on Apple TV+