KCRW's Martini Shot

What Really Happened

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:44:00 EST

I have a friend who is a psychiatrist. I once asked her what she does when she thinks a patient is lying to her. "How can you really help someone," I said, "who isn't telling you what really happened?..."

David Lloyd, RIP

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:31:09 EST

In January of 1990, almost twenty years ago, I pitched a joke in the writers' room of TV's long-running, phenomenally popular comedy Cheers. The actual joke is forgotten ? it wasn't a good one (I didn't pitch anything good, or even decent, for a while) but I was young, and it was my first real job, and so I knew about what someone who was twenty-four and starting his career knows, which is to say, nothing...

Cave

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:01:16 EST

So, every writer has a Sinatra moment ? you know what I mean, a moment when you got a note or a request from the studio or the network ? change this character, make the mom younger, add a dog, don't mention cancer ? you know, just the general stuff that every writer in Hollywood eventually has to deal with when the "art form" they've chosen ? and yes, in case you didn't hear it, I made little quote marks in the air when I said "art form" ? but when the "art form" that you've chosen requires $17 million worth of expensive equipment and three hundred people to bring to life, rather than a six dollar set of oil paints and a piece of canvas, you end up having to listen to a lot of people...

Part of the Process

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:44:00 EST

I have a friend who is working on a television show with two studios involved (which means two separate sets of studio executives, all giving notes and thoughts and suggestions on every single rewrite) and three non-writing producers, doing the same, and a separate set of network executives, doing the same...

What I'll Never Do Again

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:44:00 EST

Bip

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:44:00 EST

Not too long ago I was in a meeting with the president of a television network. The show I was working on at the time was on the air and successfully so. Sort of unusual for me, I guess, but it has happened in the past. Despite the impression that my four minutes here often conveys, I've had good meetings and successful exchanges and positive outcomes during my time here in Hollywood. And this was one of those meetings...

The Event

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:44:00 EST

In the late 1980's, a huge phone company hired a top-of-the-line consultancy to make a forecast. Cell-phone usage was growing quickly, and the phone company needed to know how to plan for this new, business model transforming technology. So they paid these consultants a lot of money to answer this question: how many mobile phones will be in use in this country by the year 2000?

Plus Aimable

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:44:00 EST

The cliché, of course, is that American television is awful. You know the saw: bad sitcoms, predictable dramas, tame dialogue, soft characters. About four years before it was even invented, people started hating television. Now, not so much ? there's a lot on that very good, and television's blood rival, feature films, have become mostly movies about robots, so TV ? with its Mad Men and The Wire and 30 Rock and Weeds just seems more sophisticated...

No One Wants Westerns

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:44:00 EST

Years ago, on my first day in film school ? never mind how many years ago; let's just say, enough years ago ? there was a guest speaker ? I honestly don't remember who, but it was someone big, someone powerful, someone with real cred in the industry...

Out of Town

podmaster@kcrw.org (Rob Long) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:44:00 EST

This is hard to believe but true. Not too long ago -- and when I say "not too long ago," I'm saying it from the perspective of someone who remembers some very old things, like that there used to be a hardware store on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, before someone invented the $80 candle...