Television Production & Direction - Biography, Television & Radio - Biography
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Overview
In 1993, Cheers played its last episode on TV. Of its millions of fans, none mourned its passing more deeply than Rob Long. It was not only that Rob was a writer-producer of the show. It was also that being a writer-producer of a sensationally successful sitcom was the only job in the TV industry he had ever held. Now, with its departure, Rob left the Hollywood heavens to take up residence in the LA limbo-land reserved for writers without a vehicle - a situation akin to being stranded on a freeway without a car. Conversations with My Agent is Rob Long's inside-the-belly-of-the-beast account of the struggle to survive in what is charitably called the show biz jungle. It is not exactly Cheers. For one thing, the characters, though weird and wacky, are not notably heartwarming. For another, it is even funnier. Yes, Rob Long survived his yearlong education in the realities of show biz unreality. He did succeed in putting another sitcom on the air - only to see it yanked before the enthusiastic reviews were dry. And he did pick up the pieces and go on from there. What did it take? What did it cost? Was it worth it, and why? Read the frankest book ever written about video viperland, and decide for yourself - after you stop laughing.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Amusing and insightful, this is a deftly sketched portrait of life inside the Hollywood "development deal," that limbo in which writers get paid generously to create something new for a notoriously fickle set of bosses. Long and his writing partner, still in their 20s, had risen to become coproducers of the popular TV series Cheers before it expired; they were rewarded with an office, long lunches and many meetings at which to try to pitch their ideas. (No, their new shows never took off.) Long makes the story entertaining by rendering many scenes-especially those involving his nameless, genderless agent-in sitcom form (dialogue, stage directions, etc.). "People in this business love their souped-up vocabulary," Long writes, and he affectionately skewers Hollywood pretension ("I love a quirky love," says one exec). Long doesn't tell us much about himself or his relationship with his writing partner, but the story skitters along fast enough for that to be forgivable. And when one reviewer calls their pilot "snappy" and another denounces it as "without snap," you can sympathize if well-paid creative types think the world wretched. Unfortunately, the book's charm and verisimilitude are vitiated by Long's contradictory admissions that it is "half true" and "mostly true." (Jan.)Library Journal
Television writer Long (Cheers) has written a humorous account of what it means to be a TV scriptwriter in Hollywood. It's a TV version of Linda Obst's recent insider's view of feature filmmaking, Hello He Lied (LJ 10/1/96). Interspersing the book with conversations with his agent and writing in the style of a TV script, Long imparts the "inside" story on getting a TV deal, "one of those entertainment industry creations that...sounds suspiciously like goofing off. Essentially the studio agrees to pay a writer a minimum sum,...hopeful that the writer...will decide, `What the hell, I may as well create a hit television show.' " Though very funny at times, it's a bit too much of an insider's view for the general reader. Though not an essential purchase for public libraries, it would be a good addition to media colletions.-Rosellen Brewer, MOBAC Lib. System, Monterey, Cal.Book Details
Published
January 1, 1997
Publisher
Dutton / Signet
Pages
192
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780525942221