Martini Shot

Rob impresses an agent by ordering a cobb salad.  Apparently, impressing an agent is easy to do...

Rob Long on the only way to save a project from certain failure: fire the writer.

Rob Long on the foundations of the television business: funny jokes at the end of the scene and attractive people to look at. Everything else is just, art.

Rob Long talks about smoking, which is a deadly and cancer causing habit, of course, but does make bad dialogue seem more interesting.

Rob Long talks about his highly professional way of meeting deadlines.  Which is by figuring out how they don't really apply.

Rob Long talks to others in the entertainment business and gets talked to in return – like you would a dangerous and volatile mental patient. Works like a charm.

Rob Long talks about good news and bad news, the difference between pessimism and catastrophic thinking. He also converts to Judaism.

Rob Long talks movie stars, CGI, Bob Saget, and little people.  Somehow, he make it work...

Rob Long talks about that famous movie where two women go on a crime spree and drive off a cliff. He’s speaking, of course, about 'Laverne & Shirley.'

Long on the theft and plagiarism that occurs when the Chinese steal sit com jokes and characters that hard working American writers stole from the Dick van Dyke show.

Long talks about the most powerful part of the human body, if you work in television. It's the thumb. The thumb that tweets.

My dog has a rubber toy that has a hollow core, and what you’re supposed to do is fill the core with peanut butter or cheese or cubes of something delicious, and watch as she nudges it and bounces it and tries to get at the treat inside, but in general just stares at it with a totally baffled expression which is the exact same expression most people in the television business have when they’re trying to figure out what the ratings mean.

Rob Long tries and fails to baby-proof his brain.  It's a complicated metaphor, but...

Rob Long learns something from the people who work at the Apple Store: when you go on break, always take off your T-shirt and ID badge.

Rob Long tries to follow the only rule in screenwriting: he tries not to be boring.

Rob Long muses on the only two things that anyone in Hollywood really cares about. Getting credit and getting paid.  Not in that order.

Rob Long on who gets credit – and money – for what on a writing staff.  And more importantly, who gets blame. 

Rob Long discusses the three stages of a writing staff – when everybody's nice, when everybody's funny, and when everybody's mean.  It happens fast.

Rob Long goes to a French restaurant, tries to break the rules, and fails -- and he twists the whole thing into a parable about the entertainment business.

Rob Long drives around and gets lost, and then does what people do when they're in the car and trying to figure things out: he turns down the radio.  It's a metaphor...