Conversations with My Agent (and Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke)

Description

Barely out of film school, Rob Long struck the jackpot and landed a job on the phenomenally successful TV sitcom, Cheers. However, with the demise of the show, Long was faced with the question, 'Is there life after Cheers?' Mercilessly witty about the daunting process of setting up a new series and getting it on air, these two books tell the absurd tale of what came next. Getting from pitch to pilot is a tricky path to navigate successfully, from making non-negotiable changes and deal-breaking edits, combined with accommodating the whims of studios, networks and agents, often the finished product ends up a long way from where the script-writer started. With the help of his agent, her constant demands, monstrous salesmanship, brutal irony and unswerving loyalty, Long's career fluctuates from wannabe to player, from award-winning script-writer to burnt out has-been. And it's all, as he says 'half true'.

Rob Long is a writer and producer in Hollywood. He began his career writing and producing TV's long-running Cheers and served as co-executive producer in its final season. During his time on the series, Cheers received two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe awards. Long has been twice nominated for an Emmy Award, and has received a Writers Guild of America award. His current series, Sullivan & Son, appears on TBS. His upcoming series for FX, Death Pact, begins filming in New York in the winter. He is a contributing editor of National Review and writes regularly for Time magazine and The National, Abu Dhabi's English-language daily newspaper. He continues to work in film and television in Los Angeles. @rcbl

The funniest and wittiest thing to come out of Tinseltown since Curb Your Enthusiasm * Arena on Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke * My book of the year ... There's simply no more reliable guide to contemporary Hollywood * Evening Standard Books of the Year * Very, very funny ... as riveting and real as gossip. Indeed, there's a brilliant section on the nature and meaning of Hollywood gossip ... There's just enough moral weight in this hugely enjoyable book to make you wonder if it's all really worth it * Guardian * His novel within a novel within a script is a hilarious, shocking and honest account of how Hollywood really works * Daily Mirror * There are numerous passage here that still chime gruesomely with present-day experience, as Long's naive positively is met head- on by his agent's crushingly cynical reminders that he's just a writer ... This isn't just a showbiz humour but Jewish humour -- Christopher Fowler * Independent *