Disqus - Latest Comments for rob_long

Re: Leadership and Self Care

Rob Long — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 11:57:47 -0000

On Leadership: I work in entertainment. Whenever I'm asked to coach a showrunner (often someone younger or an inexperienced manager) I always ask: what time do you go home and what do you do when you're there? Too often the answer is: sit on the sofa and watch something and turn my brain off. I always suggest that they do something different, something weird, something offbeat -- what in yoga they call a "counter stretch" -- like go out to eat strange food, take a walk along a Los Angeles boulevard, something that's interesting and engaging and active. It always helps get them out of their own heads, and it restarts creativity. Good for Jack for doing essentially that.

On Jack: It's hard to argue that Jack Dorsey -- who, as Fred notes, has created two phenomenally successful and very different products -- is out of touch. Out of touch from what? Yes, he's insanely rich and that means he can do offbeat and expensive stuff. (And yes, it's often irritating to hear about!) He's also a bit of a weirdo, and weirdos drive innovation. The same quality that drew him to Myanmar for a meditation retreat is what drew him to create the products he's created. Hard to have one without the other. He's clearly in touch with the most important thing: his creativity.

On Myanmar: It's a complicated place. In 1995, I went to Myanmar -- I spent some time in Maymyo, where Jack was. I wasn't there to meditate (I don't think that kind of thing was even on offer back then) but I was devoured by mosquitos and had to cover myself with Deet and light a few anti-mosquito coils in my bedroom each night, which gave me some crazy dreams. Back then, Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest. She was a dissident freedom fighter, an international human rights hero. Now she's essentially an apologist for a pretty murderous regime. Burma is a lovely place, and the people are (mostly) deeply religious Buddhists in the old Theravada tradition. It's easy to forget, when you're there, how troubled and violent it's been, and still is.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:17:24 -0000

Thanks! I'm not here on the blog so often -- I've been distracted by other things -- but I appreciate the nice words.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:05:16 -0000

Boy, are you right about the current content thing! I'm working on
it, I promise...

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:05:31 -0000

Thanks! And yes, I do still call it the "clicker," although I hate to
think I'm that old. I call it the "clicker" because that's the effect
it has on my brain. It clicks it off as I surf around.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:11:11 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Luis. It's hard to remember all of that, of
course, especially when you're in the thick of it. But I think one of
the reasons people in Hollywood -- and maybe in other places, too --
have such a hard time knowing what true happiness really means is that
they've never been to the beach with a dog and a tennis ball.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:33:06 -0000

You're very kind.

Thanks for asking -- the piece was called "Bomb," and it appeared in
late October of 2008. I'd post it to the blog, but for some reason
the embed code isn't working.

Here's the link to the piece.

Glad you liked it...

Re: Yelping My Way Through LA

Rob Long — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:28:45 -0000

Okay, before I go any further:

1. Tacos por Favor on Olympic, around 11th Street, in Santa Monica. Not fish tacos but great chile colorado tacos.

2. The "Mariscos" taco stand on Lincoln, about 2 blocks north of Rose (that's where the big Whole Foods is) has pretty excellent fish tacos.

And now:

I use Yelp constantly. Around LA, in other cities, it's really indispensable.

I've often wanted to create a Yelp for government: which towns have the most efficient governments, which federal representatives are responsive and effective, which school districts (and specific schools, and specific teachers) are worth seeking out.

Wait. Almost forgot:

3. There's an older lady who makes fresh tortillas as the old, slightly worn-down La Cabana restaurant, on Rose and Lincoln. Delicious.

Re: A New Approach To Facebook

Rob Long — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:19:20 -0000

What's amazing is that we all have so many choices -- Twitter vs Facebook vs LinkedIn vs Plaxo vs... There are so many ways to work out this stuff -- the difference between public and private, or, really, between sorta-public and sorta-private. And since we've all got different definitions of "sorta," I think no matter what, we're all going to enter an era of hurt feelings, at least until it's worked out. The wedding invitation analogy is really apt; people often go through sheer hell trying to arrive at a workable number of wedding guests, balancing what's feasible with everyone's expectations. And there are always some miffed folks -- miffed because they were excluded, and miffed because they were included!

Personally, I'm a mess. I can't bring myself to ignore or refuse a friend request on Facebook. There's something deeply Episcopalian about that, I think, but also deeply unsure of what service is for which group. And also: some of the people I know mostly -- or even entirely -- from my online life I like a lot more than some of the people I see all the time. (Maybe there's a reason for that....)

So my plan is to muddle along, with an unworkable and jerry-rigged system until I have a moment of clarity and courage and do something about it, like you did, Fred.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:34:38 -0000

I know. I loved Darkman. But Darkman had a purpose and a burning
desire for justice, which isn't really what motivated people who wrote
sitcoms. Unless "purpose" and "burning desire for justice" can also
mean "house in Montecito."

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:11:59 -0000

Wow. Hard to accept that I've been bested by Nederland Een. Or is it
on Nederland Twee? Or Avro? (Do they still have Avro? I used to
love Avro's Top Pop when I was a kid living in Eindhoven. The theme
song went -- and apologies for my rotten spelling -- something like,
"Avro's Top Pop! Presenteered! De nationale hit parade!" I still
remember seeing the video for Bohemian Rhapsody...)

And I don't think the sitcom is dead. It's just been in the severe
burn ward for a few years. But it's getting out soon. Better than
ever. Stronger. Faster. Just like "Het Man van Ses Million"

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:15:08 -0000

Thanks! Wow, 3 to 8 months a year? That's commitment...

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:40:14 -0000

Me too!

Thanks, Ger, for stopping by.

Tot ziens!

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:25:57 -0000

Thanks! I was a lot more comfortable. Which is weird, because it was
a live interview...

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:56:26 -0000

Please do. Although I think it'll be followed by me, saying, "Wait,
Wait. You're Offering to Pay Me What?"

Re: My Presentation Minus The Audio Track

Rob Long — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:15:09 -0000

I love Boxee. What a great product. And I'm really baffled by the
studios' response to it, by their pulling Hulu content. I don't get it.

The trouble with the broadcast networks is that they're still pushing
the customer around. Basic cable outfits like FX and USA and TNT and
Bravo rerun their shows pretty much wall-to-wall. You don't bother to
TiVo one of their shows because it's a good bet that it's on, right
now. USA's "Burn Notice" is a huge success for them, and it's on
maybe four or five times a day. But the broadcast guys still demand
that you sit and watch when they tell you to sit and watch. And the
customer is telling them to jump in the lake. The customer is going
to basic cable or the web or, worse, DVRs and zapping through the
commercials.

Boxee seems to me like a godsend to the broadcast networks -- anytime
you can get people back on the sofa watching your content -- rather
than ten inches from a laptop, finger poised over the mousepad -- it's
a huge win for them. Anytime you can remind the customer exactly how
wonderful your product is, it's a huge win. I don't get it. The
first thing the big studios and broadcast networks should be concerned
about it market share -- take back the eyeballs from Guitar Hero and
Facebook and LOLcats and basic cable offerings. The second thing is,
are they watching the commercials? The potent combination of Boxee
and Hulu seems to accomplish that. Figure the details out later.

As Dick Costolo hilarious put it in one of his tweets: (I'm
paraphrasing) "Hollywood has gone crazy. Now they don't want you to
watch TV on your TV."

Re: My Presentation Minus The Audio Track

Rob Long — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:47:23 -0000

Great presentation! Even without the audio track.

Your "Six Words to Live By" I'm most certainly going to pass on to my friends and colleagues out here in LA, who are also in the television business.

People are still watching TV -- but they're watching it in a fundamentally different way, and in a way that demolishes the secret business model of the business, which was: People hate to change the channel. Seriously: the television business has been steadily declining since the first moment people didn't have to get up off the sofa to change the channel. From clicking around 13 channels to flipping through 1300, to time shifting and now cherry-picking only the shows a viewer wants to watch, the business has been forced to do something it wasn't designed to do: make money putting on shows people want to watch.

In the not-too-distant past, networks lost money on the hits -- shows like Cheers (which was my first gig) and Friends and Seinfeld ran deficits for their producers for the first few years, but by year 4 or 5, they were all "made whole" by the network. If you wanted to renew Cheers, NBC was told by Paramount, you need to pay us back for everything we've spent, plus more, plus more in the future, plus more for the cast, plus more just because we can.

So NBC's game was to make money on the shows around the hits -- the so-called "Halo" effect -- like Wings, which nobody really liked that much, but which was, you know, on. Why flip around?

The current environment is the worst possible outcome for people in Hollywood: you have to put on good shows. All of them have to be good. And you have to make money on them, too, because you're selling that show specifically, not the time periods around those shows.

But that's not how the system is set up. And the system is changing, and it's incredibly exciting (for people like me who have been in the business for a while and who like to write and produce shows) but it's terrifying for anyone who made money the old way, but servicing a system that only works if the customer doesn't or can't make a choice.

Put it this way: the recent sharp decline in house prices in the Los Angeles area isn't totally related to the overall economic recession. A lot of it is Hollywood-specific, as we all try to learn how to make money in the worst, most painful, least attractive way possible: earning it.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:15:16 -0000

Hmmmm.

Well, let's work backwards.

Leno is family-friendly, of course. That's part of his middle-of-the-
road appeal. Sure, some of the jokes he makes at 11:30PM will be a
shade more adult than the ones he can make in prime-time, but that's
sort of a stupid point. He simply won't make those jokes in prime-
time. Rique material isn't his thing anyway. He's famous for being a
clean comedian. He's insanely rich because he's so moderate and
tame. The idea that there's a fixed and inflexible feature to "Leno's
content" is just wrong -- the guy performs in front of a variety of
audiences almost 350 days a year -- not just on TV but in personal
appearances. Ever wonder how he can afford all of those fancy cars?
Because audiences like him. A lot. And all kinds of audiences.

And you're wrong about the time slots, too. The 10PM timeslot is when
audiences are dropping? Really? Maybe in overall households, but not
in key demos, which is why you'll find shows like CSI and Law & Order
and Without a Trace on during that hour. The 10PM slot can be
lucrative, just as the 9PM slot can be.

My point about moving Leno to 8PM was to harness his broad audience
appeal as a promotional platform for the rest of NBC's prime-time
lineup. The Leno show, whatever it ends up being, will be pretty
cheap to produce, and rather than stick him at the end of the night to
promote the local news and Conan, why not front-load his show, and use
it to promote the 9-11PM offerings?

You're confused, I think, about the television business in 2009.
There are no "most valuable times of the night" anymore. Networks are
trying to build patchwork patterns from dayparts that no longer
deliver any kind of audience flow. My guess is that you're not in the
entertainment business or you'd know that.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:22:45 -0000

Brilliant idea. A clip show! We used to dream of being able to do
clip shows -- they went out of style in the 80', I think -- but it was
an easy way to slide in another episode of a series (and get paid for
it) without having to write much more than "Remember when....?"

Some may call it laziness. I call it "efficiency."

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:22:24 -0000

Many thanks. I've often dreamed of reaching Facebook status status.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:12:21 -0000

I think monkeys and clowns AND Cinnabon would be too much of a good
thing.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:11:20 -0000

Good idea. Maybe I'll reuse the opening for another piece. Wait, I
don't mean "reuse." I mean "repurpose."

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:17:24 -0000

I endeavor to serve.

Re: Rob Long: Thoughts on Old Media, New Media

Rob Long — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:09:35 -0000

I agree -- and I really did let him get away with the draft business.
Milton Friedman, my personal idol, pretty much put paid to the the
idea of the draft as an efficient way to conduct military
recruitment. And Bill Buckley, my other personal idol, had a very
expansive attitude about national service.

And the truth is, you have to be smart to make it into the military.
Those men and women are smart, well-educated, and extremely effective
at what they do.

Re: Living In Public Doesn't Have To Be Destructive

Rob Long — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:20:28 -0000

Well, you'll have to wait for that. I've been doing a lot of yoga
lately and it's kind of ruined my ability to go off on a really
unhinged rant.

Re: Living In Public Doesn't Have To Be Destructive

Rob Long — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:57:14 -0000

Does it make me a bad person that my initial thought was to post a totally unhinged, totally obscene comment, ripping into your second rule ("Be Nice")? As a joke, I mean?

What am I saying? Of course it makes me a bad person.

But the reason I didn't is because tone and irony and even facial expressions are hard to convey in text. Things can easily get misunderstood. We've all had that weird feeling, reading (or writing) an email, that maybe we shouldn't have said something exactly the way we said it.

Which is why some person invented those awful emoticons, which are necessary (I guess) but still pretty irritating. Last year, during the writers strike in Hollywood, I got an email from a studio executive telling me that in one week I was going to be "force majeure'd" -- ie, my production deal was going to be terminated -- and he finished his email with this:

One of the things that keeps us from saying every stupid, thoughtless, or mean thing that's in our heads is the look on the face of the person we're talking to. Take away that, and it's easy to go overboard. (And in the end, it undermines the argument: the most convincing people tend to be the most soft-spoken.)

I agree with Fred, though -- I think things are getting better. And not just because of excellent tools like Disqus, but because we're getting used to this new, limitless way of communicating. We all now interact with a much larger circle of people -- people beyond our family and friends and immediate colleagues. So we're relearning things about reputation and good manners. 18th and 19th century society knew a lot about how to handle these things -- in goods ways and bad. They were acutely aware of the penalties of rudeness.

Like, you get ignored. You get tuned out. You pay the social price.

Communities like this one are sort of self-selecting anyway. I'm careful about what I say here and post here because for the most part, the discourse here is on a pretty high level, and I'd hate to get tuned out. To which there's not much to add except: