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'.

Conversations with My Agent

Rob Long

Literature & Fiction

Faber and Faber

'Right now we're deep into what the phrase-makers around here call "heavy development ". Essentially that means that the studio which gives us an office, a secretary, two parking spaces, and two pay checks is patiently waiting for us to come up with a new comedy television series But ideas are hard to come by So we sit and stare, at each other and out of the window, at the tour groups being led around the studio, pitch out show ideas, and mutter to ourselves, 'is there a show in that?'. An award-winning television comedy script writer is fifteen years on from his last major success and the ideas have dried up. His agent is constantly on the phone demanding at once where the next script is coming from whilst at the same time shattering his confidence with news of other clients' roaring success, as well as demanding unswerving loyalty from him. It's a fragile, nerve-racked existence and one where the writer tragically begins to realise only the strongest survive.By turns hilariously funny, shockingly honest in it's brutal deceptions and full of raw emotion, Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke gets to the core of Hollywood society whilst at the same time holding a mirror up to all of our basest desires.

Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke

Bloomsbury Pub.

Working with Groups (nasen spotlight)

Routledge

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

Biographies & Memoirs

Bloomsbury India Publishing

As wonderful as today's multicultural American kaleidoscope is -- and it is wonderful -- there's something to be said for America's waning WASP culture or as Rob Long calls it, being ''whitebread.'' To be whitebread is to be unironically normcore: to assume a formality of dress and manners, to embrace awkward silences, and to carry seemingly obsolete traditions from generation to generation. Long, the Emmy-nominated executive producer of Cheers and creator of Sullivan & Son, lays out his argument for being ''whitebread by choice'' in this tongue-in-cheek paean to the tried, true, and very unhip ways of whitebread America.

The Virtues of Whitebread

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Blackstone Audio,Inc.

In Los Angeles, you can buy a hot dog wrapped in a tortilla and topped with kim chee. "It's about as perfect a metaphor for 21st century America as you can find," writes Rob Long. "It's also pretty tasty." But as wonderful as today's multicultural American Kaleidoscope is—and it is wonderful—there's something to be said for America's waning WASP culture; or, as Long calls it, "being Whitebread." To be Whitebread is to be un-ironically normcore: to assume a formality of dress and manners, to embrace awkward silences, and to carry seemingly obsolete traditions from generation to generation.Long, the Emmy-nominated executive producer of Cheers and creator of Sullivan and Son, lays out his argument for "being Whitebread by choice" in this tongue-in-cheek paean to the tried, true, and very un-hip ways of Whitebread America.

Virtues Of Whitebread

Regnery Publishing, Incorporated, An Eagle Publishing Company

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Books by Rob Long