This week, Rob Long recalls a childhood memory of a large, unidentifiable spinning machine with blades that took two people to operate — lest one lose a hand — which serves as good metaphor for working together in show business. And as long as that machine is doing its job, don’t try to tinker with it; just ask the people behind New Coke, who discovered — too late — that soda drinkers didn’t want something new. On the other hand, don’t be the CW, making shows for teens when the average age of your audience is… 58. Network programmers, this one’s for you! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob looks back at the “olden times”, when just a handful of broadcast networks with mediocre — and somewhat problematic — shows like Webster dominated the airwaves. Their main goals weren’t about attracting viewers as much as not driving them away to competitors. But in today’s streaming landscape, viewers aren’t drifting through a primetime lineup, or mindlessly channel surfing. And just like Rob, seduced by local clothes while on vacation in faraway places, both streamers and broadcast businesses need to remember who they are — lest they end up coming back dressed in a sarong and wooden slippers, looking ridiculous. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writers get lots of advice during the development of a script, usually in a backhanded way with all sorts of qualifiers: agents like to give notes (typically on the prospects of a script in the marketplace) starting with phrases like “Hey, I’m not a writer!” or “I don’t have a creative bone in my body!” But if there’s one thing more awkward than receiving negative feedback on your work, it’s overhearing someone else getting those notes in a public space — a skill Rob has dubbed ‘yoga eavesdropping’. At the end of the day, sometimes the best thing one can do is provide no advice at all. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people will do almost anything to avoid being embarrassed, why is why, as Rob Long explains, embarrassment is the key to making something truly funny. But there’s a difference between personal mortification — “someone saw my nudes on my phone” — and professional humiliation — “I did a stupid thing in a meeting.” The latter can be used effectively as a way to build morale on a writing staff, or it can be deployed more nefariously to cause someone to leave the business entirely. Also, Rob cautions his listeners against committing the most ignominious act of self-humiliation: complimenting a show not on the network you are working with. Oops. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long opines on audience research, bad time slots and rules for what not to say in front of executives as a writer — which somehow leads to the curious case of Batgirl, a movie that apparently will never be seen by anyone outside of Warners Bros. For Rob, there’s no rule for that one: “What I do know is I don’t know because you never know.” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s episode, Rob Long encourages his fellow scribes to be observant: pay attention to what’s going on in the world around you. Because there might be a hit TV show or a movie playing out right in front of your nose. The hard part, according to Rob, is trying to figure out if your new idea is “weird good” or “weird bad”? And just like flying on a tiny propellor plane, the trick is to take a deep breath and just get on board — and don’t think too hard about going down in flames. Because unlike in aviation, it’s pretty likely you will. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's easy to give script notes to a writer when he's wearing a T-shirt and dresses like a kid at summer camp. It's harder to tell a guy dressed like a hedge-fund shark that the dialogue needs to be 'quirkier'. Which is one of the reasons why Dick Wolf wears a suit. What you're wearing — or driving, or strapping on your wrist — matters, of course, in the room. In the entertainment business, we try to dress casually and comfortably. Big mistake. There's nothing casual or comfortable about show business.Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Argentine writer named Jorge Luis Borges once declared that there are only four stories that are told and re-told. Or maybe there are seven — it depends who you ask. Regardless, Rob Long explains in this week’s episode why writers would be better off ignoring those rules. And why everyone else should ignore people who insist that the summer is over on July 5th.Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry.Technology has enabled us to have meetings from any where at any time. This week, Rob Long gives a discourse on how to conduct a notes call from locations that can be classified as exotic, prosaic and, shall we say, aromatic. But he also points out why the business functioned better when everyone wasn’t so connected and available 24/7. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices