Martini Shot

Rob figures out how to save Al Jazeera America cable news network. Too late, of course, but he does figure it out.

Is being a Donald Trump impersonator a major career move or a boat act?

Rob raises money for his candidate...not really. 

Rob gets super financial and explains a hedge fund Powerpoint deck.

Rob does what every producer in Hollywood does all the time: complain about the marketing budget.

Rob gives away all the secrets to Star Wars and doesn't even say Spoiler Alert.

Rob finds an old spy manual, filled with ways to sabotage any organization, and notices that all of them are in wide use at every major studio.

Attempting the impossible for a writer in the entertainment business -- to be grateful and uncomplaining.

Unsolicited advice to someone who is more famous and successful than Rob, just like a real journalist.

A new rule for keeping a TV audience engaged in a show: you just kill all of the good guys.

What every tired and out-of-material stand up comic does: talk about the differences between New York and Los Angeles -- as if there are any.

Rob sets up an email to set up a conference call and then a text to remind himself about it and then a call after the call to talk about what happened on the call. It's called "work" but not much work gets done.

Being a writer is a little bit like being a shepherd: it's quaint, people envy the solitude, but no one's afraid of a shepherd.  

Why movies succeed and why they fail and why the phrase isn't "The name is Smith. James Smith."

If you've got a political point to make, and you're clever, you can pretty much sneak it into anything.

Rob talks about two of Los Angeles' favorite topics: politics and traffic.

Rob discovers that the most immature and impulsive segment of the population are old people who act like teenagers.

Inside the OODA Loop of television development. It's a military thing, which, surprisingly, really applies.

Why do TV shows have dumpy guys married to beautiful wives, and movies have really old dudes married to young women, but it's never the other way around? Rob senses a marketing opportunity.

Rob attends a meeting to come up with something really new and different. But it's meeting, so that doesn't happen.