The REAL Newsroom

This has been a fun week. I’ve been making the rounds promoting my book. This morning I was on KRTH 101 radio with Gary Bryan in Los Angeles and 12 other radio stations around the country. A list is provided at the end of this post.

But part of the fun of this marketing blitz is sharing the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of these personal appearances. And it’s good stuff to know when you go out to sell your book.

Yesterday I made my first television appearance. I was on the Channel 9 2:00 News in L.A. My segment was a delightful respite between horrific psychos stories and grisly freeway accidents.

Channel 9 is one of two TV stations CBS owns. Their facilities are on the CBS Radford lot in Studio City. I have a long history with that dream factory. It was the home of MTM Enterprises and my partner, David Isaacs and I got our first staff job there on THE TONY RANDALL SHOW. You never forget your first lot.

We were so thrilled to be there. At the time I drove a crappy Nova and David drove an even crappier Chevy Vega. One of THE BOB NEWHART SHOW producers saw him drive in one day and yelled out, “Better cars are coming!”

We later did our Mary Tyler Moore series there on the same stage she did her good series on. But I’m proud to say some classic episodes of television were written in our very office. Not by us. After we had moved out Larry David wrote all the SEINFELD episodes there.

When things got too crazy on that MARY show we would chill out on Gilligan’s Island. How many industrial parks feature that?

I directed numerous episodes on that lot. JUST SHOOT ME, STARK RAVING MAD, and of course CONRAD BLOOM. At the time I was doing BLOOM the CBS Big Brother house was there and they were in the middle of production. The contestants were supposed to be completely cut off from the world so I would walk by, hear them in the backyard, and yell out things like “Ohmygod! President Bush is leaving his wife for Paula Zahn?” Yes, I'm still 14. 

Where the Big Brother house was now stands the sprawling Channel 2 and Channel 9 complex. My publicist Sharon and I arrived at 1:45. We were led into the newsroom. It was just like the Aaron Sorkin show except five times as many desks and no one talked fast. Most of the desks were empty. I guess psychos tend to take late lunches so not much was happening.

Bumped into anchor Sandra Mitchell coming out of the restroom. She couldn’t have been nicer or more welcoming. We shook hands, both apologizing that our hands were wet. She asked about my name pronunciation, which really impressed me. Didn’t she have enough to worry about with the massacre update, Jennifer Hudson family murder sentencing, and guy who set someone’s face on fire to concern herself with little me? I’m a big Sandra Mitchell fan.

Passed by the control room. No Emily Mortimer screaming in the anchors’ ears. And yet the newscast seemed to go on. I don’t know how.

Watched the program from the producer’s office – not easy to do without Lexapro. Finally it was time for the interview. We entered the studio and I was taken aback. I’ve been on many local news sets (and thrown off many news sets), but I had never seen anything like this before. Here’s a photo. What’s missing?

That’s right. People. No cameramen. No floor director. No make up guy. Just the two on-air anchors. No wonder we found a parking spot.

Sandra teased my segment along with a preview of an avalanche then threw it to commercial break. At this point six guys named Dave would usually swarm around me attaching my microphone. Not this time. Suzie (who was just as gracious and friendly as Sandra) put it on herself. If that would have happened twenty years ago 30,000 union workers would have gone out on strike. It’s a different world.

The interview came off pretty well. You can judge for yourself. They showed the book cover a lot so that’s the main thing.   Sandra and Susie were very complimentary.   I did have a few jokes.  But as I left I worried that I might have been too frivolous for a hard newscast.  Then I bumped into the next guest for a Channel 2 or 9 newscast --  Dodger-Elvis. Not sure what he’s going to discuss but I can only assume it’s the Middle-East.

My thanks to Sandra, Suzie, and everyone at Channel 9. Below is the interview. And as promised, these were the stations that interviewed me this morning:  WAOR South Bend, KWNG Minneapolis/St. Paul, WTDW Detroit, WMJI Cleveland, KLPX Tucson, WRTA Altoona, KTRS St. Louis, WBAL Baltimore (my old Orioles stomping ground), WVSL Scranton, WDUN Atlanta, WXKR Toledo, and KRED Eureka, CA.  By the last six I had no idea what I was saying.  

More info, photos, and cool videos on my website – www.megenerationbook.com.