#85 Thoughts on Final Approach

So I’m nicely ensconced in Seat 2-A on what’s been a relaxing flight. But as we’re on final approach to Cleveland Hopkins Airport I grow tense. This will be my first time meeting executives at a major toy company and I’m a little nervous.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to meet Judy Price, CBS’ VP of Children’s Entertainment. Meeting Judy was like meeting royalty. She really was “The Great and Powerful Sorceress of CBS”.

The thing about Judy – and it’s the thing about a lot of powerful people – is that she was a nice person; at least she was nice to me. She was welcoming and engaging with a new, young writer. She reminded me of the strongman in author Alistair MacLean’s novel, Circus. Of the strongman, MacLean said, and I paraphrase, “The strongman smiled because he had long since lost the need to frown.”

Judy was like that.

The plane’s tires screeched as they hit the tarmac and I couldn’t help but wonder what the Those Characters From Cleveland’s executives were going to be like. Would they be welcoming and engaging with a new, young writer as Judy

had been? Or would they be haughty, condescending and critical?

Unquestionably, they had the power to be whatever they wanted to be. In the 19th century, Lord Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” If Judy Price was “corrupt”, she never showed it to me. She’d only been benevolent, encouraging and welcoming. I hoped Those Characters From Cleveland’s execs were cut from the same Royal Purple cloth as she was

#84 Up…Up…and Away!

With Andy fully recovered from his engine-falling-off-the-plane-trauma, our trip to Ohio to meet the Those Characters From Cleveland execs was back on. Andy again insisted we take separate planes so if there was a crash we won’t both be killed. Something told me the real reason he wanted to take separate planes was because he was flying first class and didn’t want me to be bummed I was flying coach, especially with the meeting looming.

Andy hired a Lincoln Town Car to drive me to LAX, which I thought was a nice gesture – not as nice a gesture as flying me first class, but nice all the same.

I got to the airport around eight that morning, entered the terminal and headed to the check-in counters. A young woman in her late twenties or early thirties was behind one of the counters. She had long brown hair, nice eyes and soft features. I motioned several travelers past me so I could wait for her.

As I approached, she asked, “You checking in?”

As I handed her my ticket I asked, “Can you upgrade me to first class?”

She looked at the ticket and said, “You’ve got a coach class ticket.”

Putting on my best sheepish look, I said, “Be nice to me. I write for the Care Bears TV series.”

She asked, “Are you putting me on?”

I grinned. “Yeah, I go around all day telling people I write for the Care Bears so they’ll be nice to me.”

She leaned forward with, “Where do the Care Bears live?”

I answered, “Care-a-Lot.”

“How do they get around?”

My grin getting more toothy, I said, “In Cloud Cars, of course.”

Typing on her keyboard she observed, “No one would go to that much trouble to make up a story.” She printed out a new ticket, handed it

to me and said, “You’re in Seat 2-A. Have a nice flight.”

I took the ticket, told her, “Thanks for ‘caring and sharing’,” turned and headed for the concourse. I was pretty sure Andy Heyward would approve.

#83 Life in the Fast Lane

Things are going well. Between script fees and my salary as the Care Bears’ story editor, I’m starting to make some serious bucks. I buy a new car – the BMW 325i almost every young person in the L.A. entertainment industry drives; black, because my mother had always maintained “Black is the only suitable color for an automobile.”

Because many car owners in L.A. have personalized license plates, I secured one that reads TV WRTR. I think it looks pretty cool on my BMer. I was tooling along one Saturday on I-10, my window open when someone pulled alongside me and called “Pretentious!” I smiled and called back “Honest!” The driver sped off.

I like to spend money. I like to spend a lot of money. I had times in the past when I had a lot of money and I had times when I was flat broke. But when I had it I spent it. I’ve never been a saver.

Being a television writer is different from being an accountant or a lawyer or a policeman. Television writers, even staff television writers, are only truly secure when they’re working on a series. You could be employed one week and – poof! – you’re out of work the very next. So I figured I might as well spend it while I’ve got it.

I was living in the moment, and the moment said I was in the fast lane, not worried about the posted speed limit sign. It would all come to a screeching halt in a few years and I’d find myself flat broke again. (Don’t worry. There’s a happy ending to that story.)

But for right now I was pulling in the bucks, so I took the leap and bought the condo I was leasing.