Whether you were meeting him in DIC’s conference room or his executive office, Andy Heyward dominated the room with an understated elegance and elan. He was so smooth you’d swear you heard a silky Barry White torch song playing softly in the background.

That’s how I felt when I walked into his contemporary office at DIC’s studios. Andy wore a perfectly tailored size 40 gray business suit with burgundy-framed eyeglasses that matched his burgundy tie. He smiled, motioned to a chair and gauged me as I sat. He complimented me on my first two scripts for The Littles, although I doubted he’d read them. In fairness, I thought he was much too involved with really important matters to have the time to read a new writer’s scripts.

He moved the meeting quickly along. I knew how I handled things in the next half-hour was going to have a major impact on my career path, so out of the blue I shifted the conversation and blurted, “How do you get all those eyeglasses to always match the colors of your ties?” It was one of the few times I ever saw Andy caught off guard. As if against his will, his battle armor momentarily lowered, he broke into a grin and let out a genuine laugh.

When he caught his breath, he grinned, leaned forward conspiratorially and shared, “I buy them as sunglasses for a buck a pair at Venice Beach, pop out the lenses and put clear ones into the frames.”

I’d bonded with the shark.