At my desk the next morning I got to work on the one Care Bears script I had in-house -- a leftover from the Sandy Fries era. It was dreadful, written by a writer who shall remain nameless. It had no warmth, no humor, no caring. And this was a series that was supposed to be about warmth, humor and caring. I started a page one rewrite.

As I said a silent prayer that my writers would start delivering story springboards the next day, there was a knock at my door. I called, “Come.” Howard opened it and stood tentatively. He offered a qualified “I was a tad tough on you yesterday.”

I granted, “I could have handled my solicitation of story springboards better.”

Howard corrected, “You mean your demand for story springboards?”

We laughed. He pulled a sheet of paper from his blazer and dr

opped it on my desk. “These will help.”

There were ten Care Bears springboards on the paper. Howard said, “They’re right on target.”

“I’ll bet they are.”

Then he said, “You’re going to do all right around here. Jean likes you.”

I leaned back. “I’d like to think talent has something to do with it.”

“It does. But so does who you know.”

As he started for the door, I said, “Then I guess you’ll do okay, too.” When he turned back to me, I said, “Andy likes you.”

Howard nodded, then added, “At least today.”

Then he left and I started reading his springboards. They were right on target.