Conversations with My Agent

Rob Long rose from staff writer to become co-producer of Cheers in its final season. When the show went off the air, he went from being top dog on a highly rated program to just another writer scrambling to get any project rolling. It wasn't pretty, but as Conversations with My Agent demonstrates, in hindsight at least, that's the hilarious reality of life in the wonderful world of the Hollywood sitcom. Suddenly thrown into the absurdity of Hollywood television development, Long and his writing partner find themselves with an office, an assistant, lots of cigars, and absolutely no idea what they are going to write. But that doesn't matter in Hollywood, where hype is more important than substance. Especially when you have a good agent. Here Long recants the true tale of his time in that limbo, from the wildly funny but awful meetings with studio executives to the unending string of phone calls with his self-absorbed agent, who is emblematic of the uniquely absurd chaos that is Ho

Rob Long was co-executive producer of Cheers for its eleventh and final season. He was also the co-creator and executive-producer of the short-lived television series Pig Sty and Good Company. He lives in Los Angeles, California.