If a joke falls flat, you’ve got two options: fiddle with the set-up or adjust the punchline. That’s comedy writing 101 — unless you had George Wendt. As Norm on Cheers, George’s timing, presence and even just how he walked into the bar got a laugh. But Norm was a lovable loser, while George was just plain lovable. And for writers like Rob, lucky enough to work with him, George was the secret third trick to make any joke land.

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The best TV shows are like the best restaurants, says Rob Long: familiar, comforting, and just stylish enough. Not everything needs to be a tasting menu or guilty junk — sometimes you just want a steak, buttered broccoli, baked potato and a laugh. So in this era where prestige and junk reign in both food and TV, Rob asks, where are all the Hillstones and Houston’s?

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Rob wakes up spinning — literally — and ends up in the ER being evaluated by what appears to be the cast of Grey’s Anatomy: Gen Z. It wasn’t a stroke (spoiler), just vertigo, but that doesn’t stop Rob from noticing these physicians seemed to behave a little too much like TV doctors from ER, House or Chicago Hope — all of which gave Rob his own hope: TV really does still matter.

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As President Trump involves himself in showbiz finances, Rob Long raises the problem of what happens when government gets involved in Hollywood spreadsheets: Everyone above the line gets a raise because A. money is fungible; and B. greed. And below the line? Taxpayers in whatever state is offering cash-back goodies end up paying for second season salary bumps for the cast and the producers. 

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time was when networks would land a major star, with the next step finding a writer with “auspices” — an industry term for somebody proven, with a hit show already on air. The only issue? Those successful writers often couldn’t write. In spite of that, those series sometimes became massive hits. Which is why Rob Long wants to keep optimism alive. After all, as he says, “Hey, could work.”

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like Rob Long’s old Subaru, show business is leaky and can emit a toxic cloud — but it works. That is, until Silicon Valley strides in and tries to plug up the holes with things like “ad-free offerings” and an “all-inclusive monthly price”. What the tech overlords don’t get, though: It’s all those wires and oil and grime that keep the engine running.

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No matter how successful you are, the pitching never ends. Even the most seasoned TV creator has been known to melt down in front of their G-Wagon when they can’t land a greenlight: “Why don’t they just say yes?” Silicon Valley tech giants thought they could disrupt the “terrible business” of entertainment — less buying and selling, more ownership and verticality — which led to the streaming wars, and now a contracting industry where “the yeses just aren’t coming.”

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are two keys to making money in showbiz: make a hit, and make it easy to watch and find. In other words, make the experience more like shopping on Amazon. Easy is why kids are on YouTube, Rob Long is watching The Gilded Age in TikTok snippets and why Amazon makes being online a seamless experience — except on Prime Video.

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long recently sold all the old junk from his house: airplane bottles of Dutch gin, a Yemeni incense burner, asparagus tongs and two boxes of computer cables, naturally. Refreshed and ready to begin a new chapter, Rob thinks studios need a similar garage sale with each other’s libraries. Offer up titles, make some swap deals — and reset the whole system, from the IP up.

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Languages other than English have special words for special situations (looking at you Germany and your fingerspitzenfühl). Now, Rob Long proposes a new local lexicon to help capture this particular moment now in the industry, a place where schadenfreude is giving way to another, strange new feeling: Hope for even someone else’s show, any show, to get made. Even if it’s about linemen in buckets.

Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices