(Decades are handy benchmarks, but much has changed in my two decades in Dealville. First off, what goes on in the Company Town)
For the first 5 years, it was the same as it was the past 10...maybe a bit longer. "How'd it do last night?" You're looking for that big rerun deal. Talk shows? 5 days a week. We're talking big bucks up front. $1000 steaks in Las Vegas, stars there to shake the hands of TV station owners...memories made, deals made right afterward. 5 years in, we could find out demographic data in big cities the next day. And DVR audience was included. The future!
It all seems so quaint now. Maybe it was? It's kind of hard to say when you're in the moment. But shit, think of how in 2010 VOD was a big moneymaker. You might find an episode of TV you missed online - good luck with that. Now? Well, you know now. You're living it. Who isn't?
Some retired. Some were forced retired. Some, rightly or wrongly, were bumped out. Buzzwords tossed around. They disappear. Those that dined on the $1000 steak (while you ate Ralphs beef-a-reno at home) haven't been on the payroll in many, many years. But what does that really say?
A little over a year ago I had my first boss who was (not by much, but still) younger than me. After a while, you have to accept that the lanes all go at different speeds, and you can change lanes, but there is only 1 thing important: are you moving forward? Because if you aren't, or your car is on the side of the road, you'd better get back quick. Doesn't matter how or where...but get back. It's going too fast now.
I said, in a deal-making lunch around 2003, "I'd say in 10 years, maybe 3 networks will really matter. Maybe a dozen cable channels. The rest...not a factor." True, but I said that as if that was ALL there would be, and how hard is it to predict something that doesn't exist? Flash forward to 2018. In a prominent high rise. Direct to consumer. It's internally controlled. I heard someone "higher up" than me say "We'll see what happens." I then spoke up breaking the silence with "Us in the room...here right now...aren't WE helping make that decision? Don't WE deliver the information to the powers that be?" Not only was I correct, I saw what happened when the 'powers that be' sold off a major component of the company...a component that I happened to work on...and off I went again.
Keep swimming, latch on, back again. Learning, expanding, making deals. In a business that has become a chameleon, your personal evolution isn't immediate, either.
A man who I met at the start, one that was involved in a handful of shows going back to the 80's and well into the last decade, met with me a few weeks ago. I toasted those 20 years...and received back the kind of anti-Semitic and frightened old white guy speech you can hear in different parts of the country. He was forced retired and cashed that check. He also didn't have to hold back anymore. I walked back to the car afterward, surprised at his "expanding," and then called the restaurant to apologize if anyone overheard his hokum. I've seen old executives at Crate & Barrel...behind the register. Many others consult or say they're available. And then there's those, like a guy I thought I knew, who let it pass him by.
The college kid coming out now has little in common with me now in terms the biznazz...her/his whole life has been in some form or another watching what you want when you want and you didn't need to own physical media (necessarily) to do so. It's their ideas that can inform. Helping each other not only makes work better, it leads to more opportunities.
And, most importantly, you can do it with awful hair, brown shades, and shirts that will never be tucked in. (Even an occasional Hawaiian shirt while we're at it...that reminds me of another story) 20 years ago? It was some sort of bullshit labeled "business casual" and a fucking TIE. Now, it's making decisions, accepting rules, meeting the future...and we're all on the same page.
