They say it's my birthday

Happy Valentine’s Day. It’s also my birthday (so good luck getting a restaurant reservation). When you’re on staff of a show you generally are working on your birthday, sometimes many hours. I remember turning 40 in the WINGS rewrite room. As...

Lena Dunham is back (again)

You have to hand it to Lena Dunham – whether you’re a fan of her work or not – she is one spectacular self-promoter. And at no time in the history of the world has self-promotion been more highly valued. In fact, if you’re really good at self-promotion...

The CHEERS set

My favorite reader comment so far:I've gotten familiar with Becker through the syndication. Not familiar with "Cheers".Well, among those who are familiar with CHEERS I received a request to talk about the set.We filmed CHEERS on Stage 25 at Paramount...

Phantom of the Oprah

This is one of the craziest rewrite nights I ever experienced. It was on WINGS. I was the Thursday night punch up guy. They had a two-parter called “The Gift.” Both episodes were written by the great David Angell. He was back east in New...

Friday Questions

Love and Friday Questions are in the air.Michael kicks it off.Do you think the cast of FRASIER would have any interest in a limited-series revival like WILL AND GRACE and GILMORE GIRLS are doing? Never say never, but no. The sense I get from Kelsey...

My attempt at getting a cartoon in THE NEW YORKER

I’m forever amazed at the quality of the cartoons in THE NEW YORKER. They are consistently funny week after week. There was an HBO documentary on their cartoon editor Bob Mankoff that is worth seeing if you’re interested in this subject matter. ...