Tag Archives: Television

Julia

It’s Friday, so back to my favorite topic: food! Today is the release of the Julie/Julia movie and I, for one, can’t wait to see it.  Before the Food Network, before the plethora of cooking shows, there was Julia Child in color but first in perfect black and white teaching us how to cook. She was the second Julia in my culinary life.

The first was my friend T’s mom, Julia, in whose kitchen I spent many hours waiting for T to wake up or get dressed. Her teaching, along with the TV Julia, ignited a life-long passion for food and cooking. Taught me about business too! Continue reading

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Filed under Growing up, Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Mentors

I got word yesterday of the passing of Mark Mandala.  For most of you, the name isn’t familiar.   For those of you who worked at ABC in the late 1970’s through the early 1990’s, Mark was an unforgettable character.  He could be loud, rude, inappropriate (even by the way less PC standards of those days), and scary. Most of the time, he was brilliant, hysterically funny, and a damn fine executive who began to guide ABC through the changes in network TV that began then as cable TV (“who is going to pay for TV – that’s nuts?) became more prevalent. Continue reading

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Filed under Growing up, Reality checks, Thinking Aloud

Demos

Old at being young
Young at being old
Everything’s on hold within our evolution

Barenaked Ladies

When I first started selling TV in 1978, there was a big push to get agencies to buy on demo ratings instead of just household impressions.  Over time, the notion of buying on audience segments became more accepted and today it seems as if I hear more about the 18-49 numbers than I do about households.  Except that there’s one problem. Continue reading

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