Put It Back

I writer friend of mine told me the story of a pilot he wrote and produced a few years ago. It was one of those complicated arrangements that are pretty commonplace these days: one writer, one script, one network, five network executives, six studio executives, three executives from the production company that had a deal at the studio, and one actor's manager, all of whom had thoughts and notes and concerns about every draft of the script and worse – and this was my friend's first tactical error – all of whom had his cell phone number...