Phil Rosenthal knows Hollywood success better than most… one of his many accomplishments is he’s creating the long-running, smash hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. He’s still in the game via his unscripted Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil, but he’s well aware that the TV business isn’t what it used to be.
“I once had lunch with Larry Gelbart, the great comedy writer, and Norman Lear – Everyone knows who he is,” Rosenthal jokes. “They asked me, ‘What's it like to pitch a show now to the network?’ And I started to explain it, and Larry said to Norman, ‘We're dying just in time.’ Sometimes I feel that way.”
Rosenthal talks with Eric Deggans about the slow death of the sitcom, and finding success by pitching his food and travel show like so: “Anthony Bourdain if he was afraid of everything.” He also laments the fact that embracing people from other cultures (and simply living by The Golden Rule) has somehow become politicized.