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PROFILE

Rob Long Guest/Host

Rob Long

Social:
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Host, 'Martini Shot'

Rob Long is a writer and producer in Hollywood. He began his career writing and producing TV's long-running Cheers, and served as co-executive producer in its final season. During his time on the series, Cheers received two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe awards. Mr. Long has been twice nominated for an Emmy Award, and has received a Writers Guild of America award. He continues to work in film and television in Los Angeles.

His first book, Conversations with My Agent, chronicled his early career in television. It was published in the UK by Faber & Faber, in the US by Dutton, and in France by Actes Sud. His second book, Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke, was published in November 2005 by Bloomsbury.

He is a contributing editor of National Review and the Los Angeles Times and writes occasionally for the Wall Street Journal and the BBC Radio Times (UK). His weekly radio commentary, Martini Shot, is broadcast on the Los Angeles public radio station KCRW, and is distributed nationally. It's also podcast in iTunes.

He also writes a weekly column for The National, Abu Dhabi's English-language daily newspaper.

Long is a co-founder of the fast-growing Ricochet.com, the place for smart and stimulating conversation -- on the web and mobile devices – from a center/right perspective.

FROM Rob Long

My Friend’s Place

My Friend’s Place This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot I talk about impossible it is for some people to remember that they have enough stuff, enough of everything. And by some people I mean, me. But maybe not just me.

3 min, 30 sec Dec 05, 2018

Normal

Normal This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I tell the story of the movie star, the eighty dollar plumber, and the joys of a normal life. It all ties together, I promise.

3 min, 43 sec Nov 28, 2018

Reboot

Reboot This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I talk about what happened when my tailor died and his shop was rebooted and remodeled and was better in almost every way except one: it was missing something, like a lot of reboots.

3 min, 39 sec Nov 21, 2018

Microdosing

Microdosing This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I hypothetically and with names changed, explore some of the ways writers get scripts written, from Adderall to ten micrograms of LSD, everything but just sitting down and doing the work.

3 min, 40 sec Nov 14, 2018

I Don’t See It

I Don’t See It This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot I talk about my most recent act of bad business judgment.

3 min, 45 sec Nov 07, 2018

Manifesto, Part 3

Manifesto, Part 3 This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot I tell the story of the older actress who wouldn’t play a grandmother, because she didn’t think the audience saw her as the grandmother type. She was eighty. And in real life, a great grandmother.

3 min, 51 sec Oct 31, 2018

Manifesto, Part 2

Manifesto, Part 2 This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I talk about that thing where when you go someplace foreign and you buy something you think you’re going to wear back home, but, you’re never going to wear it back home.

7 min, 8 sec Oct 24, 2018

Child’s Pose

Child’s Pose This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I struggle to wedge myself into child’s pose during yoga, while the woman next to me ignores the teacher entirely and just stretches out. It’s a lightbulb moment for me.

3 min, 40 sec Oct 17, 2018

Manifesto, Part 1

Manifesto, Part 1 This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot, the first episode of my manifesto on how to get better television. It starts a little slow, like a lot of shows on premium cable and streaming services, but stick with it.

3 min, 34 sec Oct 10, 2018

Ugly laughing

Ugly laughing This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I tell the story of the young comedy writer who has dinner with the older comedy writer, and the young comedy writer has the temerity to say something funny. Bad move.

3 min, 46 sec Oct 03, 2018

Sit in the chair

Sit in the chair This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I talk about the time I was in Gori, Georgia and I sat in Stalin’s old reading chair and it was pretty weird, and then I twist that into an analogy about the entertainment business, as I usually do.

3 min, 46 sec Sep 26, 2018

You’ve heard of me?

You’ve heard of me? This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot I tell the story of two actors up for the same part who interpreted the character very differently, and what happened after that. Spoiler alert: they both got the job. Which almost never happens.

3 min, 24 sec Sep 19, 2018

New rule

New rule This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot I use a very grim battlefield metaphor to describe the new Best Popular Movie Oscar award, coming in 2019. It’s a little dark, but then so is the entertainment business.

3 min, 34 sec Sep 11, 2018

Variety

Variety This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot I talk about Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther and the reason the oldest trade paper in Hollywood is called Variety, because Variety is good, the more of it the better.

3 min, 40 sec Sep 05, 2018

Mastodon

Mastodon This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I talk about the rule of skinny dipping — you don’t want to be the first one to strip down and jump in the pool. You want to be fourth or fifth. Depending on the attractiveness of the crowd. It’s a metaphor.

3 min, 37 sec Aug 29, 2018

Is that a Show?

Is that a Show? This is Rob Long, and on today’s Martini Shot I use a very big and weird word — mam-ihlapi-natapai — a word from the Tierra del Fuego which means the look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to begin. Which is every day in Hollywood.

3 min, 39 sec Aug 22, 2018

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Is California About to Execute an Innocent Man?

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Is California About to Execute an Innocent Man? In part one of a two-part interview, 33-year death row inmate Kevin Cooper—also an artist of exhibited works and a published author—describes his fight to prove his innocence of a heinous murder and asks why Gov. Brown refuses testing that could prove his innocence, identify the real killer and prove he was framed.

35 min, 20 sec Dec 14, 2018

Why are people afraid to sign up for government programs meant to protect them?

Why are people afraid to sign up for government programs meant to protect them? With legislation pending to penalize people who sign up for food and health care, the issue becomes what is the role of government?

3 min, 35 sec Dec 16, 2018

Jesse Mockrin at Night Gallery and Taylor Mac at UCLA

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4 min, 13 sec Dec 13, 2018

Metro considers “congestion pricing” to pay for mass transit

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Metro considers “congestion pricing” to pay for mass transit Transportation officials in LA County have laid out 28 projects they want to complete before the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. To pay for it, LA Metro CEO Phil Washington last week floated a controversial approach: charging tolls on freeways during times of highest use, or what’s known as “congestion pricing.”

4 min, 16 sec Dec 12, 2018