TBI’s man in LA, Arrested Industries CEO Anthony Kimble, draws a line between the hugely stress-inducing episode of The Bear and the life of a producer as the US strikes drag on.
Who’d be a producer?
Earlier in my TV career, while working for broadcasters and distributors, I envied many of the producers I met. Between their homes in London’s leafiest suburbs and shiny offices in trendy locations, they seemed to lead gilded lives packed with talent lunches at swanky restaurants and business class flights to exciting network pitches.
Or so I thought…
Having jumped the fence, I quickly realised that the jobbing producer’s lot is far from easy. You need to be able to both lead the charge and bring up the rear on every project, have assiduous creative and commercial sensibilities, be able to herd cats, hundreds of them, and possess definitive nerves of steel.
In fact, after watching a cracking festive episode of The Bear on Hulu, I think Christmas – and more specifically the matriarch’s role in it – could be the perfect analogy for the life of a producer.