Transcript: The Missing Middle-Zone Shows

Rob Long on what makes an ideal restaurant — and TV series

This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

Not long ago I got some bad news about a project I've been working on, and all I could think about was, where am I going to eat? I don’t remember which project, specifically, but I do remember the bad news, which is what bad news always is in show business: some version of, that thing you were doing or thought you were doing is either not happening or is happening with other people. People you now have to pretend to be happy for.

Because bad news makes me hungry, and it also makes me sentimental, the meal I eat after getting bad news has to be special in some way. Historic, maybe. So before I would really sift through my feelings about the news, I needed to decide on food. Which isn't unusual, I think.

Years ago, an emergency medical technician I knew in Los Angeles told me that for weeks after the death of television legend Lucille Ball, he'd pick people up in his ambulance — some of whom were in really serious trouble — and as the ambulance sped in the direction of the nearest hospital, lots of them would pull the oxygen mask away from their faces to make a request.

"I want to go where Lucy died," they'd say.