Transcript: You’ll Eat Lunch in This Town Again

Rob Long on why showbiz failure isn’t the end like everyone says

This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

Years ago, a well-known comic actor hosted his own late-night talk show. The show received dismal ratings, terrible reviews, and mid-way through its 13-week run, it was canceled.

But only a few days after such a spectacular and public failure, the guy was sitting at an outside table at the old Columbia Bar & Grill — I have no idea what it’s called now, or even if there’s even a restaurant there, on the corner of Sunset and Gower — but for a long time that was where everyone on that side of town went for lunch, or for after-work drinks. It’s where all of the people who worked on the comedies that shot at Paramount spilled into when they called wrap. Anyway, there this guy was, hours after his spectacular failure, having lunch with a couple of friends. In his shoes a lot of us would be thousands of miles away for months. I know I would. And I’m not even the most cowardly person I know.