If your big presentation comes down to one "buy or die" moment, will you be ready?

You can't predict it. It's certainly nothing to hope for. But be prepared. Because sometimes, it's all on you.

“Like presenting blueprints to I.M. Pei”

That’s how Bill Chororos, our stellar creative director at Backer & Spielvogel, described presenting storyboards to Kim LeMasters, head of the CBS Entertainment Division.

Storytelling was his business. He put or kept every CBS show on the air, and approved hundreds of TV spots promoting those shows every season.

But LeMasters was not I.M. Pei. But to be fair, he seemed miserable in a thankless job at a last-place network, and exited two years later with the usual sweet production deal.

Since 2003 he’s been teaching, consulting, writing and mentoring—and likely a whole lot happier.

Our presentation was DOA

Roger Feuerman, Bob Tabor and I were in LA to present storyboards to LeMasters to promote new show launches including Wise Guy, a gritty mob drama about an undercover cop who does 18 months in jail to build his cover.

CBS Corporate had signed off on the boards before we flew to LA—a mandatory step for us, and a poisonous prequel to every LeMasters presentation. He hated Corporate’s meddling in his shows—and therefore, us.

Even worse, Jay Kriegel, Tisch’s enforcer, sat in on our presentation. Corporate may have sent him on a kill-mission, or he may have just been in LA plying his dark arts. He and LeMasters seemed chummy as we walked in (NOT a good sign), the meeting was a bust, and we piled into a cab to the airport shortly thereafter, each in our own surly silence.

Down, but not yet out

On a slow stretch of La Cienega, I break the silence.

Me, to the cabbie: “Pull over.”

Cabbie: “Here?”

Me: “Yeah, this is good.”

Roger: “Wait—what are you doing?”

Me (to cabbie): “Pop the trunk.”

Bob: “What’s going on?”

Me: “I’m going back to sell the boards.”

I grab our portfolio out of the trunk, take a cab back to CBS, and head up to LeMasters’ suite. His assistant tries to deflect me, but I get into his office and, lucky for me, Kriegel isn’t there.

I take him through the boards again, and I don’t exactly change his mind—he just turns his back to me with a “sure, fine” and waves me out.

Here are two Wise Guy spots he “approved”…Danny Aiello is the cop in the first ad:

Mel Bourne, three-time Oscar nominated set designer, built out the jail cells in the second spot in fanatical detail, right down to the porn stashed under the cellblock mattresses.

Not cheap, but that level of detail helps actors deeply inhabit their roles.

We get the applause, then the ax

Back to the CBS affiliate conference I was telling you about last week: The spots get polite applause, including the Wise Guy ads and our “Dan Rather save.”

When that session ends, I get summoned, along with my boss Dean Scaros, to meet Larry Tisch and Gene Jankowski (the Broadcast Group Chairman) backstage at the convention center.

After brief small talk around the small table, Larry leans forward, across from Dean, and after his financial complaints, he takes a dramatic pause, staring at Dean with his mouth open.

I’m just staring at Tisch’s shockingly unkempt lower teeth. (Sorry to share that, just reporting what my fear had me focused on…)

Then he speaks: “Dean: You’re burning my money, Dean. You’re burning my money.”

That was it. Over and out.

Turns out he was burning his own money at CBS

Tisch bought 24.9% of CBS for $750mm in 1985 and held it for nine years, hollowing out much of the network in the process, private equity style.

Like Trump’s poor return on his father’s assets, Tisch would have done better sticking that cash into an S&P index fund:

• Tisch’s CBS ROI: ≈ 11.5% CAGR

• S&P 500, same years: ≈ 14.0% CAGR

The decline of CBS continues to this day

Tisch’s slow-motion gutting of CBS leads directly to Paramount’s Trump-surrender two weeks ago:

If that sounds like a stretch, don’t forget that Tisch was running CBS when they pulled the Lowell Bergman-Jeffrey Wigand 60 Minutes tobacco story.

20 years later, I get another dose of “bad boss buyer’s remorse“

The NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, had locked out the players in a labor dispute, and we were hired to help fill the seats when the lockout ended.

Tim Tennant, my creative partner at Conductor, our agency in LA, had just presented our ambitious film idea to Bettman and his leadership team, and it’s time for me to close the sale.

It’s a long boardroom table, and I’m center-position on one long side, faced off against Bettman on the other side. We’re the only two people standing. It’s already a tense moment.

It’s “buy or die” time

Our estimate—the puck—lies between us in front of me on the table.

Bettman: “So what’s it gonna cost?”

Me: “Seven million dollars” as I push the estimate forward a few inches, staying locked on his eyes.

After a long pause, he looks down briefly at my hand, then back up to me and says, grudgingly, “OK.”

Buyer’s remorse is never attractive

From that stare-down forward, every time I saw Bettman—in a group setting, in the hall at the league offices, or when he cornered me in the NHL suite at a game, every conversation started—and ended—with a version of “Your campaign better work. I’m spending a FORTUNE on your little movies.”

Why did Bettman say “Yes”?

He didn’t say “Yes” because he liked the work.

I think he didn’t want to look small by choking on a big-boy price tag in front of his team.

Luckily, it didn’t matter. The campaign ran nationally and tailored to each of the 32 team markets, and it did the job.

From Leonsis at AOL to Tisch at CBS and Bettman at the NHL…

What if another swaggering bad-boss comes knocking?

Highly unlikely.

But if it happens, let’s hope I’ve learned my lesson.

For now, I only promise to report back. 😬

Notes & Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/16/arts/tv-reviews-two-crime-series-on-cbs.html

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0501134/ [Kim LeMasters bio]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Kriegel

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/nyregion/jay-kriegel-dies.html

https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1996/05/wigand199605?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Marie Brenner’s famous Jeffrey Wigand story]

Last week’s post, below…