Rob Shernow

Old writing acquaintance, Rob Shernow.
Works now for A&E.
Head of development?
Or is it original programming.
Better find out.
He's largely responsible for Dog the Bounty Hunter.
We met in Brooklyn Heights a few years back, when he saw me writing a screenplay at a coffee shop.
Our conversation began as bitch session about agents; and, as it happens, we discover that we’re bitching about the exact same agent at The William Morris Agency, here in New York.
Then, small world, two tables over, another writer who couldn’t help but overhear us, says, “Yeah, she was my agent too! She was horrible.”
I went on to tell them the story of when I was pitching at Winddancer on the Disney Lot in LA… and when the development people asked who my agent was, I told them that I was between agents (lame thing to say, but it was the truth), Who were you with prior, I was hip-pocketed with WMA, Who with, they asked, And upon revealing her name, all oxygen was sucked clean out of the room.
They had had a horrible experience with her, too, they said.
One actually said to me that she had been in the business for 14 years and had never worked with a more inept agent.
Strange, I have the angel and the devil on my shoulders.
Should I spare her?
Should I reveal?
Yes.
No.
Say her name, you owe her nothing, handsome devil says.
Don’t, you’ll sound petty, angry, the good-looking angel pleads.
Both seem like the appropriate and valid things to do.
Or not to do…
I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore…
I will say this, however… Think of it as advice:
If you find yourself sitting across from an agent and that agent says something akin to, “My trade secret is that I trust my instincts! As an agent, I have to trust my instincts.” If you hear that…
Run.
Run very far away.
Actually, first poke her in the eye and then sprint down the hall and don’t turn back.
This was her standard line.
I even read it a couple of time in the trades.
Yes, she may have instincts but, unfortunately her instincts are bad.
Back to the coffee shop.
All three of us, the writers at that coffee shop, we all received a variation of her “I trust my instincts” line…
Okay, enough of that crap.
Rob Sharenow.
He agreed to be interviewed about the pitching process.
He’ll be good because he’s been on both sides of the table.
My hope is that we can bring in a couple of writers so that they can pitch him later on in the process.
He did e-mailed me yesterday and agreed with phase one; Had a curious line though…
Said something akin to, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Having worked for Michael Moore’s TV Nation some years back, I’m wary.
So please,” he writes, “Don’t sandbag me.”