Free Agent

When I worked in TV, I used to get laid off a lot. It used to remind me of a scene from the Mighty Ducks where Gordon Bombay asks the team, “You think losing is funny?"

Not at first, but once you get the hang of it.

Before the streaming wars, broadcast networks quickly canceled underperforming television programs. I would anxiously check our Nielsen ratings daily to ascertain how many more weeks of employment I might have. When you work on cinematic masterpieces such as Ironside, About a Boy, Rosewood, or Touch, you are rarely long for this world.

My colleagues and I would set odds on it, invariably after dropping below a 1.5 in the 18-49 demographic, the line producer would come into the office and tell us we were canceled and that day would be our last.

What happened next was all of the production assistants would cobble together the remainder of the petty cash, go on a booze run, and then the entire cast and crew would spend the rest of the night getting drunk on the stage or at a local watering hole. “We’ll catch you on the next one,” we used to say.  

Kiefer Sutherland once put me in a cab home after I was overserved at a wrap party. I split my pants while dancing with Minnie Driver following the last episode of About a Boy. Pablo Schreiber bet me $20 I wouldn't make it to our softball game the day after Ironside's cancelation. He won. I never paid him.

The point is, making a TV show is kind of like summer camp. You form these intense short-term relationships over 12 weeks and 18-hour days. Even when you don’t get canceled, the entire crew is ‘laid off’ at the conclusion of the season and you either jump onto another show or wait around (unpaid) until the next season.

The last time I was laid off was when The Mindy Project ended its run. Shortly thereafter, I sold a pilot to Disney that went nowhere. I decided I was ‘too old for this sh*t’ and thus began my marketing career in tech.

Over the next seven years, I got married, had a kid, started my MBA, and progressed my career quite a bit. Then yesterday at 8 am, I was informed that I was the most recent in a long string of tech layoffs that have been sweeping the country.

Getting laid off at 36 is much more different than getting laid off in your 20s. Perhaps it shows a modicum of personal growth that my first instinct was not to head to the nearest tavern. Instead, I picked up my son from daycare, laid out by the pool for a bit, and then watched Indiana get a big home win against Rutgers. A decade ago, I would have spent a week in bed feeling sorry for myself, but this morning I woke up early to play some extremely mediocre golf and now I’m writing this essay to let everyone know that I’m going to be fine.

The vast majority of people in my network had some sort of job interruption during Covid. On the other hand, I got to work in sweatpants for three years with reruns of Property Brothers playing in the background. I’m sad that my time at Sauce Labs has come to an end, but I’ll forever cherish the memories and the people. I’ll always be very proud of what we were able to accomplish and I’m very thankful to everyone that took the time to mentor a former screenwriter who was learning everything on the fly. I may have traded slug lines for SEO, but I will always believe that what screenwriting and copywriting share is that nothing can beat an engaging story.

I’m a free agent for the first time in nearly a decade and it feels a bit liberating. No Zoom calls the rest of the week, no admin, just some time to focus on myself and my family.

What’s next? I already have some hot leads and hope to be back in the saddle shortly, but feel free to send any opportunities my way. I might freelance a bit or perhaps I’ll write a new script while chasing down my next gig. To my former colleagues, please know that the pleasure was all mine and I’ll be rooting for you from afar. To everyone that took a chance on me, thank you. I hope I didn’t let you down. And to the thousands that have been laid off over the past few months, don’t sweat it. I know it’s scary, but losing a job isn’t an indictment of your value as a person. We’ll get through this and come out stronger on the other side.

In professional sports, players look forward to free agency. It's a chance for a fresh start, to re-evaluate your priorities, go to a winning team, get paid. That's the mindset I'll be taking these next few weeks and I encourage you to take this positive approach as well. Tom Brady signed with Tampa as a free agent and won the Super Bowl the next year.

Speaking of, look on the bright side, the big game is this weekend and we don’t have to call in sick Monday morning.