
Desperate Networks
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Narrated by:
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Dean Olsher
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By:
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Bill Carter
About this listen
In a time of sweeping media change, the four major networks struggle for the attention of American viewers increasingly distracted by cable, video games, and the Internet. Behind boardroom doors, tempers flare in the search for hit shows, which often get on the air purely by accident.
The fierce competition creates a pressure-cooker environment where anything can happen.
©2006 Bill Carter (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Great Story
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Puff piece.
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Great info marred by unedited mispronunciations
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Unscripted
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I could t wait for it to end
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Oscar Wars
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Overall
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Great info marred by unedited mispronunciations
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Unscripted
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- By: James B. Stewart, Rachel Abrams
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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I could t wait for it to end
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Very detailed, spectacular, and riveting!
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Performance
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Joins “Shoe Dog” as required biographies.
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In 1975, five young employees of a sclerotic William Morris agency left to start their own strikingly innovative talent agency. In the years to come, Creative Artists Agency would vault from its origins in a tiny office on the last block of Beverly Hills to become the largest and most imperial, groundbreaking, and star-studded agency Hollywood has ever seen - a company whose tentacles now spread throughout the world of movies, music, television, technology, advertising, sports, and investment banking far more than previously imagined.
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A terrific look behind the curtain
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For almost three decades, Fox News has not only made political careers (see: President Donald J. Trump) but also fundamentally altered the political landscape of the United States. It is a truism: as Fox goes, so goes the nation—into further divisiveness and awash in fake news, a gleefully polarizing company. But just as Fox has pushed America apart, now it too is coming apart. As is the family dynasty behind it.
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Terrific rundown of Fox
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Directed by James Burrows
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Read like the credits rolling at end of a show
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Live from New York
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Who Is Michael Ovitz?
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As the cofounder of Creative Artists Agency, Michael Ovitz earned a reputation for ruthless negotiation, brilliant strategy, and fierce loyalty to his clients. He reinvented the role of the agent and helped shape the careers of hundreds of A-list entertainers, directors, and writers. But this personal history is much more than a fascinating account of celebrity friendships and bare-knuckled deal making. It's also an underdog's story: How did a middle-class kid from Encino work his way into the William Morris mailroom and eventually become the most powerful person in Hollywood?
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Yep, that's the guy
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Those Guys Have All the Fun
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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You wish this was SportsCenter!
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The Coast-to-Coast Murders
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Michael and Megan Fitzgerald are siblings who share a terrifying past. Both adopted, and now grown — Michael is a long-haul truck driver, Megan a college student majoring in psychology — they trust each other before anyone else. They've had to. Their parents are public intellectuals, an Ivy League clinical psychologist and a renowned psychiatrist, and they brought up their adopted children in a rarefied, experimental environment. It sheltered them from the world's harsh realities, but it also forced secrets upon them, secrets they keep at all costs.
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Skipping time in chapters starting in Chapter 47
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The Last Action Heroes
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat, the world’s biggest action stars have at last made peace. In this wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie, Nick de Semlyen charts Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War.
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Fantastic!
- By Alan on 07-17-23
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The Men Who Would Be King
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- By: Nicole LaPorte
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For 60 years, since the birth of United Artists, the studio landscape was unchanged. Then came Hollywood’s Circus Maximus---created by director Steven Spielberg, billionaire David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave the world The Lion King---an entertainment empire called DreamWorks.
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Obviously Slanted
- By Retired curmudgeon on 03-11-11
By: Nicole LaPorte
What listeners say about Desperate Networks
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- SAMA
- 07-21-10
Interesting
It delivers on the history of TV networks, but discounts the effects of the Internet and other forms of media and entertainment on its decline in recent years.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- K. Kurson
- 05-10-17
Threadbare storyline but juicy details
Fans of The Late Shift will be sorely disappointed in this rambling, pointless look at the race for ratings in the mid aughts.
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Overall
- Corey
- 06-23-07
Fascinating
This behind the scenes look into the television industry is humorous, informative, and riveting. Focusing on recent breakout hits such as CSI, Desperate Housewives, Lost, and American Idol, the author demonstrates an affinity for the subject, and his tales of the machinations behind the curtains of the major broadcast networks proves William Goldman's adage, "Nobody knows anything." The book mainly discusses the period from 1999-2004, so if you're looking for something on the history of broadcasting, this isn't it. But if you'd like to hear more about how the television industry has been changing in recent years, check it out.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 01-26-10
An Informative Look
This was an interesting look into the workings of the big networks and how they build their programming. Considering the recent Jay/Conan debacle, it's fascinating to read especially considering the short portion of a chapter that covers the switch-over from Leno to O'Brien. It's interesting to see how truly lucky these network executives are, despite the fact that they believe they are very skilled. Regarding other reviews indicating the fast pace is hard to follow, I didn't find that to be the case. It might be challenging if you're writing a research paper on the topic, but as a casual read you'll have no difficulty.
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Overall
- John Barth
- 03-04-07
How Sausage is Made
You have to be really be interested in corporate intrigue and the entire creative/business process to stick with this title. But for me, it was fascinating. How did three of the most recent TV hits --Desperate Housewives, American Idol and Lost -- ever get created? And how did highly paid executives MISS these hits in the development phase? Dean Olsher (confession, a former colleague) does a fine narration job. TV is an odd business of luck, talent, egos and score settling. Not a bad idea for a TV show...oops, it already exists on NBC!
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Roy B. Cohn
- 06-08-06
Good But Too Fast
An informative and engaging look at the last few years of network television. The only con is Dean Olsher's rapid, clipped narration. I found myself doing a lot of rewinding. A story well told but not well read.
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Overall
- Jaclyn
- 06-15-06
Riveting
I thought it would be tough for him to top The Late Show, but he's done it. One of those audiobooks you actually "save" as you listen because you don't want it to end.
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- P. Prather
- 05-11-22
A great snapshot of a transition in TV history
I’ve read Warren Littlefields “Top of the Rock” and this feels like the intended sequel. What happened to NBC after Seinfeld and Friends were over? They went first to last, and how did CBS and ABC get popular shows with universal acclaim? This book tells those stories too. Good narration. I’m glad I checked this out.
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Overall
- Aaron
- 03-08-11
A pointless listing of events with no direction
I was expecting to see some exciting storytelling, some major business trend themes, and maybe even some character development. What I got felt like hours of someone reading a police blotter aloud: this happened, then this happened, then this person said this, then this happened. The author really fails to find what's interesting or to extract any themes.
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Performance
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- Kyle
- 10-16-21
Wth
Barreling thru words. Sounds like a medication-fueled march to finish the book that conjures up all the anxiety for the listener. What. Fun?
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