Les Moonves was not only president of CBS, but he also presided over all the cable channels that CBS owned. He was a very important and busy man, the guiding force that brought the network from the bottom of the ratings to number one.

One of my first jobs as a temp was addressing Christmas cards for Les over the holidays when he was at Lorimar, which was fun. I also got to help send out the gifts to the stars of the Lorimar TV shows and their creative teams. For the people on Knots Landing, there were small portable TVs, back when they were new and that was a good gift. There were fruit baskets for the vegans, giant smoked salmon for the Jewish people (I had to be careful to send them the blue holiday card), and Tiffany clocks for the people lowest in the pecking order. The Tiffany clocks seemed like a good gift, but the studio got a huge discount because they bought so much stuff in bulk all year. My job was scheduled to last only a few weeks, but it was a blast, and I’d hoped it might turn into something more permanent. Maybe I could be the temp who got to stay on, the ultimate success story! But at the end of the third week, they asked me to hand back my temporary key card. When that job was over, I filled in the time during my unemployed afternoons by driving past the houses of the stars of Knots Landing. I had copied down all of their addresses and phone numbers, and would call Nicolette Sheridan just to hear her pick up and say “Hello?” and then I’d hang up. That was before caller ID. Things were so much fun before caller ID.

But that was years ago, and Les left Lorimar and went to run CBS. The network languished in last place for years before Les green-lit CSI and Survivor. Now he was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.

Steve smiled across the desk at me. “Well, we’ll just call him ‘your buddy’ between the two of us, knowing that he’s loving what we’ve done lately. The network is giving us ten extra promo spots during the week all summer to help boost ratings against all that reality crap that’s on this fall.”

“Do we need the extra promos?” I asked. “I thought the numbers have been great.”

“They have. So much so that Les is thinking there may be a spin-off or franchise for the show. Every episode we put on the air now is being looked at closely to see if we can spin off something into another hour.”

“Wow, that is huge news. Good for you, I mean. How many different CSIs and Law and Orders are on the air now? That’s big money.”