Greetings over your interweb devices
“You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the steel breeze.”
My Moscow production assignments were spread out over eight years. During my first visit in 2004 I was met with multiple choruses of “sitcoms will never work here.” Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of some very brave folks who knew better, that project proved a big success. By the time of my next visit in 2007, I actually encountered a few Russian network types who all but claimed to have invented the medium. Sadly, my last visit in 2012 saw a few of our local production execs cutting far too many corners and (we later learned) skimming a lot off the top. So the two pilots I was there to shepherd, adaptations of “The Cosby Show” and of “Rules of Engagement,” never had much of a chance.
It was a very hot July that year and we were on the top floor of a converted radio manufacturing plant built in the Stalin years (the facade still had two order of Lenin awards proudly displayed over the entrance). Not only was there no air conditioning, there was no airflow whatsoever, and we were worried with so many children in the cast that they would suffer heat stroke (it really was that stifling hot up there). Finally, they set up a common area for them in one of the old meeting rooms with a portable air unit.
Two different local producers handled each project — and the woman overseeing the Cosby pilot was much more reasonable and tried her hardest. Ultimately, the project turned out reasonably well — though we really could have used a few more weeks of prep time and maybe just a little more for casting, but unbeknownst to us, the other producer (for the Rules pilot) had arranged a deal so laced with severe penalties if he did not finish by a certain date, that it had to move in to the same space almost immediately after the first was done in order to finish on time. Any delay would have been catastrophic (and, I suspect, a few legs might have snapped in the process). I should add, if the first project needed a few more weeks, the second one needed a few more months — or at least a new producer. Neither came our way.
Too bad, too, as Maxine Lapiduss, my US partner on this project, had envisioned a wonderful opening credit sequence for the Cosby project using the whole cast with all sorts of improvised hand painting which resulted in the tableau you see pictured here.
As always, though, with very few exceptions, we worked with some wonderful people — including the same lighting director I met on the first project, “The Nanny,” so many years earlier – a huggable bear of a guy if ever there were one. I still think we could have made it work.
To one and all, Be Safe-Stay Healthy