Pitching Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll and the DeRosa Flu Story

• 37:43Tim describes the script-development process working with high-level writers like Celletti and Serpico, who have worked with Denis Leary.
• 38:34All three pitched the Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll concept to FX in Los Angeles.
• 38:48Joe DeRosa got the flu at the airport but Tim forced him onto the flight anyway.
• 39:07DeRosa had a 104-degree temperature at TSA and sat in a window seat on a packed flight, looking clammy and white-faced.
• 39:29DeRosa called into the FX pitch meeting from his hotel room while sick, and the network gave them money to write the script.
• 39:53Two cops wrote a script called Bronx Warrants that got to pilot with FX, starring Tim, two actors, and Godfrey as four cops.
• 40:16Filming the Bronx Warrants pilot, Tim had a monologue as a captain and felt like he'd made it, but it was ultimately just work.
• 41:01Tim told the guest that network rejections are nobody's fault—it's just a process most people don't understand.
• 41:28The rejections weren't personal; guys like Billy Burr and Denis Leary still love him, and networks want hit shows to succeed.
• 41:42Networks want you to succeed and bring them something special, but there's a lot of stuff that goes into making it work.

Joe DeRosaDennis LearyBilly BurrAndrew SchulzStavros Halchius