rant · moment 14 of 16

Giving Up on Network TV and Just Making Your Own Stuff

from Mike Recine · #142

Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.

4 min

Tim talks about being done fighting networks to make shows, referencing a conversation with Andrew Schulz about only controlling what you put out yourself, and making cheap iPhone-shot Instagram videos instead.

In this bit10 moments
  • 44:27Tim explains what he can control: putting out funny videos, doing podcasts, doing live stand-up—not fighting networks to make shows they'll fight him on every step of the way.
  • 45:27Networks don't pick up the show anyway, so if you bend to their whims, you end up with a piece of shit you're embarrassed you made.
  • 45:50Making videos on Instagram with an iPhone, with nobody telling him what he can say or what's inappropriate.
  • 46:13The whole idea that you need fifteen people to make something funny is nonsense—they're trying to make people laugh, not Game of Thrones.
  • 46:50Network people don't understand why what they put out doesn't thrive online—people are used to no censors.
  • 47:08Tim told a network executive that the women in the restaurant could buy their network as a joke, and they did not like that.
  • 47:30It's arrogant for entertainment to think it's the only place where women can be insane—women are overrepresented in real estate, publishing, fashion, finance.
  • 47:50Tim would tell his daughter to go into sex work before entertainment, because it's a much more honest way to make a living.
  • 48:04Network executives told him they were excited to get into podcasting last year, and Tim said they were eight years too late.
  • 48:20We're in the wild west now, and it's terrifying for people not prepared for it—like being a blacksmith when nobody gives a fuck about what you do anymore.

All 16 moments in this episode →