Westin walked into the building of the Disney headquarters; his footsteps can be said to be brisk and swift, which has rarely been seen in months. In the half a year since CSI started broadcasting, this was the first time he hadn't been disgusted by Enigma Corporation.
The name CSI is well-known within ABC. However, unlike CBS, who often talked about their new drama, on ABC, anyone who dared to mention this TV series would be 100% unlucky.
Especially when Disney's current executive president, the Disney tyrant, appeared on ABC, the name of this TV series became a forbidden sentence.
Until now, Westing still remembers that during the big statistics period in November, Steve Michelson of the entertainment department of ABC made reasonable and well-founded statistics, which Eisner had approved. When Eisner praised him, he was proud of it for a while and assured Eisner, "We can make our TV series as good as CSI"-after this sentence, people immediately saw Eisner's expression change. The laughter turned into anger, and then, a cold sentence blurted out, "You are fired."
"Why?" At that moment, Steve's face was full of disbelief.
"Because I don't need something as good as that TV series. What I need is better, something ten times better than it, something a hundred times better! I don't need an employee with no fighting spirit like you; we need better people."
Poor Steve, who's been away from ABC since, never figured out what he said wrong.
"I've worked hard for ABC for many years; why can he fire me?" Steve's face was full of grief, but Westing couldn't keep him.
He knew very well that this was Eisner venting his anger. He entered the TV industry with confidence, but he suffered such a significant loss when he first entered. If others still repeatedly mentioned it in front of him, this simply means asking for dismissal. Eisner's title of Disney tyrant is not for nothing, so how can a tyrant care about your past efforts? Whoever mentions CSI in front of him is looking for a dead end!
Even Westing dared to discuss it with him only after he had the good news that was enough to surprise him. But when he walked outside Eisner's office, he could already hear someone mentioning CSI inside.
Really bold?
"We need to learn a lot from CSI. The first is their professionalism in TV drama production. Both CSI and ER have attached great importance to the process of specialization over the years. Only professionalization can attract audiences. This cannot be ignored. Second, narratives with multiple protagonists going hand in hand are becoming more and more popular, and we need to learn from them..."
Westin has already recognized the person who has the guts to talk to Eisner like this; of course, it is not from within ABC. That's Bruckheimer, the top producer. He heard that in order to make up for his mistakes, Eisner specially recruited him to prepare a new TV series for ABC. "Jerry, you must be joking with me. I want to invite you to make a TV series. I hope to see your traditional TV series. Let's see how to shoot the most professional heroic TV series!"
You could tell Eisner wasn't happy.
"The interior of any TV series is the same. The TV series' key points are the plot structure, the proportion of the story and the characters, and the characters' setting. Their TV series are good in the plot structure and the depth of the story, which is different from mine. There is no conflict of ideas." Bruckheimer immediately replied, "Besides, I like this TV series very much; don't you like it? The music at the beginning is from 'The Who,' don't you like it?" Westing knew that Bruckheimer
was a loyal fan of 'The Who' band, and CSI's theme song was enough to make him support CSI. It's just that his question is too helpless. Asking Eisner if he likes CSI is simply slamming him. Not wanting to give Eisner a heart attack, Westin knocked on the door and walked into the office.
"what's the matter?"
"One piece of information is about Enigma Corporation. They seem to be producing a new TV program, and it seems that they haven't decided on which TV station to broadcast it on." Westin saw that Eisner was in a bad mood and said his own intention directly. His words made Bruckheimer stand up and walk out of the office as this was a Disney internal matter.
Enigma Inc.? This name was enough to make Eisner frown. He waved his hand, trying to signal that he would ignore it at all, but thinking of CSI's terrifyingly high ratings, he raised his hand and stopped.
CSI was rejected. Although Eisner did not allow others to mention it and always insisted that the TV series did not meet the criteria, at the bottom of his heart, it would be a lie to say that he had no regrets. After all, it's money. High-income TV dramas represent a steady stream of money. As a businessman, who doesn't like the money?
"What new drama are they making? A new crime drama?" Eisner hesitated for a long time before asking.
"No, no. This time, it's not a TV series, but a TV show." Westing said immediately, "As far as I know, what they want to produce is a puzzle program."
"TV show? What kind of TV show?" These two words made Eisner burst into laughter, "That group of people is teaching people how to commit crimes or teaching people how to Autopsy. Solving cases and playing with dissecting corpses is okay, but educational TV shows? Is it necessary to buy such a program?"
'You don't want us to mention it, but you are quite concerned about their TV series,' Westing laughed apologetically while complaining in his heart.
There was mockery in Eisner's smile: A company that produces crime dramas with heavy tastes suddenly stated that it would produce a puzzle TV show. The contrast between these two TV shows is too great. No, he didn't believe Enigma could do it.
Besides, Westin shouldn't believe that they can do it well; why should he ask?
Westing quickly explained, "I think, by acquiring this show, we can establish a good relationship with Enigma Company. Although the show may not be very good this time, Enigma Company might make another good TV show after that one."
As the president of ABC, Westin got a lot of information. He heard that Levi wanted to make a movie, but CBS didn't support him much because of the need to produce TV series. Westing thinks this is a great opportunity: For Disney, distributing movies is as easy as eating and drinking. The head is biased towards ABC, which is a good chance.
There are more than 20 Hollywood TV drama production companies on a large scale, and some of them still rely on pay stations. It is better for Disney to win over one of these companies than to reject one. Eisner made a mistake half a year ago, and Westin also wants to make amends.
Westing's statement is somewhat correct. It's really easy for Disney to release movies. Even if you don't like the other party's shows, investing in them is not a big liability, especially now that ABC is still losing money. Airing a TV show, ABC has nothing to lose.
The only problem is that Eisner kicked out Enigma Company at the beginning.
Eisner sat behind the desk, silent for a moment. His face was gloomy, his fingers twitched a few times, and his mouth twitched twice or thrice, but he couldn't say anything. He couldn't make up his mind about whether to cooperate with Enigma.
Fortunately, he didn't refuse outright this time. He had already hesitated.
Westin looked at him hesitating and decided to strike while the iron was hot, "It doesn't hurt to please them now, we made mistakes before, and now we are making up for the mistakes and paving the way for the future..."
"Please Them? We're Disney! Disney! I don't have to please anyone! And, remember, I made no mistakes!"
Like a cat whose tail has been stepped on, Eisner growled. Westin's words backfired, making Eisner furious all at once. In the past six months, CSI's excellent ratings have made him, the company's boss, constantly secretly ridiculed, and he has endured it for a long time. And now, someone told him that he had made a mistake? This cannot be tolerated!
"We have no reason to surrender to them! Let them go and see what tricks they can come up with! Why should we be afraid of them? We have Jerry, and Jerry is the top producer. With Jerry here, are we afraid that we won't be able to beat them? We have the best producers, but they are looking for their own demise, and we will be the ones to win!"
Westin shook his head and left the office, while Jerry Bruckheimer, who was still at the door at this time, saw him walking out and patted him on the shoulder.
"Don't worry. He's just under too much pressure." Bruckheimer said with a smile.
"I won't care, and he's right; with you here, we don't have to worry about Enigma." Westin also decided to please Bruckheimer.
"Don't flatter me. I'm not Michael," Bruckheimer shook his head, "I don't have the confidence to defeat Enigma Corporation. Michael is just blunt - he said that he was an opponent of Enigma Corporation when he asked me to come, and he didn't want to think, in this world, how many people are worthy of being my opponent?"
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons Cherif Doghri and Abdishakur Hasan.
You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.