All this talk of fine Italian tile makes me curious about buying a boat

And I'm running for office!

I liked Superman. It made me feel good feelings. I like Andor. It makes me feel good feelings. I admired the shows Adolescence, Severance, and that one you’re watching and told me about. You said it would take five episodes and then it would, “Click and be really good. But you need to get through those first five because they are all about world building.” I admired the world building. And that someone would let a creator go five episodes without character development or trajectory. They must have REALLY loved the sixth episode idea to let someone do those first five.

When we were making Primo, I remember Shea pouring over every detail multiple times. He’d get into work and tell me, “I watched the cut of this episode five times last night and have some thoughts.” Or, “I read over the draft of this episode three times and on the third reading, I have a couple of ways it might be better. Let’s talk about it.”

It was the same thing with me on Wizards, or on Greetings From Tucson, or Level Up. When it’s your show, you want to make sure you don’t leave anything on the table. There’s a gnawing feeling that it will all go away in one single heartbeat. Mostly because it can all go away in one single heartbeat. And you don’t want to be the reason. You never want to be the reason. Knowing that the end is coming, eventually, to all shows, you don’t want to be the thing that brings it all to a halt. At least I know I don’t. And Shea didn’t. And most people I know, too. But some do. Or at least they say things out loud when they are frustrated or when they lose a bit of their calm public face.

“I’ll be glad when this is over.” Really? Will everyone else? I mean a certain amount of us will be glad you’re gone and we won’t hear you say things like this on the daily.

“Who needs this kind of aggravation?” We know you’re rich. We get it. We got it when you dragged Italian tile samples into the writer’s room to have us help you decide between the hundred dollar one you kind of like and the hundred and fifty dollar one that you don’t LOVE the look of, but it feels so smooth. “Here feel it.” NO thanks. IF I touch it, I might like it. And if I like it, I might not be able to live with the cracked porcelain claw foot tub I grabbed from a construction site when they were throwing it away and reglazed it and it works just fine and OH MY GOD THAT IS ONE SMOOTH ASS TILE.

People like that exist. And people like Shea and I exist. And both people are fine people. You could argue that on one hand, it’s good to not live and die with every moment of the show you’re making. It is exhausting and it requires you to remove almost anything else going on in your world except for the show. It could be said it’s more healthy to just work hard, and let the chips fall wherever they fall. Don’t identify your worth with the show’s worth, okay?

Shea’s first show was about Shea growing up and being a teenager in a big boisterous family full of characters. My first show was about me growing up and being a teenager in a big boisterous family full of characters. Hard to NOT identify your self-worth with the success or the failure of a show like that. I was asked by a reporter who I am still friendly with if I would consider myself a failure if I presented my life on TV and it got cancelled. This might have been my first press event I ever went to. I smiled and said, “I consider it a blessing that I get to share my family with the world. And if the world doesn’t love my family, that’s okay. We love each other.” Or words to that effect. It must have been something good because I got a couple laughs but also some applause for that answer. Tough to get applause in a room full of reporters in a Pasadena Auditorium but I managed.

And saying that, it sounds like someone saying the right things about self-worth and how to take things serious enough without getting so wrapped up in them that you become a monster to everyone around you and drag Italian shower tile into a room of people making barely minimum wage to have them tell you which is the better one to spend what amounts to their yearly salary on a bathroom floor.

Man I really never got over that one boss that did that, did I?

But as good as what I said in that press room sounds, I’m not sure it’s the truth. You do live and die on these small decisions. And when you do get cancelled, you pour over events and milestones along the way, wondering if you could have done something different to keep the specter of death at bay for another season. The Specter of ShowBiz Death looks exactly like a tall, thin, gaunt faced man who wears a suit and black sneakers that sort of look like dress shoes. They shrug their shoulders a lot and lift their hands with open palms towards the heavens, saying, “This is the business we chose, right?” Like that’s an absolution for everything that has gone wrong for you and your show. No, mutha fucka. I chose this business of putting it on the line every day. You chose Show Business Logistics and Systems as your career. You’re looking over my shoulder at the next person who wants to put their life on the line and pour their heart into it. How’s your fucking bathroom floor? Know what? I said that tile was smoother. And it wasn’t! It was exactly the same amount of smooth as the other one. And I used my skills of persuasion in the writer’s room to advocate for the more expensive tile because I wanted you to spend more money, even if I know you won’t even feel it. HA-HA! I laugh out loud at the same time I realize I have done nothing to impact you at all, the very definition of a pyrrhic victory.

I’m sure you’re wondering if this can possibly be true. Did I have a boss that behaved like this? Letting their rich drip all over the room in a way that made us (at least me) feel small.

Yeah. It did. Here’s what I did about it. I’m not proud of it. I don’t think I’d do it again. I’ve grown up a lot since then, I promise. But here we go –

Around the same time of the Italian Tile pricing and buying, I had heard someone tell me that buying a boat was one of the dumbest things you could do, moneywise. Because it loses value immediately when you buy it, and the maintenance kills you. And you never use it as much as you think you will use it when you buy it. I had been interested in learning how to sail and had asked someone about getting a small boat. When I was done listening, I knew it would be a dumb ass thing to do. I was not making a lot of money at the time and was a new father. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. But all great cons have a small element of truth in them. It’s what makes them a great con to pull on people. I really was interested in learning how to sail. So, one trip to Barnes and Noble, and now I had a text book that would teach you how to sail in 20 chapters of lessons. I’d bring that book to work every day and read a little bit of it. I’d bring it into the room in the morning, arriving just in time to get started. No time to drop off my backpack in my office. Conveniently I’d have that sailing book with me. “I was outside reading and lost track of time.” Eventually I had a customer. “Sailing?” I explained my interest in it, and that I was considering buying a boat. My boss was hooked. First on the idea that I would do such a thing. I could tell he was confused. I was a low level writer and how could I buy a boat? Where would I keep it? Over the days, we’d continue this conversation. Why would I get such a small boat? And sailing? That seems like it isn’t worth it. If you’re going to buy a boat, you buy a boat. With an engine. So you can drive it wherever you want. That makes more sense.

And that’s how my twelve dollar purchase of a book convinced someone to buy a thirty-foot yacht that they really didn’t need. What did this upper-level writer call their new yacht?

The Yadda Yadda.

My final proof that you work hard and maybe you go over things a bunch of times so that you don’t end up naming your yacht something that feels like a cliché before you even realize you don’t use it as much as you should and maybe should never have bought it in the first place.

Never bought a boat. Was invited to go on the Yadda Yadda a couple of times, but couldn’t make it work with my weekend schedule. I probably also felt a little guilty about it, as the yacht purchase drew closer and closer and I realized my plan was going to work.

Then I wake up today and read this headline –

The rich are preselecting their children based on their genes — and calling it the future of baby-making

A start-up funded by Silicon Valley investors scores embryos for their genetic potential to develop disorders. Is it a path toward creating perfect babies?

I am very glad to not be in a room right now. I would be tempted to order from Amazon, this book:

And mentioning that I’m thinking of doing some gene splicing on the weekend and how expensive it is. Just to see if my conman skills still work. I consider those to be some of my greatest superpowers, but also some troubling aspect of my personality I try to put aside when I can. After all, I am –

The Most Important Chicano In Hollywood That You Don’t Know About

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PS: I’m running for office - for the Writer’s Guild of America, West office of Secretary-Treasurer.

I just finished my candidate statement and if you are a member of the WGA, and a loyal and smart reader, I’d love your support in the way of an endorsement. Here’s a link you can go to in order to do that.

https://elections.wga.org/2025/peter-murrieta

Word of mouth is how we grow and it goes for the election as well.

Here’s to all of us having an amazing Friday and end of the week. As David Lynch says, “Can you believe it. It’s a Friday, once again!”