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Back in the early 1980s, Disney was a much smaller organization than it is today.
And then it hired Michael Eisner.
Within a few years, hewas being calledmore Disney than company founder Walt Disney.
That one megamerger started Disney down the road to becoming the corporate colossus it is today.
Ive been lucky enough to be part of the team working on this project since last winter.
Lets go back in the time machine to 1995.
You were head of entertainment at ABC.
It was right before Disney bought your parent company.
We want you to be No.1 in adults 18-to-49 because thats where we make our money.
And I think in 1995, during the 1994-95 season, wedid take the crown in viewerstoo.
What was Iger like to work with at that point?You know what?
It was just plain great.
Sure, it can be a little scary.
I knew him, but I didnt know him very well.
Im sitting in the left section, watching Bob do the sports presentation.
Roone Arledge, head of ABC News and Sports, was too busy to do the presentation himself.
As he still does today, he spoke flawlessly for 45 minutes.
I turned to Brandon and whispered, That guys going to launch the company someday.
I mean, he was just really impressive.
I got to know him some more when he got that job in New York.
They took him out of sports and made him the head of the television internet.
Thats where Bob got his first training in the business of television.
Ive been thrown out here.
You guys might have wanted the job.
But I didnt think I was going to get it at that age.
Bob was obviously a superstar with the guys in New York and said, Okay, help me out.
Lets figure this out together, how were going to do this.
Not about me looking good; its about them looking good.
I had a very simple logic to it.
Because, really, what I wanted to do was keep my job.
He goes, Ive never read a script before.
Ive never watched a rough cut.
I said very bluntly, If I can do it, you’re able to do it.
Its just doing your homework.
This guy was a fast learner, and he did it and he read his scripts.
He got into it.
We had a pretty good division of labor.
He ran fantastic interference with New York.
Now, I didnt have to do that anymore.
I could concentrate on my job.
Stu Bloomberg was head of development of comedy and drama, and I did the rest of the departments.
I did current and reality and scheduling and movies, and ran the budget.
And it all worked.I dont know what it was.
Maybe its because we liked each other and we had a good time and we laughed.
Nobody was out for the other guy.
A rare thing in Hollywood: Nobody wanted anybody elses job.
Bob was frankly just a blast, kind of irreplaceable.
You were now working with him day-to-day.
He was very, very close to Tom Murphy and Dan Burke.
He was like a son to them.
I think he knew he was part of the succession plan.
There was just a ton of pressure on that division, especially with the Olympics.
So fast-forward to the summer of 1995.
Disney announces it is buying ABCs parent company at the time, Capital Cities.
I said, Okay, how come?
He says, Get on a plane; cant tell you.
So I get on a plane and then found out the next morning.
When the news was coming out, he said, Im sorry, I just couldnt tell you.
It was just too secret.
That was pretty good news for me because I collected some stock along the years.
But I was very worried, because I knew Michael Eisner pretty well.
Those days are gone.
But I was there: This guy wanted to run a online grid.
And now he wanted to run ABC prime time.
Michael hired an exec from Sony, Gary Lieberthal, to spin up the Disney Sunday movie.
Gary would come in with these fancy binders with his plans.
And I had the lousy job of saying, No, Michael, were not doing that movie.
Its not thought out.
Me, this kid, saying no to Michael Eisner, the most powerful guy in show business.
This kid at least says what he thinks.
Running an entertainment division under Bob was a dream.
And I was technically still under Bob.
But Mike, he was Dr. No.
By the way, Im not telling any tales out of school.
It was really difficult.
He would go around the room and just massacre people.
People had their heads down sort of Dont pick on me, dont pick on me!
He would say, Ted, why wasHome Improvementoff by two-tenths last week?
Id say, Michael, I dont know, maybe somebody thats got a Nielsen box went on vacation.
None of us ever had any answers.
He would ask the poor Parks guy why Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attendance was down 8 percent last week.
I had previous bosses that could be tough, but nothing like that.
Scheduling meetings in May were particularly difficult.
Michael would just say, No, were not doing that.
I said, Michael, this is a great testing pilot!
He would just say no.
Ill never forget it was actually the last show that Brandon Tartikoff was involved in.
It was calledSecond Noah.I knew it was a very soft show.
I didnt have a good time slot for it.
But I wanted to put it on.
And Michael just kept on saying no.
When he finally agreed, he then said, Go get it for half the price.
I said, But we have a negotiated business license fee with Brandon Tartikoff.
Michael Eisner wanted his pound of flesh.
I still got to run an entertainment division, but it was just more difficult.
And thats sort of what happened, right?
It wasnt just scheduling or promotion.
Thats not going to work.
He goes, Heres what you do, Ted.
Just go getthe oldMod Squadscripts and just reshoot them.
I said, Well, Michael, I likedMod Squada lot.
I could go get those scripts and get them rewritten to make them more modern.
He said, No, no, no, no.
You dont understand:exactlythe way theyre written.
I dont want to spend anymore money on new writers for these.
Just go get them exactly the way theyre written.
I said, You mean with Linc and Julie and the way they talked back in the 60s?
He said, Yes, itll be fine.
You learned how to fire off the web connection.
Youve got to learn something else.
Come be a producer at DreamWorks.
He really wanted me to get out of that company.
It may be all those things.
But in December 1996, I said, This isnt working for me.
We agreed that I would stay until Washingtons Birthday in February 1997.
So Ileft ABC on a Fridayand started at DreamWorksthe next Tuesday.
