BREAKING IN INTERVIEW: BOB KUSHELL
Career interview with Bob Kushell, co-executive producer Samantha Who, The Simpsons
Here’s an Interview with Bob Kushell, one of the early writer’s and executive producers on The Simpsons, back in the early 90s. I didn’t know who this guy was until I read the interview, but that’s okay. His story, from first discovering his passion to breaking in, is very similar to other stories. However, the twist is that he applied many things I’ve considered tactics and strategies that helped him BREAK IN, w00t!
I’m a big war buff, and I have a voracious appetite to read anything related to war. Basically, having a war mentality can be applied to anything in life: business, love, and art. I read Sun Tzu in middle school, and never really thought about it or applied it until now.
In Sun Tzu’s The Art of War there are 13 chapters as follows:
- I. Laying Plans
- II. Waging War
- III. Attack by Stratagem
- IV. Tactical Dispositions
- V. Energy
- VI. Weak Points and Strong
- VII. Maneuvering
- VIII. Variation in Tactics
- IX. The Army on the March
- X. Terrain
- XI. The Nine Situations
- XII. The Attack by Fire
- XIII. The Use of Spies
Bob Kushell was able to apply a couple of these tactics in order to break in.
Laying Plans
Kushell went to college and studied theater, but then on the side, he also wrote many spec scripts. He kept focused on his mission and was never detracted. Every job he took, it was a strategic step closer towards his goal. For example, he got a job at AMBLIN ENT. and then wrote two spec script. With his connections at Amblin, he was able to get an A-class agent. And that agent got him a job on a prominent show. Yet, at this point he still hasn’t “Broken In” because he has not reached his goal of writing, BUT he was getting close.
The Use of Spies
Actually, Kushell was his own spy because stole scripts of the Simpsons pilot before it came out so that he could write spec scripts on it, which landed him a job on the Simpsons.
Energy
Kushell focused all of his energy on one weapon that he knew he could hone and build: comedy. He studied it from an early childhood, and kept doing it until he finally reached his dream job of working on the Simpsons, and he did it.
This is just a taste of things to come, but there will be more interviews and more Film Zu breakdowns like these for you soon, so stay tuned.
