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Roger Director

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A Place to Fall: A Novel Hardcover – February 27, 1996

by Roger Director (Author)

5.0 2 ratings

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The executive producer of Moonlighting and a writer for Hill Street Blues presents a funny, often poignant novel. Transplanted New York writer Billy Ziff, after conceiving a phenomenally successful show, learns just how little Hollywood success often has to do with human survival, after he loses his wife to the show.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Formerly an executive producer for Moonlighting and a writer for Hill Street Blues, Director has exploited his experience to craft a deft send-up of the TV industry. Sidelined by writer's block, Billy Ziff, staff writer for a cop show, fears imminent dismissal. When he stumbles upon an abrasive, alcoholic priest who serves the Dreams Come True Foundation, Father Joey is born. The series-about a priest who fulfills the last wishes of the terminally ill-becomes a megahit. Americans embrace the show with tube-and-Bible parties. The Post Office plans a Father Joey stamp. The Smithsonian requests his collar. Off the soundstage, however, things are less sound. A trio of wily producers stalk Billy. Fawning adulation inflates the show's already egomaniacal star, Tony Paris. Things really sour when Billy makes two nearly simultaneous discoveries: his anti-ulcer medication reduces sperm count and motility; and Dayna, his wife, is pregnant. Suspecting Tony of fathering the child, Billy commits creative acts of revenge in the editing room, fashioning a scandalous year-end episode which not only zaps Tony but also infuriates a nation of viewers. ("They were pissed off in Paramus. Aggrieved in Asheville. Burned in Brattleboro.") The title refers to the domestic tranquillity to which Billy returns, after leaving the wiles of Hollywood far behind. Billy's first-person narrative solidifies an energetic novel that's punchy and funny, economical and driven by a slangy erudition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

What Michael Tolkin--and, on screen, Robert Altman and a cameo-rich cast--did for the movie biz in The Player, Director's first novel does for TV production. Freelance writer Billy Ziff heads west from New York to write for a cop show. But failure looms on two fronts: Billy can't write what the show's overbearing producers demand, and he and his artist wife Dayna can't conceive the child they both want. Then inspiration strikes. A concept Billy develops becomes a pilot, then a series, then a hugely popular series. And Tony Paris, the little-known actor Billy pushed as star, becomes "the sexiest man in America." But being executive producer of a blockbuster series doesn't make Billy happy: Tony is out of control on the set; and Tony, not Billy, may have impregnated Dayna. Director, a former New York Daily News reporter and columnist, wrote for Hill Street Blues and was the executive producer of Moonlighting, so readers can play "who's who" with the characters in his tale of the mixed blessings of TV success and the satisfaction of a gracefully executed revenge. Mary Carroll

From Kirkus Reviews

A glib first novel by the successful TV writer and producer takes a huge bite from the hand that feeds him. Its anti-LA, anti- showbiz riffs are all predictable and in no way enhanced by his insider status. If it's news to you that Hollywood is peopled with venal egomaniacs, vulgar bottom-liners, and, yes, a few men of character and vision, then you might learn something here. But Director's strained sense of humor and his reaches for literary texture and allusiveness cannot disguise his formulaic plot and his crass view of humanity. The story is simple: Bill Ziff, a young writer, goes to Hollywood to work on a cop show produced by a cruel slob who obsesses about bowel movements and doesn't appreciate Ziff's genius and integrity. On the verge of losing his job, Ziff submits his first solo script, and the rest is, well, history. One character is spun off into a hugely successful drama about a tough-talking Catholic priest who helps those dying to realize their last wishes. A mega-success, ``Father Joey'' catapults its star, Tony Paris, into the upper brackets. Picked out from nowhere by Ziff, Tony forgets who ``created'' him. His power lust and arrogance lead to all sorts of conflicts, but Ziff doesn't mind until he suspects that Tony is sleeping with his wife. The great dilemma, then, is this: Should Ziff suffer and see his show go on to hit the jackpot of syndication--or should he destroy his creation? With no certain evidence of Tony's betrayal, Ziff chooses the latter and arranges for the show to plummet in ratings. Meanwhile, he retreats to wholesome Vermont with his wife and daughter. At the height of his fame, Paris records a bad blues album, signs on to endorse a chain of restaurants, and is hired for big budget-action adventure films. Sound familiar? Director, after all, was producer of Bruce Willis's Moonlighting. Given Willis's un- Paris-like career arc, this novel reads like hollow revenge. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

e producer of Moonlighting and a writer for Hill Street Blues presents a funny, often poignant novel. Transplanted New York writer Billy Ziff, after conceiving a phenomenally successful show, learns just how little Hollywood success often has to do with human survival, after he loses his wife to the show.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Villard; First Edition (February 27, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 243 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679447873
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679447870
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,730,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,079,444 in Literature & Fiction (Books)

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Lynn Harnett

Painfully hilarious

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2004

TV writer and producer turned novelist, Director's debut follows the tradition of fine TV novels. That is, the pace is frenetic, frantic, dog-eat-dog hilarious from first page to last. Character development is mostly limited to transformation from hungry human to insatiable monster.
From the start we know the narrator, TV writer Billy Ziff, has torpedoed his own great success. The only questions are how and why. Ziff early on develops a gnawing ulcer. New in Hollywood, he seems bound for failure until his creation of the gushingly good Father Joey makes him an overnight sensation.
But troubles sooon set in. His star and former best friend, Tony Paris, begins meddling in every aspect of production. Tony whines, he rages, he sulks, he womanizes. His demands grow ever more outrageous as the price of offending him skyrockets.

Director has a biting wit that never flags and a visual acuity that ranges from slapstick to horrific. A painfully funny look at TV values and the meaning of "success."