David A. Kleiler, Jr. grew up amidst the art, rock and film scene of Boston in the 80’s where his father was a well-known cinema studies professor and film programmer. While still at Brookline High he was the guitarist and founder of hardcore punk band Sorry gigging with the likes of Husker Du and The Minutemen. Later David joined Mission of Burma drummer Peter Prescott’s Volcano Suns and toured the US/Europe. After attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for film/tv production, David directed music videos for such artists such as Yo La Tengo, Guided By Voices, The Fall, Helium, and more.

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Production Blog, Week 8

I’m fired.

The majestic pines that line Sherman Way form a dark canopy manifesting my anxiety. I usually love this part of my morning commute: a comforting funnel from reality to Jon’s market 10 Items crazy land where I spent much of last year, and I hope to reside the remainder of this year as a segment producer…but…

How can they NOT fire me?

By any stretch of a Hollywood imagination, my involvement in last night’s f-up is a terminable offense. It brought shame and humiliation to my bosses…

As we’ve been preparing to shoot 10 Items there has been a lot to do, and, amongst myself, associate producer – aptly titled, because in all things he’s deeply my associate – “T-Sac” Tim Saccardo, star/exec producer John Lehr and director/exec producer Nancy Hower, there’s a genuine, “all hands on deck” vibe.

Yesterday morning when Nancy called out of her office to no one in particular…“we still haven’t figured out where we’re going to have the cast dinner tonight,” I agreed to take it on. They wanted to treat the cast to a fun post-rehearsal, pre-season, “we love you” family-style dinner. Nancy was thinking…BBQ. After a little internet research, I came up with a few options and ran them by them.

One was out here in the West Valley. With its Western wanted poster font and incessant blues guitar musical loop, I was duped by their website. Pictures of a cozy old house’s dining room (this was to pitch their catering service, I later figured out) tricked me. In a bout of Leslie Pool-foolishness, a fantasy of a truly authentic BBQ out here hypnotized me.

As Tim and I drove to the place, reality set in. Nancy called in a panic: “There’s a problem…it’s apparently awful and they don’t serve drinks…call Benihana…” I did, but when I talked to Nancy again, she said it was too late – there was no going back. A pit formed in my stomach. Our producer Keith, a deep Valley denizen, had been to this place years ago and assured me it had drinks. Desperate, I called them from the car, and a depressed teen explained they had just lost their liquor license and we couldn’t even bring our own. At this point we were spinning out in Tim’s ride amidst a sea of Northridge shopping malls, I asked for more specific directions and he explained that they were located...right in the same building as a copy store. Creeping alongside the restaurant through a soulless shopping mall, I thought, We’ve brought them to an adult Chucky Cheese? Well, with wooden shutters, maybe it’s kind of like a Tony Roma’s? If only. Let’s just say this place made Tony Roma’s seem like some off the beaten path, San Gabriel Burmese steak place. A front counter looked like it should have steamer trays, but didn’t, and then a dusty salad bar that looked like it should have customers, but didn’t. Smack in the middle sat the entire cast of 10 Items, bathed in institutional light, sipping sodas out of tall plastic tumblers, awkwardly talking to John. Sheepishly, Tim and I snuck in at the end of the table…for what was to be the most uncomfortable half and hour-ish of my 10 Items career.

See, not to trash the establishment, it was just deeply wrong place, wrong time. As Kirsten noted, this was like the kind of place your grandparents would take you after a little league game. If, back in the day, producers wooed big screen stars at Musso and Frank’s, this was some jank YouTube-era equivalent…a painful reminder that they’re on the small screen…or maybe a Quicktime. What was to be a thank you…seemed like a smack in the face…

High on discomfort, I don’t really remember the meal. Not long after he picked at his BBQ chicken salad, Chris Gilbert asked to leave. I somewhat recall Kirsten and Roberta not eating. I remember Bob joking about the stringy onion rings. It was bright. Everyone was stone cold sober. Nancy squirmed. Tim giggled at the insanity of it all. John riffed. Greg made a show of taking some ribs home in a to go box, saying he liked it…

I really may be fired…

At work, standing on the dark threshold of Nancy’s office, I genuinely apologized for my participation in the disastrous meal. John and Tim hadn’t arrived yet, and it was just the two of us.

She was super appreciative for the apology…recognized it was a slightly collective screw up and…of course…

I’m not fired.

I’m reminded I work with cool people. I also couldn’t help thinking superstitiously, that this was the requisite pre-shoot disaster so the shoot can go well. We’ll see…we start shooting Monday…


The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer/speaker and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc.”