Of course we’re fascinating!

What do the two prime Emmy winning shows have in common? Mad Men and 30 Rock are both shows about the media, with managers as their main characters. Not the news media, but the media environment in advertising and sketch comedy, where off-balance creative people pour their genius into satisfying the demands of the marketplace.

Everyone who has worked in media has known colleagues as troubled and brilliant as agency creative director Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm, above left) and as daffy and endearing as show runner Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey). In both cases, their personal lives are a mess, but they’re completely devoted to professional excellence.

A newspaper editor I used to work for, Stewart Spencer,  told me we’d chosen our careers because neither of us was normal enough to function in a “regular” office. A “regular” office wouldn’t be nearly as interesting, of course.