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Must Kill TV
Emmy-winning Cheers writer Ken Levine presents a brutally honest and hilarious satire on the television industry
In order to keep his once-proud TV network afloat, beleaguered president Charles Muncie must keep his number one star happy. By killing his ex-girlfriend.
What’s more important? A human life or the Tuesday night line-up?
Network television gets royally skewered in this fun, surprising, suspenseful romp. And there are no commercials!
In order to keep his once-proud TV network afloat, beleaguered president Charles Muncie must keep his number one star happy. By killing his ex-girlfriend.
What’s more important? A human life or the Tuesday night line-up?
Network television gets royally skewered in this fun, surprising, suspenseful romp. And there are no commercials!
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 29, 2013
6 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Ken Levine
5 booksKen Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. Books include: It’s Gone…No, Wait a Minute! (Villard 1993) and Where The Hell Am I?: Trips I Have Survived (2011).
In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons, Wings, Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker, Dharma & Greg, and has co-created his own series including Almost Perfect starring Nancy Travis. He and his partner wrote the feature Volunteers starring Tom Hanks. He’s the author of the produced play Upfronts & Personal and co-writer of the produced musical The 60s Project.
He writes a popular blog, ByKenLevine.com, and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres
source: Amazon
In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons, Wings, Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker, Dharma & Greg, and has co-created his own series including Almost Perfect starring Nancy Travis. He and his partner wrote the feature Volunteers starring Tom Hanks. He’s the author of the produced play Upfronts & Personal and co-writer of the produced musical The 60s Project.
He writes a popular blog, ByKenLevine.com, and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres
source: Amazon
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 20, 2020
Way too Hollywood; it gave me a headache.
Or maybe that was the idea.
Three and one-half out of five stars. Purchased from Amazon.
Or maybe that was the idea.
Three and one-half out of five stars. Purchased from Amazon.
March 10, 2017
I want to start this review by pointing out I'm a faithful reader of Ken Levine's blog. He even used one of my questions for one of his "Friday Questions" posts. Ken's comic writing skills (his greatest sitcom credits are "M*A*S*H," "Cheers" and "Frasier") are on display in this fast-paced account of a network executive who becomes a murder suspect. This is satire, not whodunit. Ridicule of Hollywood is the point here; going to jail beats working in TV. The take-no-prisoners approach of this novel makes it a fun read. Why only three stars? While I laughed throughout, the mystery fan in me was disappointed by an ending that feels pat and leaves too many loose ends. Still, it's a great read for a plane ride.
November 5, 2013
If anyone knows the ins and outs of TV production and networks, it’s Ken Levine. And a quick look at his blog shows that if anyone can talk about the subject with panache, understanding, and levity, it’s definitely Ken Levine.
Charles Muncie is a network president in trouble -- he really only has one hit show (and the way he got that show is both utterly ridiculous and probably closer to reality than it should be), and if he doesn’t hang on to it -- he won’t last though the next commercial break. So, Muncie becomes a lap dog to the star -- a comedian that America thinks is a great guy, but is actually a complete tool. Muncie finds himself doing all sorts of things for the star -- filling sandbags before dawn, and arranging a murder. Things go from bad to worse, and even worse from there.
The characters are more types than people -- which is pretty much par for the course for a satire, particularly one as one as broad as this. Although, Muncie seems a bit too moral for a typical Hollywood executive, so maybe there’s more characterization than I want to give Levine credit for.
The book is full of nods, allusions and references to movies and television shows and personalities -- both real and fictional (a David Caruso sitcom?). This is Levine’s meat and potatoes. This is what takes the book from a pretty straight-forward (yet hapless) murder for hire plot and turns it into something worth reading. Muncie’s internal monologue is the best part of this -- he free associates his way from dealing with his real problems, to memories of his childhood (and the TV he watched), to potential new shows, and observations on Hollywood and all points in between. As his life spirals further and further out of control, these associations become longer, stranger and funnier.
A fun, quick, read with just enough excitement to keep the plot moving and enough laughs that you wish it wouldn’t end.
---
Note: I was provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for a review.
Charles Muncie is a network president in trouble -- he really only has one hit show (and the way he got that show is both utterly ridiculous and probably closer to reality than it should be), and if he doesn’t hang on to it -- he won’t last though the next commercial break. So, Muncie becomes a lap dog to the star -- a comedian that America thinks is a great guy, but is actually a complete tool. Muncie finds himself doing all sorts of things for the star -- filling sandbags before dawn, and arranging a murder. Things go from bad to worse, and even worse from there.
The characters are more types than people -- which is pretty much par for the course for a satire, particularly one as one as broad as this. Although, Muncie seems a bit too moral for a typical Hollywood executive, so maybe there’s more characterization than I want to give Levine credit for.
The book is full of nods, allusions and references to movies and television shows and personalities -- both real and fictional (a David Caruso sitcom?). This is Levine’s meat and potatoes. This is what takes the book from a pretty straight-forward (yet hapless) murder for hire plot and turns it into something worth reading. Muncie’s internal monologue is the best part of this -- he free associates his way from dealing with his real problems, to memories of his childhood (and the TV he watched), to potential new shows, and observations on Hollywood and all points in between. As his life spirals further and further out of control, these associations become longer, stranger and funnier.
A fun, quick, read with just enough excitement to keep the plot moving and enough laughs that you wish it wouldn’t end.
---
Note: I was provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for a review.
September 12, 2014
Frequently quite funny, Must Kill TV by Ken Levine (@KenLevine) is a dark farce detailing the unraveling of a network TV president. The author is an Emmy-winning writer and director (M*A*S*H, Cheers, Frasier, Wings, and The Simpsons — to name just a few) and he tosses quite a few grenades into the Hollywood landscape.
Under the stewardship of Charles Muncie, ABN has gone from the top of the heap to barely hanging on. The show keeping the network afloat, and Charles in the big chair, is a Seinfeld-esque sitcom starring former stand-up comedian Stevie Gersh. Gersh is by far the top show in the nation so when Stevie decides to quit, Charles understandably panics. He offers the repugnant Stevie a ton of money and a jet, but what the comedian really wants is his ex-girlfriend killed.
What follows reminded me a lot of some of my favorite episodes from those classic 80’s/90s sitcoms the author wrote for, especially Frasier. Simply put, everything Charles does serves to make his situation progressively worse. And of course it’s La-La-Land, so along the way everyone from waiters to LAPD homicide detectives to hitmen will pitch their idea for a TV show to Charles.
Some of the biggest chuckles come from Charles recalling the truly awful programming decisions he's made in the past. Ryan Seacrest doing play-by-play for the Rose Bowl? Sharon and Kelly Osbourne as detectives?
This is a fairly quick read with some adult language and scenes, so if that isn’t to your liking perhaps take a pass. There is a plot hole near the end, but by that point the story is moving along at a good clip and as a reader I just sailed right past it.
For more from Mr. Levine, I highly recommend his excellent blog. I read it every day.
Under the stewardship of Charles Muncie, ABN has gone from the top of the heap to barely hanging on. The show keeping the network afloat, and Charles in the big chair, is a Seinfeld-esque sitcom starring former stand-up comedian Stevie Gersh. Gersh is by far the top show in the nation so when Stevie decides to quit, Charles understandably panics. He offers the repugnant Stevie a ton of money and a jet, but what the comedian really wants is his ex-girlfriend killed.
What follows reminded me a lot of some of my favorite episodes from those classic 80’s/90s sitcoms the author wrote for, especially Frasier. Simply put, everything Charles does serves to make his situation progressively worse. And of course it’s La-La-Land, so along the way everyone from waiters to LAPD homicide detectives to hitmen will pitch their idea for a TV show to Charles.
Some of the biggest chuckles come from Charles recalling the truly awful programming decisions he's made in the past. Ryan Seacrest doing play-by-play for the Rose Bowl? Sharon and Kelly Osbourne as detectives?
This is a fairly quick read with some adult language and scenes, so if that isn’t to your liking perhaps take a pass. There is a plot hole near the end, but by that point the story is moving along at a good clip and as a reader I just sailed right past it.
For more from Mr. Levine, I highly recommend his excellent blog. I read it every day.
March 23, 2014
Quite possibly the most cynical book I've ever read. I don't know whether that's praise or criticism. Ken Levine writes truly hilarious nonfiction, but I had really mixed feelings about this one. It felt rushed. Had some very funny moments, but wasn't great.
January 26, 2015
Making a TV show seems to be like making sausage and this book pulls out the big grinder. It you thought it was impossible to feel sorry for a TV network president, MUST KILL TV will, if only because everyone around him is even worse! You'll never watch TV the same way again.
October 3, 2015
I read his blog all the time about writing for TV, so I read his book. It’s a rather silly story about the president of a TV network and how he’s jerked around by the biggest star on his network. Funny because Levine throws in lots of insider details. Very quick read.
December 19, 2014
Very, very funny, with a zippy story and a highly entertaining crazy-Hollywood setting.
August 25, 2014
I love Ken's blog and the shows he co-wrote. But I couldn't get through the first chapter of this.
June 3, 2016
Breezy and fun. Elmore Leonard parodied through the lens of a tv writer.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews