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When Rabbi Steve Leder opened the memorial service for Bob Broder, he promised grief and laughter, and the speakers delivered exactly that, mixing poignant remarks with funny anecdotes about the life and career of revered TV agent and executive who died from cancer on Sept. 23 at the age of 85. The event, held at Warner Bros. Studios where Broder was based for the past 15 years as head of longtime client Chuck Lorre‘s production company, brought together some of the biggest names in the TV industry who came to pay their respects, including two heads of Warner Bros. Television Group, the current, Channing Dungey, and her predecessor, Peter Roth, who shared a hug; CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach; WBTV President Brett Paul; former ABC Studios and CW head Mark Pedowitz, who was part of Broder’s Men’s Dinner group; FX President of Original Programming and his wife, Nat Geo EVP Carolyn Bernstein; Netflix’s Andy Weil; former ABC Studios EVP Howard Davine; Emmy-winning producer John Wells; agents/mangers who had worked with Broder, including CAA’s Ted Chervin, WME’s Rick Rosen and Nancy Josephson, UTA’s Josh Hornstock and Adventure Media’s Chris Von Goetz, as well as attorneys Nina Shaw and Jon Moonves. The list of speakers included Broder’s signature longtime clients, top comedy showrunner Lorre and director-producer James Burrows; fellow comedy showrunner and frequent Lorre collaborator Eddie Gorodetsky; Glen Charles and Les Charles, who, along with Burrows, co-created Cheers, the iconic comedy series packaged by Broder; Cheers star Ted Danson; former agency partners Norman Kurland and Chris Silbermann; attorney Tom Hoberman; as well as Broder’s siblings Madelynn and Bill and Reveta Bowers, former head of school at The Center for Early Education where Broder was on the Board of Trustees. Several of them evoked Broder’s nicknames “Darth Broder,” a reflection of his gruff exterior, and “TFB” — which stands for That F*cking Broder — used as a badge of respect for the agent who was known as a very tough negotiator, as well as and one of the smartest people in the TV business with profound knowledge and understanding of every faucet in the industry. Lorre brought the house down with his speech which he started with, “If Bob were alive, he would have gotten me out of this.” “Bob Broder, aka Darth Broder, was my agent for 25 years, my business partner for 12 and my friend for, oh gosh, I gotta say six, seven months. Not in a row,” he said. Lorre, who is behind such comedy hits as Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, remembered Broder as “a wildly successful literary agent, good father, loving husband, trusted friend, tough but fair production executive, great skier and a world class poker player” who was “always calm, judicious, analytical, not to mention ferociously smart.” He also poked fun at Broder’s utter inability to chitchat. In front of the two Warner Bros. TV studio heads Lorre has worked for to date, Roth and Channing, he joked about getting angry over terms in his overall deal and profit participation statements there as Broder “explained why it was wrong for me to call overhead and distribution charges the skim” and that the studios “play a game called Legally Steal Money From Your Partners.” He then quoted Broder’s R-rated description of that. You can read Lorre’s entire touching and hilarious speech below. Veteran comedy director Burrows first’s interaction with Broder was during a “painful negotiation” for a Red Serling script in 1972 while Burrows was running a small theater in San Diego. Burrows’ reaction? “What an a**hole.” When Burrows transitioned to television, Broder became his agent, leading to “50 beautiful years.” “So I guess it all depends which side of the a**hole you are on,” Burrows deadpanned. “He guided me through those 50 years. He knew the ins and outs of the business. He always told me what he thought about each project, but never said, ‘Don’t do it’ — although I wish he had spoken up about The Tortellis,” Burrows said, referencing the ill-fated Cheers spinoff. “He was a killer in the sweetest way, which I loved, but he was my friend in the dearest way, which I love even more. I will miss him, and I hope he knows there will never be another a**hole in my life.” Cheers co-creator Les Charles said that it was Broder’s idea to partner the Charles brothers with Burrows on what became the hit NBC series. “In a matter of speaking, Bob Broder was the creator of Cheers,” Les Charles said, adding that Broder also discovered Ted Danson for the role of Sam. He pitched the actor during the casting process after seeing him in the movie Body Heat. “Bob was our agent for 50 years but also our mentor, our cheerleader, our enforcer (we needed one sometimes), our partner and most important are our good friend,” Charles said. “If it hadn’t been for him, Charles Burrows Charles would be a roofing company in Encino, and Ted Danson would be doing TV commercials.” Danson spoke of Broder’s famous cameo in the final seconds of the Cheers‘ finale, which played at the memorial. “Bob Broder had started the Cheers ball rolling 12 years earlier, and it seemed fitting that he played the last would-be customer ever at the bar,” he said. “So here’s Bob doing his legendary man at the door wanting a nightcap.” Gorodetsky brought his comedy writer game to the event. “I hate these things. I mean, everybody hates these things. Maybe not the caterer,” he said. “I talked about death a lot with Bob the past year, and I said to him, if there’s a memorial, I’m probably not going to come. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to be there either.'” Silbermann spoke of his many years working with Broder, from being mentored by him as a young agent at The Broder Kurland Agency to being promoted by him to a name partner at what became Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann. The group moved to ICM after the BWCS merger, which became ICM Partners before the agency was acquired by CAA where Silbermann and Chervin are now. “He was old school, quiet and never bragging. Integrity to the core,” Silbermann said. “He was my teacher, my boss, my partner, my coach, my critic, my friend and my inspiration.” Silbermann reminisced about his early days at Broder Kurland. “The best times for me with Bob back then were those lucky moments at the end of the day when all the assistants and young agents would sit in his office and we’d just listen.” Many of the up-and-comers aspired to become name partners at the boutique lit agency, which was a tough task. “One young agent once asked, ‘What does it take to get my name on the door?’ Bob paused, then deadpanned back, ‘Change your name to Agency,'” Silbermann said. Top entertainment attorney Hoberman, who was first introduced to Broder 46 years ago, came to the memorial to honor his longtime friend despite the fact that his daughter had gone into labor earlier in the morning. “Working closely with Bob was like getting a doctorate in the entertainment business,” said Hoberman, who decades ago was handpicked by Broder to become Burrows’ attorney. Hoberman highlighted Broder’s dedication to the Saban Free Clinic, noting that the late agent is one of only three people to receive both its Friendship Leadership and Lenny Somberg Awards. Also mentioned during the ceremony were Broder’s famous cigar hangouts, Men’s Dinners and poker nights with his friends in the business. Broder’s brother Bill and sister Madelynn spoke of their Polish immigrant father who owned several movie theaters in Detroit before he moved the family to Beverly Hills to pursue his dream of making movies. He did become independent producer and made a slew of low-budget movies, on which Bob and his siblings — all children at the time — worked as script readers and actors. Still a teenager, Broder leased snack bars on Santa Monica Beach. After graduating from law school, Broder opened a practice as a criminal defense attorney and was likely going to stay on that path had his father not pushed him to go into entertainment and encouraged him to apply for a BA job at Fox, which Broder did and got it. Danson closed out the memorial by saying, “I may speak for most of us in saying, goodbye Bob, thanks for everything, it was an honor to know you.” The event was organized by Broder’s wife Cindy, Trisha Cardoso and the Warner Bros. TV communications team. The program that accompanied it included a quote by Shakespeare from Julius Caesar: “His life was gentle, and the elements so mix’d in him, that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, ‘This was a man!” Here is Lorre’s speech: My name is Chuck Lorre. Bob Broder, aka Darth Broder, was my agent for 25 years, my business partner for 12 and my friend for, oh gosh, I gotta say six-seven months. Not in a row. Bob liked to tell people that he worked for me but we both know that wasn’t true. Broder worked for me the same way as zookeeper works for the monkeys. Those of you who know me know I’m somewhat emotional in my behavior, and let’s say anger is my sweet spot, righteous indignation my happy place. And I think we can all agree that Bob Broder was none of those things. He was always calm, judicious, analytical, not to mention ferociously smart. As a result, every time we disagreed on something — which happened a lot — I was wrong. I was wrong so often, it got to where I knew I was wrong as the words were coming out of my mouth. I could look at Bob and actually see him trying to not roll his eyes. To make matters worse, he’d always let me spin out, ranting and raving about some high-class injustice I was forced to suffer, like when we negotiated a new overall deal with Warner Brothers. He waited till I was done spewing, then slowly and patiently explained why it was wrong for me to call overhead and distribution charges the skim. One of my fondest memories is when I flipped out over a profit participation statement, he tried to calm me down by explaining how Warner Brothers and Fox and Disney, basically all the production companies, play a game called Legally Steal Money From Your Partners, and how it wasn’t his job to stop the game. It was his job to limit the grift to an acceptable limit. Or as he so succinctly put it, ‘Chuck, they’re gonna f*ck you. I’m just gonna make sure they bring some lube.’ His words, not mine. I still argue with Bob, only now the arguments are in here [points to his head], and the results are the same, I’m still wrong. That’s okay. Instead of getting upset, I’ve learned to pause to breathe and ask myself, what would Broder do? And you know what? He tells me. In fact, he has been telling me for 25 years, not by lecturing or being pedantic, but by the way he behaved, the way he carried himself, the way he treated people. In a business in town dominated by egos, he seemingly had none. He always was the grown-up in the room which created a safe space for the children — and by children, I mean me, and if he smoked enough pot, Jimmy Burrows. Bob was beloved by all who knew him. He was a wildly successful literary agent, good father, loving husband, trusted friend, tough but fair production executive, great skier and a world class poker player. The only thing he couldn’t do is chit-chat; he was incapable of shooting the sh*t. If, after completing the business of a phone call, I said, ‘Hey, did you see that episode of Succession last night?, his response would be ‘Goodbye.’ If I felt a need to chit-chat, I had to call Peter Roth. I was recently asked by somebody if I plan to replace Bob as the head of my company. My answer was, why would I do that? He’s here [points to his head] and he’s here. [points to his heart.]
