You're Only as Good as Your Next One
100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for which I Should Be Shot
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Narrated by:
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Robertson Dean
About this listen
Of course, there are the box-office disasters, which also have a place in his fascinating memoir, a pull-no-punches account of financial and political maneuvering, of creativity stymied, and of working with the industry's brightest star power.
An eyewitness to Hollywood history in the making, Medavoy gives a powerful and poignant view of the past and future of a world he knows intimately.
©2002 Mike Medavoy with Josh Young (P)2003 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"[A]n engrossing exploration of what really makes Hollywood tick." (Library Journal)
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Story
One of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and '70s with now-classics such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullit, Steve McQueen is renowned as one of the most exciting actors ever to come out of Hollywood. Now, in Steve McQueen: A Biography, best-selling author Marc Eliot gives unique insight into McQueen's life, from his films to his three marriages, many affairs, and struggles with addictions.
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Snooze
- By Cill on 10-27-11
By: Marc Eliot
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Orson Welles's Last Movie
- The Making of The Other Side of the Wind
- By: Josh Karp
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1970, legendary but self-destructive director Orson Welles returned to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe and decided it was time to make a comeback movie. It was about a legendary self-destructive director who returns to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe. Welles swore it wasn't autobiographical.
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Engaging and human portrait of Welles
- By TrevorTrujillo on 06-20-20
By: Josh Karp
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Can I Go Now?
- The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood's First Superagent
- By: Brian Kellow
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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A lively and colorful biography of Hollywood's first superagent - one of the most outrageous showbiz characters of the 1960s and 1970s, whose clients included Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Faye Dunaway, Michael Caine, and Candice Bergen. Before Sue Mengers hit the scene in the mid-1960s, talent agents remained quietly in the background. But staying in the background was not possible for Mengers.
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A little long.
- By Doris on 11-29-15
By: Brian Kellow
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Slugfest
- Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC
- By: Reed Tucker
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes audiobook treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants. They are the two titans of the comic book industry - the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes - and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and the hearts of millions of fans. To many partisans, Marvel is now on top. But for much of the early 20th century, it was DC that was the undisputed leader.
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Loved it, but...
- By Smitty on 05-02-18
By: Reed Tucker
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We Don't Need Roads
- The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy
- By: Caseen Gaines
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled through time in a flying DeLorean, director Robert Zemeckis and his friend and writing partner Bob Gale worked tirelessly to break into the industry with a hit. For the first time ever, the story of how these two young filmmakers struck lightning is being told by those who witnessed it. We Don't Need Roads includes original interviews with Zemeckis, Gale, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis, and over 50 others who contributed to one of the most popular and profitable film trilogies of all time.
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Great for fans - good for others.
- By Pete Johns on 06-25-15
By: Caseen Gaines
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The Simpsons
- An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
- By: John Ortved
- Narrated by: John Allen Nelson, Justine Eyre
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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John Ortved's oral history is the first-ever look behind the scenes at the creation and day-to-day running of the television phenomenon known as The Simpsons, as told by many of the people who produce it.
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Great Content, Awful Reading
- By JH Easton on 03-13-11
By: John Ortved
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Seinfeldia
- How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their silly little sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. NBC executives didn't think anyone would watch either, but they bought it anyway, hiding it away in the TV dead zone of summer. But against all odds, viewers began to watch, first a few and then many, until nine years later nearly 40 million Americans were tuning in weekly.
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This bad narration is making me thirsty...
- By Audio Gra Gra on 10-06-16
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Best. Movie. Year. Ever.
- How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen
- By: Brian Raftery
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999 - arguably the most groundbreaking year in American cinematic history.
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Like talking about movies with a friend
- By Shawn Inmon on 05-30-19
By: Brian Raftery
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Working Together
- Why Great Partnerships Succeed
- By: Michael D. Eisner, Aaron R. Cohen
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson, Michael D. Eisner (introduction and epilogue)
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Dig deep and you will find the most compelling argument for working together: Happiness. In business there are always unique individual achievers, but pull down the veil and you'll often find someone alongside them. Michael Eisner does just that in Working Together. Using his own collaboration with Frank Wells at Disney as a launching point for examining other famously successful partnerships, Eisner offers us an intimate and deeply personal look at some of the most rewarding business partnerships.
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Interesting to see what all partners had in common
- By Amazon Customer on 06-01-13
By: Michael D. Eisner, and others
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Caddyshack
- The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story
- By: Chris Nashawaty
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Caddyshack is one of the most beloved comedies of all time, a classic snobs vs. slobs story of working-class kids and the white-collar buffoons that make them haul their golf bags in the hot summer sun. It has sex, drugs, and one very memorable candy bar, but the movie we all know and love didn't start out that way, and everyone who made it certainly didn't have the word classic in mind as the cameras were rolling.
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Not Really About Caddyshack Until Hour 5
- By William M. on 07-01-18
By: Chris Nashawaty
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Red Carpet
- Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy
- By: Erich Schwartzel
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle for global influence is also playing out in a strange and unexpected arena: the movies. The film industry, Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel explains, is the latest battleground in the tense and complex rivalry between these two world powers. In recent decades, as China has grown into a giant of the international economy, it has become a crucial source of revenue for the American film industry.
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Why modern cinema is a comic experience.
- By Pasternak on 03-11-22
By: Erich Schwartzel
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Homey Don't Play That!
- The Story of In Living Color and the Black Comedy Revolution
- By: David Peisner
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Few television shows revolutionized comedy as profoundly or have had such an enormous and continued impact on our culture as In Living Color. Inspired by Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, and Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans created a television series unlike any that had come before it. In Living Color shaped American culture in ways both seen and unseen. Now, Homey Don't Play That! reveals the complete, captivating story of how In Living Color overcame enormous odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit.
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Wow, that sucked......
- By Just W on 10-11-18
By: David Peisner
What listeners say about You're Only as Good as Your Next One
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robert J McCormick
- 09-10-21
The best part of this book
...was the fact I didn't have to pay for itm
Boring and self aggrandizing, very little actual insight into the movie making process.
Read more like he was bragging about his hits and excusing his misses, then countering arguments from articles 20 years ago.
The story may have benefited from an objective writer, a la Disney War. That would also have cut down on the repetitive, stream of consciousness style.
For example, drink every time he says "Cuckoo's Nest ", or any of his other early 70s hits. You'll be Loaded. it were only in the chapter dedicated to that era, it may've flown, but this went from intro to the last page.
There wasnt even any clear dilenation between decades or influences. I only vaguely know what a producer does after reading this, and I had about the same understanding going in. He's the money guy. Not the creative guy. I'll remember that next time I try to read a book that requires actual narrative .
Reader was good though. I read it at 1.10 and didn't miss a beat.
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-01-22
Very Interesting
I listened to this for the first time in 2022 so it didn't get into the time after 2003 and all of the turbulence between then and now. However it was still a good book. excellent narrator and you get to hear from the man himself Micheal Medavoy at the very end.
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- Richard
- 11-04-11
Not Great, Quite Good, No need to Shoot
Narration was good but the story was not as engrossing as I was expecting. I thought he would be discussing in more detail the great, good and awful. Instead there was a huge amount of self satisfaction (I should have known better, this is a Hollywood Insider after all) about some very spurious links to great films and very little discussion on the really bad ones, which is where the interest really would have been.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 05-12-11
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...
A wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the career of one of the most prolific producers in movie history that feels like an honest genuflection upon the oftentimes good, and occasionally regretful, decisions made in an industry renown for its ability to deceive itself. Many books of this kind contain a significant amount of revisionist history that requires a healthy dose of salt during consumption. This book manages to tell a series of stories that allows a reader to understand the events disclosed within its pages are from one source who can only tell one side. It attempts to be both fair and entertaining from cover to cover, and that effort is appreciated. Moments of repetition pass quickly enough since they often lead into another chapter within his life, and some of those scenes revealed are laugh out loud entertaining. Touching to a degree, this book was a read I would recommend to anyone who enjoys cinema history, or autobiographies in general. A great addition to any library!
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2 people found this helpful
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- James M. Patton
- 07-19-17
A good overview of the industry through the years.
Would you listen to You're Only as Good as Your Next One again? Why?
If I was out of books, yes. It has enough morsels of Hollywood History that it is a pretty good read.
What other book might you compare You're Only as Good as Your Next One to and why?
"CAA Powerhouse" - The story of CAA - Which is a history heavy book.
What does Robertson Dean bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
As always, the emotion of the book is better when read to you.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Due to length, no.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kali
- 12-24-20
I Couldn’t Stop Listening!
Even though I’m not in the movie business, I am always intrigued about behind the scenes and how things come to be.
This book was amazing! So interesting and a lot of detail given from a very personal point of view which made it a “page turner “ on Audible
This book should be required reading for all film students and those aspiring to be executives. I have forwarded it to a friend of mine who is a young director.
I want to thank the author (s) for this anthology and I wish Mike continued success and fulfillment in his career.
Lastly, the choice of narrator was perfect. Extremely well done. But then after consuming the content, I wouldn’t expect anything less.
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- MC
- 06-11-22
Great professional recap
The author’s own voice should’ve been used for narration throughout this book and not just the last dwindling minutes. The narration lacked connection to the material.
The book feels like it lacks a cohesive direction at times, but it is packed with great general overview and insight into the movie industry. More minutia and details would’ve been preferable concerning how movie deals are made and also introspective analysis in addition to owning up on the authors part for his decisions.
The author did a great job presenting a fair, balanced and well-rounded recap of his life. Deeper personal revelations from Me. Medavoy would have made this an overall 5 star Story Review.
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- Garrett
- 04-23-22
Bravo Mike!
As a young, 27 year old producer working in my first feature length film, this piece of literature from Mike Medavoy is extremely useful. So many lessons learned from Mikes life as a studio executive… we need a big shot producer from 2022 to write something like this with everything going on with streamers/web 3… Kevin Feige… where you at?! Write a book like this!
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- David Cortes
- 10-30-20
Exactly what I needed.
Inspirational in my ongoing attempt to learn as much about the inner workings of a Hollywood Movie Producer before I try to enter into the gladiatorial arena that is screenwriting.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-24-20
Essential reading for a fan of movies!!
I have read more books on movies and movie-making then I can count and thanks to Audible I will be reading more. With the exception of "Final Cut" this is the best book about the film industry that I have ever read. Could NOT put it down. Who knows how many miles I walked while listening to this. Medavoy was one of the great movers and shakers in recent film history and his story includes some of the classic films of all time ("One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus", "Platoon"). It helps that he has a great sense of humor about himself and seems intent on dealing with everyone even-handedly (except Peter Gruber). Robertson Dean is a great narrator and keeps a steady hand at the microphone.
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2 people found this helpful