RAKE’s Peter Tolan Read His Journal at TCA: Take a Look at What Hilarious Tales He Told

Press Tour can be a bit of a wild card — no matter how good (or bad) a show might be, you never really know what a panel will be like until the cast and producers sit down in front of you and start speaking.

The RAKE panel today was going perfectly fine…until executive producer Peter Tolan was asked about working on Fox. What we didn’t know was that the reporter who asked had unknowingly set up the best joke as Tolan had brought along his “journal” to read his thoughts about working for Fox, which he then proceeded to hilariously dead-pan read to TCA members.

What came next not only caused Tolan to worldwide trend on Twitter, but it also had a whole lot of us laughing our heads off. Take a look a the transcript of what Tolan told us…

“…I got a note, an email, from FOX publicity about what to talk about here and what not to talk about. I was so upset I actually wrote about it in my journal, which I brought with me.

I’m going to read this. Some of this is about the show. Some of it is personal, but I’ll give you an idea of how upset I was at the time.

September 16th, first day of shooting for RAKE. [Series star Greg] Kinnear showed up drunk with a hooker named Tammy on his arm claiming it was part of his process.

After the first shot, he demanded we give Tammy a producer credit. Rather than upset him, we agreed, but her pimp pushed for co EP, so now she’s a fucking co EP.

September 20, call from Kevin Reilly. He feels RAKE will be a better fit on FOX if one of our main characters has no head.

No idea how to respond, but cut most of John Ortiz’s lines and hope this will address at least the spirit of the note.

October 1st, Peter Duncan still speaking Australian. Can’t understand a fucking word.

October 11, Tammy no longer with us. Got an overall at 20th. Sold her first pitch to ABC, an hour called “Maniacal, Murdering Whores.”

October 25th, why is Lena Dunham naked all the time on GIRLS. I don’t get it.

November 4, good news and bad news from Tammy. The bad news, ABC didn’t like her “Maniacal, Murdering Whores” script. The good news, they’re airing the title for 13 weeks starting next March.

November 12, dinner at Les Moonves’ house.

November 15, dinner at Les Moonves’ house.

November 20, dinner at Les Moonves’ house.

December 1, told Les Moonves I’m tired of serving dinner at his goddamn house. Hire a fucking butler.

Okay. This is it. December 10, really ticked off. Apparently the people at FOX publicity think I’m a child. They sent an email today about the TCAs next month, which included, get this, a list of things not to be discussed. Top of the list, no surprise, DADS.”

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Absolutely amazing, right?

RAKE premieres Thursday, January 23rd at 9 PM on Fox.