This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. We have been so looking forward to this next guest Billions of Course, season five, And I got to say, for those of us who cover business news, it's always been about a game of what's fact, what's fiction? The characters on the screen who are there in real life. It's a great and popular series on Showtime.
Full disclosure. Jason and I watch it. April Taylor is co executive producer and unit manager on Billy And she's also a founding member of the recently created New York producers COVID Response Alliance. It's committed to relaunching production in New York State post virus. She joins us on the phone from Montalk, and that's where we want to start. April. First of all, welcome to Bloomberg Radio. UM, I hope you're doing well. Those important to you and your team.
Everybody's doing okay. Thank you so much for having me, Carol, And I'm I'm pleased to say that I am doing doing okay. And um fortunately those um in my my friends and family circles are relatively okay, and those in our production circle on our show, and so many other in our community are are managing pretty well right now. We're happy eats and not have had a major outbreak, so um well and and managing right now April is
one thing. And and we do want to talk about what you're working on to sort of get folks back to work safely. Uh in many ways, you know, Carol mentioned this group that you have been a part of starting what does it look like? How do we do this in a responsible way? Because we all love these shows and maybe more importantly, they're a big economic engine for this part of the world. UM. Yeah, I mean
we as a group of New York producers came together. UM. You know, many of us had navigated the shutdown, UM, which was a rather hectic affair and UM scary time to live in realizing that UM times we're going to change, and you know, we're all using terms like the new normal or you know whatever, UM whatever your industry is attaching to. But we realize that there's going to have to be some substantial changes to how we how we
make any TV film product going forward. And we're working really closely with the industry with UM all of our partners in the industry and with the CUOMO Task Force too, have discussions that are you know, guiding us into new solutions. Um. Those discussions are you know, obviously coming from a health and safety standpoint, looking at every aspect of our industry and what we do and how we do it. Uh. Those things are unique in New York, um as they you know, are different in l A or in Atlanta
or any other region. Um. We're focusing our efforts on this area that has had, you know, obviously such an tense outbreak and has this great density issue. So UM, you know, Uh, there's really not gonna be any stone unturned. And the kind of conversations we're having are ranging from the basic ppe conversations that every industry is having to you know, how do we socially distanced while filming UM actors and people who are obviously vulnerable to not being able to wear pp on on a on a set.
So UM, we're just you know, going through all the factors right now. Well, and I do wonder I do wonder too, like like, well, will there be insurance liability questions that come into this? I mean, do the dynamics and the economics of the business also turn change, April. Because of things like that, I think we'd be foolish to think, Uh, any industry would not be having intense conversations with regard to insurance and risk management and um, you know how we all look at our our employees
and our companies. Um, these things are you know, the insurance the insurance business and their response to a pandemic. I don't think any of us have seen really what that's going to yield yet, but certainly there are a lot of considerations for people's privacy that are now being you know, discussed with respect to testing protocols that it might be implemented. Um, and you know all of the resulting you know, medical disclaimers and comfort level that we
all have to have with sharing our personal information. UM. And that's you know, that extent that is so not a production issue, that is every company's issue. You are listening to Bloomberg Business Week, excited to get back into our conversation with April Taylor, co executive producer of Billions that season five debut it is right ahead of us this coming Sunday, May third. Couldn't be more excited, especially as I feel like I've been binging all sorts of things.
But it's all been leading up to this April I gotta ask. I mean, this is a show that obviously we're both fans of, me especially, and I was worried when it first came on that was going to feel like a little bit of a busman's holiday, given what we do for a living. And and yet it's a breakaway hit. I love it, so many others do. Why do you think it is? Like, what is the zeitgeist
that it's capturing here? I think from the business community, you know, there's a lot of um the writers who are really cybeless job of you know, harvesting some real life stories that kind of feed into UM into the storyline, sometimes in a in a in a real way. Sometimes they're a little bit embellished UM. And I think that the rabbitat Tat kind of Tommy Gunn New York fast talking nous of the nature of most of the characters.
It a big um attraction for many of us in the New York area in particular, but I think in general, um, you know that there the fact that the character's minds all works so fast, and that they have these you know, machiavellian brains that kind of you know, out fox each other, uh at every turn, building to this intricate UM story. Every season is something that is exciting and and that
is entertaining well. And I gotta say, what's entertaining for us, April, no doubt about it is we'll be like, Okay, that feels like this corporate raider or this hedge fund individual. And you know, all of us who have been covering Jason's been covering it for several decades, me too, and so it's just great to kind of, you know, compare it to you know, reality UM. I got a chance
to catch up with Brian Coppleman and David Levine. They did a panel here at Bloomberg to talk about the series, and they had some great conversations about some of the real life folks that they talked to and anecdotes. How often are you guys, you know, having something from a headline or reaching out to somebody in the financial community to say, Okay, how would you guys play this? How
would you do it? I think that the writers are doing that on a on a on a regular basis, and I think that a lot of the color of the show UM is having that kind of real insight that only people in the industry can grab onto and know is it is a true It's either a truth or heavily rumored um, you know truth. Um. So I think that that's something that they're they're constantly doing and looking for, you know, exciting tidbits to throw in there that they know or a wink or any you know,
or any story as we call them. Well and April one of the other interesting things. And I think, just sort of going back to our broader conversation about New York, is New York is really a character in this show in many ways. And I know that. I mean there was I believe it was the season premier last season, um, where Chuck is sort of going from place to place to place, and it was almost this treasure hunt through New York City and you know, this restaurant and this
place and this building. It feels like you guys invest pretty heavily in this notion of making the city and its environs sort of a character fair. Oh, extremely fair. And I think that's one of the you know, major
appeals as a producer on the show. I think it's so appealing that we, you know, get to go to all these great places, and that the writers you know, and the creators of the show, Brian and David, are New Yorkers, and that there is a real love of the New York News that surrounds all of these people and that helps to find them and and you know, color there their world, you know, the Upper East Side of you know, Chuck Senior, and you know the cool Bobby acts Rot and you know, the different kind of
environments they find themselves in, and Chuck being part of this sort of you know, a lot of the old guard and riding the middle to a certain degree, UM is just you know that it gives us a lot of opportunity, UM, to really showcase New York. And that's a lot of the reason why, you know, as as a passionate producer, you know, I was one of the people that jumped into this, you know, early effort to start make sure that we were going to revitalize New
York film production as soon as we can. I have to say, right is somebody who's you know, lived um worked in New York for such a long time. It is like such a wonderful postcard UM and and it reminds me of sex in the city a lot in that you just went to the hotspots, the places that everybody was talking about or would be talking about as
a result of including them in the show. Yeah. I mean I worked on Sex in the City for a season many years ago, and I my background is actually from locations, so I have a particular passion with respect of this subject. Um. But it was the first instance where people would call us and say, please come and film in our brand new, very high end restaurant, um for you know, little or no money, just because the publicity became such a big part of that experience. And um,
billions is not far behind that. I mean we have we really do have a lot of recognition now and people like what it says when we've come and put them on the screen. Well, and I love I will say this is I don't want to go too far down a rabbit hole here. But um, the music also is unbelievable and uh it features just a lot of great music and not you know, the the obvious music. You know, Jason Zabel, drive by truckers, things like that, and I think a lot of that comes from from
Coppleman especially. Um, I do have to ask you, like give us a preview of this season. What are we gonna see? We sort of saw, I believe, the sort of uneasy alliance at the end of last season between Bobby and Chuck. Am I remembering that right? Um? Yeah, I mean it was. It was I think a very delicate a lot. And I think we see we see these two powerhouses with that are incredibly smart and have slightly different tactics and egos you know, um make their
way through this complicated maze again. Um. And and you know, we have some really great new people that have joined us, new actors that have joined us this season. Um, you know, the the incredible Corey Stoul and Julianna, Margalie's and um some so we've really had some some fun introductions and it's kind of expanded our our world a little bit. And you know, I think everyone is going to find that there's um a very very fun and exciting season ahead of them. Well we just have to say, um,
we are delighted to have you here with us. Good luck with the season. And I know you guys had a pause of course because of the virus, so good luck in getting production back up and running, and um, good luck with the coalition. Let us know if there's anything more we can do on that front. UH so delighted to have with us, Abel Taylor, Co executive producer, unit production manager on Billions, joining us on the phone from Lantak