Don't Be Shy. Tell Us How You Really Feel about Jeff Zucker.

To truly appreciate this story, you need to know three things:

1. Steven Moffat wrote every episode of "Coupling," a huge comedy hit on the BBC but a terrible misfire when it ran on NBC in the fall of 2003.

1. Jeff Zucker, now pres and CEO of NBC Universal, was pres of NBC Entertainment when the American version of "Coupling" was developed and when it bombed on the network.

3. "Slag" is British slang for "to put down verbally."

Moffat has a new series, "Jekyll," a mix of terror and humor that premieres Aug. 4 on BBC America. To promote it, he appeared before TV critics at the TCA press tour at the Beverly Hilton. That's where he was asked why "Coupling" did so well in the U.K. and so poorly in the U.S.

"I so enjoy answering that question. I've only been asked it 24 times today," he started. I'm not sure how he answered it the first 23 times, but this time he didn't hold back.

"I can answer it with three letters: N, B, C," he said. The show had very good writers and a very good cast, he continued, but "the network f***** it up because they intervened endlessly. If you really want a job to work, don't get Jeff Zucker's team to come  help you with it because they're not funny. All right? There you go."

Perhaps you're thinking that, having dissed Zucker so publicly, Moffat won't work with NBC anytime soon. Moffatt was thinking the same thing.

"I don't care about working for NBC," he continued. "But I think I'm entitled to say that because I think the way in which NBC slagged off the creative team on (the) American 'Coupling,' after its failure, was disgraceful and traitorous. So I enjoy slagging them off."

That's when one of the critics wanted to see if Garth Ancier, pres of BBC Worldwide America, wanted to join the slagfest. Ancier was NBC Entertainment pres before the job was handed to Zucker.

"I don't know really what happened at NBC, but I do have a philosophy, which is let producers make their own shows and that's--I guesss that didn't happen in this case," Ancier ansered.

Quite diplomatic but, as slagging goes, very disappointing.

Posted by Barry Garron