L.A. has the largest jail system in the country.

You got people that been in jail just like one time and their life can't get nothing because of whatever mistake they made.

I stole some ground turkey because I wanted to feed my family. We was hungry.

Off the Block. Stories tracing the path from city block to cell block and back.

Find it now at kCRW.com or subscribe on iTunes.

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Kim Masters, and this is the business.

Over time, the star of the show became the dominant power.

And I figured out very early that I was going to be a lot safer with an ensemble drama.

Because if somebody really turned out to be a jerk, you could sit them down.

Stephen Botchko, the writer-producer behind record-breaking Emmy winners Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue,

dealt with more than a few jerks in his long career, and he isn't afraid to tell those tales in his new memoir,

Truth is a Total Defense.

Botchko recounts battles big and small, including a legal brawl with Rupert Murdoch

and the firing of an actor with very particular bathroom habits.

But first on the news banter, as NBC ushers out Billy Bush, the network has a lot of explaining to do.

Stay tuned. It's the business from KCRW.

I am joined by my associate in banter. Matt Bellany of the Hollywood reporter. Hello, Matt.

Hi there.

So, wow, you know, news has been moving at the speed of light. And this election, which is off the hinges now completely, comes so much into our world in entertainment because, of course, Donald Trump was on The Apprentice for many years, you know, was an NBC person built up largely through NBC as a star, which he, as we now know, on a tape with Billy Bush, who is now at the Today Show. This was recorded when

Billy Bush was at Access Hollywood, talked about the perks you get from being a star, Donald

Trump did. So now we have a situation where NBC and NBC Universal, I'd say overall, even

Comcast has been drawn in to a media scandal.

...