The Writer

I have to say I was never so impressed with anyone as I was with him. If he set his mind to something he just did it.
How many people do you know that in a matter of years learn how to fly, get a black belt and write such a great script, that HBO loved it so much they actually stole his story.

Of course in this town people will argue that there are only five stories anyway, but the difference with this one was that Matt named the protagonist, and they were not smart enough to change the name. Oh it was a great story. So ahead of it's time as a matter of fact it is almost like reading the headlines in the paper today.

He would get up and drive to the office with his partner, come back and they would go to Karate and it seemed like he was really enjoying his life so completely. He had it all.
I was happy, our son was happy, I thought Bob was too. I actually enjoyed the company of his friend. We had a social life that I longed for.

During this time Bob even put together a Karate Studio for the community. He leased the space, I helped them get the mats, the rails the mirrors and within a month we had one of the greatest martial artists under one roof.
Both Bob and our son got trained by one of the most respected martial artists in the country. Bob Burbidge. He was tough. One of Chuck Norris's black belts, as a matter of fact when Bobby died I think he may have actually come to his funeral.
We all had a great time during those years, We even took my brother and his wife to Las Vegas to see Bob compete in a tournament being held there. During that competition he got his tooth chipped off. He turned and bowed off the Mat and put the tooth in my had as my brother stood there in amazement. Richard just started laughing, he could not relate to how strong Bob was. Not only was his tooth broken, I think his nose took quite a punch also. My brother loved that he got to be there for that and until this day still remembers it so clearly.
Bob was in heaven, he loved the adrenaline of it all. He was a real man's man. Tough to the core of his soul, but so sensitive at the same time.

Bobby was so tough, that I never left our son Matt alone in a class. I saw how hard on the kids he was. "I don't train Babies" is a phrase I will remember the rest of my days. He would have those poor kids in tears at times. So for five years I sat in a karate studio with our son three days a week. But it was so worth it because if you stuck it out with him, you would be respected by every martial artist around. So Matt and his dad both got their black belts from Bobby. Not an easy accomplishment. By the way I think I picked up a lot subliminally. I never walked around in fear. Hell, I had my own two personal body guards with me twenty four seven most days. I was living a happy care free life.

First Bob took his black belt test and boy did Burbidge put his students through hell to get a black belt. They had to test in front of 50 other Black Belts and they would grade every little movement. From the bend of you legs to the bend of your writs. After sitting there all those years I knew I could never do it. Little did I know that a year later my son would have to sit in front of those same 50 Black Belts. I was never more proud of them or as nervous for them as I was watching the two of them test for their belts. Unfortunately for Bob when he told his family, there really wasn't any pride in his achievement. His own dad just sort of said "Little Boys' Games".
It's funny how certain words just can cut like a knife. His dad probably didn't realize just how sensitive Bob was going to be to that statement. I wished he had just said "Congratulations" because it was right around that time that Bob started to have a major resentment toward his father, his partner and several other people.
Now I realize it was all fueled by the Valium and he was taking. In order to get through his training he had stared the Valium addiction full blown.

Once he had passed his test he started teaching a little, but spent the most of his time finishing the Script with his friend. They would drive down to Hollywood from Malibu at least three times a week and I noticed that Bob really started complaining about how bad his back was hurting him. The drive into town seemed to really be making him worse. His own Doctor told him to get a different car.
I wasn't surprised, as a matter of fact I had begged him to stop karate more than once. He had done so much damage to his already bad back during those five years of Karate, he needed back surgery really bad. The pain was shooting down his leg, he was tough but even he couldn't take that kind of pain without something. He put off the surgery and just started taking pain pills to go along with the valium. I really didn't feel concerned he had a terrible back problem, what was he supposed to do? Suffer just because he was an alcoholic? It's not humane. Our life was great. It was even better now that he actually had rented an office and went someplace to work on something he always wanted to do, Write.
It was a really well written script. Bob just had a gift for great dialog. His father even helped him to get it to influential people. That's how it ended up at HBO in the first place.

The problem was that it really doesn't matter how good a story is because as soon as some low level studio guy reads it, it's never going to be good enough. That's the cover your ass policy of studio hierarchy. I will never forget when it all ended.
Bob's story was about racism, and the Conservative Religious Right.
The studio guy loved it, but wanted to know if Bob could change it to an Indian Story.
No kidding, it's so sad it's funny. Imagine that. Right about then Bob just said "Fuck It". He never wrote or pitched another script to a studio again. He shelved his project but what he had learned and gained from that experience was priceless. If he ever was going to do anything in film it would be and INDI.

We saw the film a year later on TV. Bob, like so many others had simply been ripped off. That's life in show biz, dog eat dog. Bob had bigger problem looming in on his horizon to worry about that. He scheduled his back surgery.