"With Time Off for Bad Behavior," Chapters Two and Three

Chapter Two flashes back to the early days of Barry's relationship with his wife, so we'll just skip over it.

Chapter Three opens with them arriving in Hollywood.  I'm going to also skip over pages 41 to 49, and then he's finally back to In the Swim on p. 50.

• Lorraine and Mimi object to a string of producers.  "The Ladies," as they are sarcastically known, "love firing producers."
• "Fortunately, the writing staff was usually left in tact [sic] so that production of the show could continue."
• Lorraine's friends tell her the show is funny but not hip, so she hires her crazy friend Erica to produce it and make it more hip.
• Mimi objects to Erica, so Lorraine promises her that they can do four "Patti shows" in a row.
• Barry and his cokehead partner (well, he might be a pothead at this point in the story, I'm skimming) start producing the show.
• "In truth, Bobby had little to do with the everyday running of In the Swim.  He hated the bickering that went on so he avoided the show as much as possible."
• Despite the premise of In the Swim, Mimi hates her hair getting wet because she looks like a stork.
• There's some more backstage drama, mostly about the writers and producers, who I don't know well enough to know who they were in real life, so I'll gloss over that.
• I forgot to mention last time that this is set at "Paragon Studios."
• Some backstory on Barry's mistress ensues, although Barry is non-sexually in love with his fellow writer Donna Morris, who is tall and married.
• An explanation of rewrites, including when Lorraine and Mimi hate the scripts.
• More about Donna.  I don't know if this is meant to be Judy Ervin Pioli, but if so, she should probably sue, too.
• Barry has his neighbor write an episode and it's about "Connie and Patti going to the White House and hiding under the president's bed."  If this is based on an actual spec script, I desperately want to read it now.  ("Shirl, Kennedy slept here!")
• Donna patiently listens to Barry's marital woes and offers him drugs.  She also suggests he have an affair, but not with her.  Luckily, Barry has a hot secretary who's always showing off her legs