Whistling in the Dark

This week’s guest is tv writer Mike Royce. The native Syracuse NYer burst on to the small screen nearly 20 years ago, writing for such shows as "SNL" and "Spin City".  But it wasn't until he joined the writing staff of a little known sitcom called "Everybody Loves Raymond" that things really took off.  6 years and 7 emmy nominations (including 2 wins) later, Royce went on to write on the short lived HBO Louis CK sitcom "Lucky Louie" and then partnered with Ray Romano to co-create the critically acclaimed "Men of a Certain Age".  Which oddly, is where I enter the picture.  The Peabody award-winning series was a smart, thoughtful, comedy-drama that followed three 40-something friends going through - you guessed it - a  mid life crisis. And though I was neither middle aged nor a man when it aired back in 2009 through 2011 - it nevertheless provided a surprisingly accessible entry point from which I could settle in, and emotionally invest in characters I had no real business investing in, as they painstakingly ma