I don't think it's that strange that a show has sort of a bumpy beginning. It's just part and parcel of the process.

But Steven Bochco was smart; he knew that viewers were smart.

The ideal time for writing a [television] script is four days, though sometimes it has to be two or three days depending on the deadline. If it's two days, sometimes there are things I see that don't work as well. If I have two weeks, the scripts get kind of flabby and lack the adrenaline that a sense of deadline fills you with.

The designer [...] has a passion for doing something that fits somebody's needs, but that is not just a simple fix. The designer has a dream that goes beyond what exists, rather than fixing what exists. [...] The designer wants to create a solution that fits in a deeper situational or social sense.

When I really have to push and grope and scratch and claw to make a story work, that's a telltale sign that maybe something conceptually isn't right.

Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.

In retrospect, I think it's a plus, because now we've been able to go back and spend extra time on each of those episodes and make them better.