[My] dream writers room: "'Naked City.' Because it still holds up as the absolutely quintessential New York pure cop procedural."

People recognize certain things, like 'D' means 'this dialogue stinks.' We're dealing with shows that are written here, shot in New York and posted back here. Accurate communication is a necessity.

Their argument is that most shows are losers, which is true, but it's also disingenuous to say, 'We are not going to take the risk unless it is totally covered by the few successful shows that are out there.'

If the scripts are not good, I'll tell somebody, 'This isn't good.

The agendas on the management side of the table now are not in sync like they used to be because you have vastly different entities supplying programming to networks.

It was like in Samoa when they'd put up a movie screen on the beach and show movies and the locals would run behind the sheet to see where the people went. It was pretty grim.

Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off.