Everybody knows things are not the same. The people running the TV end of a major vertically integrated company know how much money a successful show can make.

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.

The heart and soul of network programming is series programming, the weekly repetition of characters you like having in your house.

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.

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.'

I don't think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.

Advertising is the art of the tiny. You have to tell a complete a story and deliver a complete message in a very encapsulated form. It disciplines you to cut away extraneous information.