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.

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 story drove the book. That had a very seminal effect on the way I saw writing and storytelling. If you can set a character in a story that is compelling and has a backbone, you draw people in.

And the consumer doesn't care. They don't watch networks, they watch TV shows.

The environment doesn't change that radically. You are still going to go home at night and NBC is going to be there, ABC and CBS will still be there.

There are other options out there, after all, like read a book, go on the Internet, rent a movie.

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