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.

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.

I've known John Landgraf for 20 years. He said it perfectly. People will ask if I've seen X. My response has often been, 'Seen it? I've never heard of it.'

[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.'

People do have viewing patterns, and you disrupt those at your own peril. That's something that everybody learned after 1988. The numbers have gone down every year since that strike. Big time.