Television viewership has been declining for a number of years. The internet has been blamed. Everything has been blamed. Except for what I think the problem is: that the networks own the shows, and they completely think that they make them. They don't any longer let the people who make shows just make them. The networks have notes about everything. They are intimately involved in every aspect of the process. And I think it's hurt the process.
Edward Allen BerneroYou get notes from two studios and a network instead of a studio and a network. Although we early on forced them all to do their notes together. I make them all talk to each other first. Because we went through the pains of getting notes from ABC and at the time it was Touchstone, that were opposite - and then CBS notes that were opposite again. So it was, you guys are going to have to work it out as to what is the most important note.
Edward Allen BerneroI eternally fight internal battles about developing things that only appeal to the East Coast and the West Coast. For years I've been trying to do a Western, nobody's interested in doing a Western, how can that be?
Edward Allen BerneroMacho in a different sense, the kind of things that we think makes us a man. It doesn't really exist right now. I really don't want it to seem that I think it's a problem that women are in development, I don't think it's as problem at all, I just think it's an interesting time that we're in. And maybe long overdue - maybe television for a long time was made for men and it's long overdue.
Edward Allen BerneroIf you don't like me, you don't like me. You can call me anytime; I'll have an opinion on just about anything. I will also tell you if I shouldn't have an opinion on something - I just make television shows.
Edward Allen BerneroMost of the network television audience now is primarily women, but I think that's because the shows are developed to appeal to women. I don't know that there are too many shows that appeal to guys anymore. I'm not sure why that is, but I think that it may have something to do with the fact that most development staffs are women.
Edward Allen BerneroWe don't have a whole lot of people living hand-to-mouth in the Writers Guild, we get paid really well, and a lot of the things we fought for, in my case, I can negotiate. I can negotiate higher DVD rates or anything I want, it's not going to be a minimum basic agreement. But I do think it was important to stand up to them. I do think that we got things in the deal that we wouldn't have gotten had we not stood up to them.
Edward Allen Bernero