You 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 also think one of the things that's really hurting us is political activism of any stripe. Michael Jordan had it exactly right, he was my idol - when he was asked about a political question at one point and he said I'm not going to answer it, and they said why not, and he said: Because Republicans buy gym shoes too, right? That doesn't exist anymore, that kind of smarts.
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 BerneroI think there's an element to this business that writers especially are overlooked in many ways and this made everybody kind of look at us differently. I do think that an interesting thing happened during it, which was being on these picket lines and looking at the huge amount of executives coming and going that you realize don't really add much to the equation.
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 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 Bernero