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Mitchell Hurwitz

Mitchell Hurwitz Biography

Television writer

Mitchell Hurwitz, born on May 29, 1963, is an acclaimed television writer from the United States. Known for his unique sense of humor and profound social insight, he has created several popular television series.

Mitchell Hurwitz, born on May 29, 1963, is an acclaimed television writer from the United States. Known for his unique sense of humor and profound social insight, he has created several popular television series.

Related Quotes

“I think it's a big part of being a creative person.”

Thinking Persons Bigs Creative Creative Person

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“It's very easy I think when you're a creative person to wait for the right thing and to start getting self-conscious about how you are going to express what you do and what's special about you. I would say in general, a lot of times the answer is that you just dive into something and you find your own voice through that process.”

Thinking Persons Self Easy Waiting Process Voice Answers Creative Special Conscious Right Thing Self Conscious Creative Person

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“The more constraints I have, the more opportunities I have to be creative to fix those constraints.”

Opportunity Creative Be Creative Constraints

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“For the most part you are dealing with jealousy, you are dealing with love, you're dealing with hatred, you are dealing with revenge and all of these sort of classic things.”

Love You Hatred Revenge Classic

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I always liked magic. I was always embarrassed by liking magic because I liked the fact that they're just lying.”

Facts Lying Magic Embarrassed

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“The TV industry works in this crazy system where everybody's trying to get the same actors at the same time.”

Trying Actors Crazy Tvs Industry

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Television is so much about continuing to work with people.”

People Television Continuing

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Character is what someone does, much more than who they are. I can be sarcastic or I can be fearful, but it doesn't really matter until there's a story - until someone comes in and holds us hostage.”

Doe I Can Matter Character Stories Sarcastic Fearful Hostage

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Regret is a tricky word. Here's a big secret: nobody knows what wasn't.”

Knows Bigs Secret Regret Tricky Nobody Knows

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Chance favors the well prepared. The more stuff you throw in, the more chances you have of looking like, 'I did that.'”

Wells Stuff Chance Prepared Favors

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I remember being asked when I was in high school what do I want to do when I grow up and the answer is so indicative - I would like to have been a successful playwright.”

Want Has Beens School Remember Grows Answers Growing Up Successful High School Playwright

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I have this identity for myself as a writer and the only thing that can happen is that I chip away from it.”

Happens Identity Chips

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I think of there being two conditions that creative people go through. I think it's fear and curiosity.”

People Thinking Two Creative Conditions Curiosity Creative People

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“The people that always impress me are the ones that are curious about what they're going to do next.”

People Next Curious Impress

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“It's very hard, I think, for critics to write positive reviews, because there's not that much to say about something you like. You can kind of say 'I really like that band' and then if you're forced to fill up the rest of an article, you've got to start saying heady things. It's much easier to say negative things in a review.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Kind Hard Like You Easier Band Negative Critics Reviews Articles

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“One of the best ways into the business is to get a job with a production, which you can do by cold-calling or by getting your résumé out there, and also through contacts. That's where nepotism really helps.”

Way Helping Jobs Can Do Cold Calling Productions Best Way Contact Nepotism

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“The "executive producer" title either means that you're the person who created, or co-created, the show, or you're the person who's in charge of day-to-day operations. Whereas "producer" is often just a writing credit.”

Writing Mean Persons Shows Credit Producers Titles Operations Executives Day To Day

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“If you've never watched people watch television, I don't recommend it. It's not an exciting thing to do.”

People Ifs Watches Television Exciting Things To Do Exciting Things

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“There's a lot that you can do in television that you can't do with a film, theoretically. At the time, the only possibility was to do a movie.”

Film Can Do Possibility Television

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I think everybody wants to be loved, all the time, but it's not realistic. It's also not realistic, if you're going to be ambitious, in terms of changing the form or evolving.”

Ifs Thinking Want Form Term Evolve Realistic Ambitious

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Everybody keeps falling back to the same patterns without doing too much dramaturgy.”

Fall Too Much Patterns

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Writers need restrictions. If somebody just says, "Hey, do you want to write a novel, or an article, or a movie, or a short story, you get shut down."”

Ifs Want Needs Writing Stories Novel Hey Articles Short Story Restriction

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“One of the great things about TV is the story to tell can be very internal and really character-based.”

Character Stories Tvs Great Things Internals

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“My knee-jerk is that it is comedy and, if you watch them all back-to-back, you will gain something and you will lose something.”

Ifs Loses Watches Comedy Gains Knees Jerk

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“What you'll gain is the macro story. You'll get a good command of that. And what you might lose is some of the fun of it.”

Stories Might Fun Loses Gains Command Macro

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“One of the things I liked about bringing this show back was that it gives people something to look forward to. In doing the show, I was very aware that some people will watch it all in one night, but there is enough that it will be fun to re-watch. Hopefully, people will be laughing a lot.”

People Giving Looks Enough Shows Night Fun Watches Laughing Hopefully One Night

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“But, you have to watch them in order. That's very important because, as it turns out, stories have to be told in order. It's like reading a novel. There are times when it's tiring. And then, you get hooked and it's a page-turner, and you really want to keep reading. I do think there will be some fatigue that sets in.”

Thinking Want Important Stories Order Turns Reading Watches Novel Pages Tire Fatigue Hooked Turner

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I joked recently that I thought 30 seconds a day for three years would be the best way to enjoy it, and I'm going to stand by that statement.”

Way Years Would Be Three Enjoy Statements Best Way Being The Best Seconds Three Years

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“As somebody who wanted to be creative, growing up, I remember always thinking that the thing I had going against me was Orange County because it seemed like all of the comedy was coming out of New York, and it still is, to a certain extent.”

Thinking Stills Wanted Remember Certain Creative Growing Up Comedy Growing New York Coming Out Be Creative Orange County Always Thinking Orange County

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“They say to just write about what's happening in your backyard because that's where you find the most creativity. It's in the DNA of the show. There's no question.”

Writing Shows Creativity Happenings Dna Backyards

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I had a cookie business there, with my brother, when we were growing up, called the Chip Yard, and that became the inspiration for the banana stand. My father said that he wanted us to develop a work ethic, so we'd sit there selling cookies, all day.”

Said Inspiration Wanted Father Growing Up Growing Brother Ethics Selling My Brother Yards Work Ethic Chips Cookies Bananas

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Netflix will know everything. Netflix will know when a person stops watching it. They have all of their algorithms and will know that this person watched five minutes of a show and then stopped. They can tell by the behavior and the time of day that they are going to come back to it, based on their history.”

Knows Persons Shows Five Minutes Behavior Five Minutes Algorithms Netflix Time Of Day

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“The revolution is here. It's established that Netflix is a place where you can get premium content. It's a whole new world. It's very interesting. We'll be discovering it together. It's going to be interesting because they don't have a lot to compare it to.”

World Whole Together Interesting Revolution Compare New World Discovering Very Interesting Premium Netflix

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I will tell you that we're all human beings, and we all care about what people think of us. But in general, their outlook is, "We're not looking at opening night numbers. We're not looking at opening night box office. We want this to be part of the reason you come to our service."”

People Thinking Want Humans Reason Care Night Human Beings Numbers Office Boxes Opening Outlook Box Office Opening Night

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“If you've got a restaurant, you definitely want the line to be out the door the first night, but you're more interested in people continuing to come to the restaurant. And that's their outlook, a little bit. I think it allows for more creativity, in the process. It allows people to make interesting programming that maybe wouldn't have a place on broadcast networks, if you were just counting people.”

People Ifs Thinking Want Firsts Littles Night Bits Process Lines Interesting Creativity Doors Little Bit Restaurants Programming Continuing Outlook Counting

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I think that timing is everything. At first, it was too soon. And then, the time was right, but I was busy with other things, and the cast was busy with other things. By the time we sat down to work on the movie, enough time had passed that suddenly a different story emerged.”

Thinking Firsts Different Enough Stories Busy Casts Sat Timing Enough Time Timing Is Everything

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“There were a couple times when we started working out the stories - and I was doing this with Jim Vallely and our friend Dean Lorey, who was on the show originally - and we were working on a movie. There would be some fan fiction things that would scoop us. It happened a couple times, where I thought, "Well, we can't do that!"”

Wells Stories Shows Would Be Fiction Happened Fans Couple Work Out Dean

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“One of the challenges of the show has always been trying to be surprising, and that was easy to do when nobody was watching it. Now that people have started watching it, they get ahead of us. We've all started really guarding the material, just to make it fun for the audience.”

People Trying Shows Fun Easy Challenges Audience Materials Surprising Get Ahead Guarding

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I always feel funny when I don't reveal things, especially to you [the press], who have supported us so much and are really the big reason we're here. But, we hold back information about the plot because we want to reward the fans for sticking with us, and that's so much fun. That's the funnest part of it.”

Want Feels Reason Bigs Fun Fans Information Presses Rewards Plot

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“I could vomit, right this moment. I literally could vomit on cue. Yes. Here's the truth of that. We didn't have a big audience, obviously, when we made the show. Very early on, we made a decision that we were going to try to give the fans and the people that were loyal to us something that they felt was special.”

People Giving Trying Made Moments Shows Bigs Felt Decision Audience Fans Special Loyal

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“We started gearing our content more to what makes us laugh and stories we wanted to tell, and we had to decide, early on, to not be precious about it.”

Stories Wanted Laughing

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“Thanks to the critics and thanks to the Emmys, we got all sorts of great reviews and notices and awards, at the start. Part of it is that it's great fortune to have something to live up to, but as creative people, we all have to just put that aside and go forward, make the best product we can, have as joyous of an experience as we can, and really remember that the spirit of this was to surprise the fans with something that they didn't see coming.”

People Remember Spirit Creative Fans Products Fortune Surprise Critics Thanks Awards Reviews Joyous Creative People Emmys

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“There was so much talk about the movie and we thought, "Wouldn't it be great to still do the movie, but to give everybody this thing they didn't see coming?" Even with the number of episodes, it was reported that there was going to be 10 episodes, and then there was talk about adding more.”

Giving Stills Numbers Episodes

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“We started writing the shows in order, and then very quickly had to jump to, "Oh, we got Tony Hale today and Jessica [Walter." We've got to jump ahead and write that stuff that's in Jessica's show. Fortunately, we knew the story, but it was challenging.”

Writing Stories Shows Today Order Stuff Challenges Jessica Hale

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“We will be looking at things like the confluence of a scene, and we still have all these creative decisions to make. In general, we're going to just try to make these under a half-hour. We're going to try to take that kind of cable TV comedy model.”

Trying Kind Stills Hours Decision Half Creative Comedy Tvs Scene Models Cables Half Hours Confluence Cable Tv

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“First of all, there is absolutely an order that we have put together to create the maximum number of surprises, but that's just part of our storytelling.”

Firsts Together Order Numbers Surprise Storytelling Maximum Maximum Number

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“The form came out of the function because it is for the audience that already knows the show, while hoping to get a new audience, too.”

Knows Shows Form Audience Function

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“We figured the interesting question for them is, "Where has the family been since 2006, since the last time we saw them?" So, part of the time, we had to spend answering that question. Then, inevitably, it goes up to a point of crisis, in everyone's show. There was just no getting around that it was about 2006-2012.”

Shows Lasts Interesting Saws Crisis Last Time

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“There are elements of that, where you'll see a scene again and you'll recognize it, but I wouldn't say it's got one conceit like that, at all. It definitely has those jokes, but it would be wrong to say this is a show where, every time you see it, you see a new angle.”

Shows Would Be Scene Elements Jokes Angle Conceit

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

“We mapped out the whole movie, and then worked backwards from that to do these shows. It might not be a movie. It might be something else.”

Whole Shows Might Backwards

Author:Mitchell Hurwitz

About the Author

Born: May 29, 1963
Known for: Television writer
Quotes: 62

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