“Television has never known what to do with grief, which resists narrative: the dramas of grief are largely internal - for the bereaved, it is a chaotic, intense, episodic period, but the chaos is by and large subterranean, and easily appears static to the friendly onlooker who has absorbed the fact of loss and moved on.” FactsLossGriefKnownTelevisionPeriodsDramaMovedChaosIntenseNarrativeInternalsFriendlyChaoticStaticMoved On Author:Meghan O'Rourke
“It's funny: All my friends back home are always wondering why every television show I'm on is a drama, but all the comedy pilots I did died a slow and painful death.” ShowsHomeWonderComedyTelevisionDramaMy FriendsDiedPainfulPilotsBack HomeTelevision ShowsPainful Death Author:Eric Ladin
“You know what I want? The answer is, I truly don't know what I want. I don't want to do a television series. I want to do dramas as well as comedies, but I have no idea what kind or in what order. Just give me the chance at them.” KnowsWantGivingWellsKindIdeasOrderChanceAnswersComedyTelevisionDramaGive MeSeriesNo Idea Author:Michael J. Fox
“I feel very blessed in my career to have been able to bounce back and forth between different things, television and film, comedies and some dramas, but I am, um, as long as the script inspires me and there good people, that's it. I'm in.” PeopleFeelsLongHas BeensDifferentAbleFilmCareersComedyTelevisionInspireDramaBlessedScriptsDifferent ThingsGood PeopleBack And ForthBounce Author:Geoff Stults
“Some of the most interesting questions needing to be asked today can best be asked on television, or on stage, and they can be wonderful, great dramas, but they won't necessarily be blockbusters.” TodayInterestingWonderfulStageTelevisionDramaMost InterestingBlockbuster Author:Julie Walters
“In the case of drama (stage, movies, television ), there appear to be people in almost every audience who never quite fully realize that a play is a set of fictional, symbolic representations. An actor is one who symbolizes other people, real or imagined. [...] Also some years ago it was reported that when Edward G. Robinson, who used to play gangster roles with extraordinary vividness, visited Chicago, local hoodlums would telephone him at his hotel to pay their professional respects.” PeopleYearsRealPlayUsedActorsRealizingPayRolesCasesAudienceStageTelevisionDramaYears AgoExtraordinaryLocalsHotelChicagoRepresentationTelephonesNever QuitSymbolicGangstersVividness Author:S. I. Hayakawa
“A lot of people are doing television now. Great, legendary actors are doing movies on cable and stuff now, and you can't blame them, because they're still doing adult dramas and adult comedies on those stations.” PeopleStillsActorsStuffComedyTelevisionDramaAdultsBlameStationsCablesLegendary Author:Billy Bob Thornton
“One of the things that makes any good entertainment, whether it's a play, drama, comedy, television, film, whatever, is that you feel a certain amount of spontaneity.” FeelsPlayFilmCertainComedyTelevisionAmountDramaEntertainmentSpontaneity Author:Glenn Howerton
“To the question of writing at all we have sometimes been counselled to forget it, or rather the writing of books. What is required, we are told, is plays and films. Books are out of date! The book is dead, long live television! One question which is not even raised let alone considered is: Who will write the drama and film scripts when the generation that can read and write has been used up?” WritingLongHas BeensBookSometimesPlayFilmUsedForgetGenerationsTelevisionDramaRaisedScriptsForget ItLive Television Book:Hopes and impediments: selected essays Source: Hopes and impediments: selected essays
“Whereas Absurdism in Europe seemed a logical, almost inevitable response to the irrationality of war, the analogous elements that surfaced in American drama seemed more a response to a materialist society run amok. The American-style Absurdism seemed to spring full-blown out of television advertisements and situation comedies, which had become new myth-making machines.” WarRunningSituationComedyStyleTelevisionDramaElementsSpringEuropeMachinesResponseMythInevitableLogicalAdvertisementsIrrationality Author:Arnold Aronson
“I like the fact that a modern television and modern drama on cable has characters that are really intricate and deep and have multiple layers.” CharacterFactsModernTelevisionDramaLayersMultipleCablesIntricate Author:Matthew Lillard
“Police thrillers are so widely read and police dramas so commonplace on television that many people think they have a good understanding of what a cop's world is like. But in truth that world is seldom revealed with anything approaching verisimilitude. We get it with The Wagon.” PeopleThinkingWorldUnderstandingTelevisionDramaPoliceCopCommonplaceThrillersWagonsGood Understanding Author:Daniel Horan
“I'm a right pain in the hole for my agent. I won't take certain parts if I think they're offensive or banal. For instance, I won't do a film if I think it's full of violence for violence's sake, or a television drama if I don't think it's intelligent writing.” IfsThinkingWritingPainFilmCertainViolenceTelevisionDramaIntelligentSakeHolesInstanceAgentsOffensiveTelevision Drama Author:Anne-Marie Duff
“Among all the complaints you hear these days about the crimes of the media, it seems to me the critics miss the big one. It is that especially TV, but also we of the print press, tend to reduce mess and complexity and ambiguity to a simple story line that doesn't reflect reality so much as it distorts it. ... What bothers me about the journalistic tendency to reduce unmanageable reality to self-contained, movielike little dramas is not just that we falsify when we do this. It is also that we really miss the good story.” LittlesSelfStoriesBigsRealitySeemsLinesSimpleMediaMissingCrimeTelevisionTvsDramaPressesCriticsTendenciesJournalismMessThese DaysBotherComplexityPrintComplaintsAmbiguityGood StoryJournalisticSelf Contained Author:Meg Greenfield
“Drama's not safe and it's not pretty and it's not kind. People expect the basic template of television drama where there might be naughty villains, but everyone ends up having a nice cup of tea. You've got to do big moral choices and show the terrible things people do in terrible situations. Drama is failing if it doesn't do that.” PeopleIfsKindEndsShowsBigsMightChoicesSituationMoralNiceFailingTelevisionTerribleDramaSafeCupsTeaVillainTerrible ThingsNaughtyCups Of TeaNot PrettyKind PeopleMoral ChoicesTelevision Drama Author:Russell T Davies
“I was dreading all of the ghost stories of working on American television, not in the least, the length. In Britain, a series is six episodes of an hour drama, maybe sometimes eight, but never twenty-two, so I was petrified of that.” TwoSometimesStoriesHoursTelevisionDramaSixTwentiesSeriesEightGhostBritainLengthEpisodesGhost StoriesTwenty TwoAmerican Television Author:Lennie James
“As a child growing up in a grey-skied Yorkshire village, I would occasionally happen upon a Bollywood movie on the television. After a few minutes watching a bunch of sari-clad dancers cavorting on a Swiss mountain to tuneless music, I would switch over to some proper drama about housing estates and single mothers.” ChildrenHappensMotherGrowing UpGrowingMinutesTelevisionDramaMountainBunchDancerVillageEstatesGreyHousingSwissSingle MotherBollywoodChildren Growing UpYorkshireGrowing ChildrenSari Author:Simon Beaufoy
“Crime dramas will never go away as long as people turn to television for, among other things, reassurance and comfort.” PeopleLongTurnsCrimeTelevisionComfortDramaGoing AwayReassurance Author:Tom Shales
“The problem is these days people don't watch television together. The husband is downstairs watching The Game and the wife is upstairs watching The Good Wife. They don't need a show they can watch together. What family dramas are on now that are working?” PeopleNeedsShowsProblemTogetherGamesWatchesWifeTelevisionDramaHusbandThese DaysFamily DramaUpstairsGood Wife Author:Warren Leight
“What serialized cable dramas have given us is the opportunity to not simply tell the same story with slightly different words and different costumes, every week. people are really mining the ability of storytellers to tell a long form story that goes from A to Z, and to trust that an audience will follow that. If they miss it, over the course of the week, they can watch it online or buy the DVD. There are so many different ways of interacting with it. Storytelling in television is getting more complex and more nuanced.” PeopleIfsWayLongDifferentStoriesFormCoursesOpportunityGivenAbilityWatchesAudienceWeekMissingTelevisionDramaComplexesStorytellingDifferent WaysOnlineStorytellerCostumesCablesDvdsInteractingMining Author:Sarah Wayne Callies
“I started on television, and on sitcoms, and loved them, but then they sort of seemed to be going through sort of an ice age, and they started dying off one by one, and I recognized that, and my representatives recognized that, and we said 'Well, let's look at dramas and other things like that.'” WellsLooksSaidAgeDyingTelevisionDramaIceRepresentativesSitcomIce Age Author:David Alan Basche
“I'm a great admirer, fan and consumer of television. I love serial drama. I have been a major fan of HBO's series for many years.” YearsHas BeensFansTelevisionDramaMajorsSeriesConsumersSerialsAdmirerHbo Author:Todd Haynes
“I've really dreamed of doing television. All of us do television, coming up. But when I was coming up, television was a black hole for actors. Now, television has a certain cache. Now everybody wants to be on TV because they're doing adult dramas. If you're an actor, it's like, "Well, get me on television," because it's the only place you can do it and also make a living at it. If my kids need shoes, I better do a TV show because I damn sure don't make any money with independent films.” IfsWantNeedsWellsShowsKidsFilmCertainActorsBlackCan DoTelevisionTvsDramaAdultsIndependentShoesHolesDamnTv ShowsYou Can Do ItIndependent FilmBlack HoleCache Author:Billy Bob Thornton
“The experience of reading a novel and watching a television show are quite different. You can't let your audience get ahead of you, and you have to keep the energy and the pace and the drama up. They're very different things.” DifferentShowsReadingEnergyNovelAudienceTelevisionDramaDifferent ThingsPaceTelevision ShowsGet Ahead Author:Michelle Fairley
“In prose fiction the freedom to work honestly exists, although you may have to fight for it. In those other areas of literature, I mean drama, there is only silence. That sort of aesthetic integrity does not exist in radio and television, and seldom on film.” MayMeanDoeFilmFightingLiteratureSilenceFictionTelevisionIntegrityDramaAreasRadioHonestlyProseAesthetic Author:James Kelman
“I was my class playwright and I wrote plays set in villages with kings and chiefs.My plays were about treason and betrayals. If they were influenced by Macbeth, they were also influenced by Nigerian plays I had seen and Village Headmaster, a television drama series I had watched as a child.” IfsChildrenPlayClassTelevisionKingsDramaSeriesBetrayalChiefsVillagePlaywrightTreasonHeadmastersTelevision Drama Author:Sefi Atta
“Comedy does offer an avenue to television and film careers for untelegenic people that great drama does not.” PeopleDoeFilmCareersComedyTelevisionDramaOffersAvenues Author:John Hodgman
“To try something longer, I entered a half-hour radio drama contest with the national public broadcaster, CBC. To my surprise, I won. And that opened doors in film and television, because that broadcaster was looking to cultivate new Canadian talent, especially women who could write.” WritingTryingFilmHoursHalfDoorsTalentTelevisionDramaSurpriseRadioContestsHalf HoursBroadcastersFilm And TelevisionOpened DoorsCbc Author:Karen Walton
“I certainly do all sorts of work. I'm very, very blessed to do drama and other types of television, and things like that, but I always go back to sci-fi, whenever possible, because that's really exciting for me.” TelevisionTypeDramaExcitingBlessedSci Fi Author:Gina Holden
“I was doing an hour drama on television and a Jackie Chan movie in Toronto, so I was on a plane every three days.” ThreeHoursTelevisionDramaPlanesTorontoJackie Author:Debi Mazar
“I grew up in repertory theaters, so it was comedy one night, drama the next. I'm used to going from one to the other. And I worked for years in television as well. So, I like the interrelationship of it and having a good relationship with a group of artists creating something really where the sum is greater than all of our individual contributions, our parts.” YearsWellsUsedArtistNightNextIndividualComedyGreaterGroupsTelevisionGrewDramaCreatingGrew UpTheaterContributionOne NightGood RelationshipCreating Something Author:Howard Shore
“I think television is a unique form, in terms of storytelling. Having source material for these really dense, complicated, serialized dramas is a great way of world-building.” ThinkingWorldWayFormTermTelevisionBuildingMaterialsSourceDramaUniqueComplicatedStorytellingDense Author:Chris Albrecht
“I love action shows. I love drama. There's no one type of thing. Television has gotten so good, and there's so much to do.” ShowsActionTelevisionTypeDramaLove Drama Author:Bridget Regan
“Penalties are not football. They are not even as television people keep telling us, great drama. They are cheap melodrama.” PeopleTelevisionFootballDramaPenaltiesMelodrama Author:Simon Barnes
“Opera on television in Europe is very important. If you think about it in the broadest sense: a lot of the dramas made in India with music are practically operas. They're not sung but they have a very big appeal. I don't know why American television people are so stupid but at the moment, they just seem to have some sort of a block. They just do what they do and they do it for a certain number of years. Then it wears out and they try something else. It's just a matter of time I think.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsTryingYearsMadeImportantMatterMomentsBigsSeemsCertainNumbersStupidTelevisionDramaEuropeIndiaBlockAppealsOperaMatter Of TimeAmerican Television Author:Robert Ashley
“I love soap operas - the stories, the plots! And I love the game shows and the courtroom dramas and the detectives - Jessica Fletcher, 'Columbo,' 'Perry Mason,' 'L.A. Law.' Any sense of guilt appeals to me in a television program - a sense of guilt, or a sense of making a lot of money.” StoriesShowsLawGamesTelevisionDramaProgramGuiltAppealsPlotOperaLots Of MoneySoapDetectivesJessicaMasonsSoap OperasCourtroomGame Shows Author:Peter Ackroyd
“If you spend any time on the shooting of a drama, for television or movies, it's very slow and there's a lot of standing around.” IfsTelevisionDramaStandingShooting Author:Rebecca Eaton
“One of the more problematic aspects of the current state of cinema in Japan is that the movies playing in the theaters are by and large made not by film studios but by broadcasting companies. They're either extensions of popular television dramas or adaptations of manga or anime. Younger Japanese are simply not being exposed to good films. That situation needs to change.” NeedsMadeStatesFilmCompanySituationTelevisionDramaAspectTheaterCurrentsStudiosCinemaJapanExposedExtensionsAdaptationNeed A ChangeBroadcastingGood FilmsAnimeTelevision Drama Author:Hirokazu Koreeda
“I’m too young and ridiculous a person to speak for my generation, but I’d be happy to talk about my own experiences as a generation Y writer. I was raised by a generation of hippies. Throughout my childhood, teachers urged me to fight the establishment. My English teacher assigned Ginsberg and Kerouac and declared Bob Dylan “a genius.” My science teacher told me that television was “the new opiate of the masses” and bragged about never having owned one. My drama teacher made us perform Beckett.” PersonsMadeYoungFightingSpeakMy OwnTeacherGenerationsChildhoodTelevisionGeniusDramaMassRaisedRidiculousEstablishmentBobDylanHippieMy GenerationEnglish TeacherBeckettOpiatesGinsbergScience TeacherGeneration Y Author:Simon Rich
“Whatever you do, whether you're doing a television drama or a romantic comedy, you want to be relevant, to some degree.” WantComedyTelevisionDramaDegreesRelevantTelevision Drama Author:John Ridley