“The idea of being on a show where each season stands alone, and you can come back the next year and show an entirely different aspect of your personality or your talent or your anything is an enormous gift that you rarely get in television.” YearsIdeasDifferentShowsNextTalentTelevisionPersonalityAspectSeasonsEnormousNext YearStand Alone Author:Sarah Paulson
“One of the real worries I had before the first season of 'Treme' aired was that, man, people in New Orleans really hold movie and television shows up to a high standard in how they depict the city.” PeopleMenFirstsRealShowsCitiesWorryTelevisionStandardsSeasonsNew OrleansTelevision ShowsHigh StandardsOld Movie Author:Wendell Pierce
“Characters can become boring. That's what's tricky about television. It goes on and on - you're playing this same character for five seasons and it gets easy to fall into just walking on the set and assuming you know how to play a scene.” KnowsPlayCharacterFallEasyKnow HowFiveTelevisionGoes OnWalkingSceneSeasonsAssumingBoringTricky Author:John Slattery
“Jerry Lewis played on the very first season of Mad About You, and he played basically himself, but he was called some other name. He said he's never done it; he'd never done a half-hour of [sitcom] television. This was 1992 or '93. And I said, "Well how is that?" And he goes, "Nobody ever asked me." It's like the pretty girl at the dance; everybody's too afraid to ask.” FirstsWellsSaidDoneGirlAsksNamesHoursHalfTelevisionSeasonsMadSitcomJerryHalf HoursPretty Girl Author:Paul Reiser
“I'm quite proud of what I anticipated about reality television from my books in the early '90s, which I based on the early seasons of 'Cops' and on the amazing stuff I had read about happening on Japanese shows and the British 'Big Brother'.” BookShowsBigsRealityStuffTelevisionBrotherProudHappeningsSeasonsBritishCopReality Television Author:William Gibson
“Even before 2007, this half of a small island was the richest football country on earth. In 2005-2006 the Premiership's total revenue was about £1.4bn, 40 per cent more than its nearest rival, Italy's Serie A. That was before take-off. Now foreign television channels are sending so much cash that the Premiership is expected to take in nearly £1.8bn this season. Even the team that finishes bottom of the table (Wigan might be a good bet) will get £26.8m from TV. That's more than all of Argentine or Belgian football put together.” CountryMightEarthTogetherHalfTeamTelevisionFootballTvsSeasonsTablesBottomExpectedSoccerAnalysisIslandsCashCentsRevenueRivalsBelgiansWigan Author:Simon Kuper
“I want to stick in live television. And I'm hoping to continue on in a second season of Rock Star. Plus, I've got my 'Barely Brooke' swimsuit line with Venus USA and my new calendar is coming out.” WantStarsLinesRocksTelevisionSeasonsSticksUsaPlusComing OutRock StarCalendarsVenusSwimsuitsLive Television Author:Brooke Burke
“We've come under the influence of television, where in all honesty we can follow a show that could just get cancelled midway through the season and the entire plotline never resolves itself.” ShowsInfluenceHonestyTelevisionSeasonsResolveMidway Author:Christopher Bollen
“Television viewing has become for me a completely different experience, because I don't watch shows on a weekly basis. I wait until the DVD or I TiVo everything and wait until the end of a season and watch it all over a weekend. For me that's a really satisfying experience, like reading a book.” BookDifferentEndsShowsReadingWaitingWatchesTelevisionSeasonsBasesSatisfyingWeekendDvdsDifferent Experiences Author:Alan Ball
“When you fall into a midseason slot, you have the sort of blessing of not being on television while you shoot most of your season.” FallTelevisionBlessingSeasons Author:Stark Sands
“I just really like writing and making television shows. There are ego rewards in doing battle with other television programs in prime time in the main season. I suppose there are times when I might look at that and think that's the major league. But when you look at it, ultimately would I really want to gamble my livelihood and my ability to connect with my fan base or write a show that I really like writing, or in some cases direct a show that I really like directing, for the sake of winning an ego battle? It's totally not worth it. That stuff is so ephemeral.” ThinkingWantWritingLooksShowsMightWinningStuffAbilityCasesFansTelevisionBattleEgoMajorsProgramDirectSeasonsRewardsSakeLeaguePrimeWorth ItGambleTelevision ShowsEphemeralLivelihoodMajor LeagueNot Worth ItPrime Time Author:Matt Nix
“But television affords you, what you just described, to - over the course of 18 hours, now that we're doing a third season - tell the story of this man. You're not under any obligation, really, to do massive expositional stuff at the beginning. You're at liberty to say, "Come with us on this journey," and, gradually, you become aware of what his motivations are, what drives him, what his weaknesses are, what his strengths are. That's what I think's sucking people into these worlds, because it is kind of like a novel, you just go really, really deep.” PeopleThinkingMenWorldKindStoriesMotivationCoursesStuffHoursLibertyNovelJourneyTelevisionWeaknessThirdsSeasonsObligationMassiveReally Deep Author:Cillian Murphy
“For those of us at Marvel Television, it always begins with the story. It's all about the script. It's making sure it's there, on the page. So, we needed to go to a group of individuals who have not only created some of the most memorable animated characters, like Ben 10 and Generator Rex, but also had done two seasons of our very successful Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man series, and that's the Man of Action guys. But, it wasn't just that.” MenTwoDoneCharacterStoriesActionGuyIndividualSuccessfulGroupsTelevisionHe ManNeededPagesUltimateSeasonsSeriesScriptsMemorableSpidersAnimatedSpider ManGeneratorMost Memorable Author:Jeph Loeb
“I think back to the Modern Family pilot when we didn't know that Julie Bowen had a spotty party girl past, but that's something that we layered in, throughout the first season. That's just part of the fun of series television. You get to discover these things.” ThinkingKnowsFirstsPastGirlFunPartyModernTelevisionSeasonsSeriesPilotsModern FamilyParty Girl Author:Jason Winer
“The scripts for Marco Polo are absolutely, positively fantastic. The challenge of making that show in China has proved to be as formidable as we feared. It's not like making a movie in China where, once you load up and you leave, you're gone. We have to be able to come back and capture something that's going to feel like a major feature film, on a television budget, and do it, hopefully season after season, so we are taking more time than the producers thought.” FeelsShowsAbleFilmChallengesGoneTelevisionMajorsSeasonsScriptsChinaProducersHopefullyFantasticBudgetsFeaturesMore TimeCaptureLoadPositivelyFormidableMarcosPoloMarco Polo Author:Chris Albrecht
“We're big fans of the show on BBC, and some of the greatest actors in film and television have done this character, from Basil Rathbone to Nicol Williamson to Michael Caine. (Executive producer) Rob Doherty came in with the pitch last season, it was immediately a show that we gravitated towards.” DoneCharacterShowsBigsLastsFilmActorsFansTelevisionSeasonsProducersExecutivesFilm And TelevisionBasil Author:Nina Tassler
“It's [Into the Badlands] something that's very, very different and I think that's why it divided critics initially because they didn't understand it or get it. They didn't understand or have a knowledge of what we were trying to do. Bringing in the Asian martial arts aesthetic to American television. For us, these are the people who will make the show a hit or a failure in future seasons. So it's for us to respect them and interact and see what they have to say.” PeopleThinkingTryingArtDifferentShowsTelevisionSeasonsCriticsMartial ArtsDividedAestheticAsianAmerican Television Author:Miles Millar
“We get a successful television series or something, and next season they give you less time and less money, which is something I've never really understood. That doesn't happen with Game of Thrones.” GivingHappensNextGamesSuccessfulTelevisionUnderstoodSeasonsSeriesThrones Author:Charles Dance
“We try to use obvious Canadian touches whenever we can, and I'm really proud of the way we use Vancouver for its production value. Nobody is pretending that we're not shooting in Canada, which is really important to me. The other wonderful thing is that ABC has bought us, but they air us after CTV has had the full season air on Canadian television. That's another thing that I think is really a nod towards the importance of us acknowledging our own industry.” ThinkingWayTryingImportantUseValuesWonderfulAirTelevisionIndustryProudSeasonsImportanceProductionsObviousShootingCanadaPretendingWonderful ThingsVancouver Author:Kristin Lehman
“We knew Terry Brooks' work, but we hadn't read the Shannara books. So, they sent us the book to read and we just loved the story and the characters. We thought it would make a very compelling season of television. We were like, "Someone is going to make this. Why don't we do it?"” BookCharacterStoriesTelevisionSeasonsCompellingBrooks Author:Miles Millar
“Writing for television is a great job. And it's a job. Most people watch TV and have a comment about one or two moments of an episode - whether they love it or hate it or something in between. To come up with every moment of an entire season of a TV shows is heavy lifting.” PeopleWritingTwoMomentsShowsJobsHateWatchesTelevisionTvsSeasonsCome UpHeavyCommentEpisodesTv ShowsLiftingGreat JobHeavy Lifting Author:Steven C. Harper