I think the bar is higher these days in terms of audience expectations of authenticity..

There are certain economics involved in making a network TV show that you want to amortize the costs of that, so the more episodes you make, the chea….

Series finales have that responsibility to leave you feeling good about entire series. You want to feel like the viewer closes the book satisfied. An….

Cheers was one of the first shows where I paid attention to the writers because their [work] was better than everything else I was watching. The writ….

Everyone in Hollywood who is successful becomes less successful at some point. I'm just trying to delay that fall for as long as I can..

I still feel driven to try to make great shows and to make each episode great..

Obviously there are different standards and practices that are allowed on cable versus network. You just have to embrace what your network is going t….

I have no problem at all going back and forth between cable and network..

One of the tricky things about running a TV show is that you just never know how good the guest stars you cast on a weekly basis, how good they're go….

You can make a good show, but you still need some magical alchemy to get people to watch..

The worst thing you can do is end up with a network show on cable or end up with a cable show on network..

There will always be economic pressure to make hits, identify hits, and then exploit hits. And you're going to exploit them with as many episodes as ….

I'm very humble in terms of knowing that television is an extraordinary collaborative medium and that one person alone cannot make a great TV show..

I'm perfectly happy to color within the network lines when I have to..

I've always read a lot of historical books and I'm a big fan of documentaries, and I've always thought of ways to do it..

I always think it's better to take your time and go through a lot of ideas - and dismiss a lot of ideas - before figuring out where to land. It's a g….

The payment for sins can be delayed. But they cant be avoided..

Working as a showrunner has made it tougher to watch other shows and movies..

In order to appeal to a wider audience on network in order to survive, generally your characters need to be, at a base level, a little bit more likab….

There are story-room sessions where you think about the big picture, like a novel, but once you have certain things in place, you have to treat each ….

When you start a TV show, you're not necessarily thinking, "Are we setting up what we need for season seven?" You're just trying to stay on the air, ….