Craig McCracken Quotes

If I went in to pitch this show to a network, I would be laughed out of the room.

The green-light meeting, when I first started at Paramount, would consist of maybe three or four of us in a room. Perhaps two or three of us would have read the script under discussion.

I would like to do all kind of movies, but it all depends on the producer. The director, the actor, and the producer must like it, and they must be clear about it.

Learn the art of the pitch and of messaging.

You're in the business - when you're a writer, producer, director - to get ratings.

I had developed a sitcom with UPN, but it wasn't picked up.

I love presentations more than fashion shows. I love speaking to people and walking them through the collection.

Nowadays, to get a movie greenlit, you have to make an incredible effort.

I love writing plays because they are living, fluid things that are energised by the producer, designers, musicians, actors and audience.

If anything, Powerpoint, if used well, would ideally reflect the way we think.

I get asked a lot what the key is to creating a hit show, and I have a standard answer: Do everything right, and then get lucky 10 ways.

I think it's not uncommon for new television shows to spend certainly the first year, but without a doubt, like, the first eight or ten episodes, kind of figuring out what the show is.

I would really like to do a really cool one-hour show, maybe on, like, HBO or something like that; or something that I've spent a couple of years developing so it would be exactly the character and exactly in with a huge push behind it; or I would maybe want to do a sitcom; something light and funny.

I am still working on patter and presentation.

As a screenwriter, there's so many layers you have to go through in order to tell your story. You have to write the script, get money for the script, shoot it, find distributors, make it into film festivals, all of that just to get to your audience.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

A hit show takes Hollywood magic indeed, but it also takes a lot of math and science, plus the study of polls and trends to make and sell a TV show.

Well I've got lots more great TV projects in the pipeline.

I would not have so many scripts being driven by demographics. The play's the thing - not the 18-35 year old male age group.

The great fun of doing new plays is that people have no idea what's going to happen next. That goes quite soon, as people start talking about it, and the only way you can keep hold of that is genuinely to keep changing it.

The minute you start the process of deciding to make a film and you're communicating that vision to anyone, you're in the process of selling. If you don't understand that, you're not in show business. You're just not.

I'm not setting 'Jericho' up to be anything other than what it is, which is, you know, a piece of good, well thought-out, well put-together TV and entertainment.

I think that no one, or very few, are born as good presenters. It's a skill that you learn.

TV writing is tricky to navigate because you have so many different personalities - the actors, multiple producers.

A short film is just another storytelling medium like TV, Features, and Webisodes. I am just thrilled that 'Silent Cargo' is getting out there for people to see.