Mike Farrell Quotes

Usually, comedy shows only influence other comedy shows. 'M*A*S*H' is one of the few comedies that influenced dramatic shows as well.

I love how 'Misfits' is a drama-comedy.

They [ The Simpsons] are just like the Bible to me as far as what the high-water mark of comedy.

My dad [Johnny Cash] went to the [Richard] Nixon White House and refused to sing "Welfare Cadillac" (instead performing the anti-war songs "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" and "Man in Black"). He protested the Vietnam War, but he went to perform for the troops with bombs dropping all around him. He had that kind of genius: a true artist's capacity for holding two opposing thoughts at once while being large enough to encompass all realities.

Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.

I don't watch television, but I saw 'The Office' by accident. I thought it was so sophisticated, the Victorian love story, and so bold. We'd do anything, all of us, to not work in that environment, and then I'm sitting there watching hours of it.

I think the 'South Park' guys are brilliant.

The best cinema is about ethics.

To me, it wasn't 'Star Wars' that shaped me; it was more 'Mary Tyler Moore' and, nowadays, 'Louie' and 'Girls.'

It's a required part of your film history to know who Woody is. His movies are so wonderful, and not just funny but so insightful about human behavior.

I really like 'Shameless' because it brings up important issues, but we get to talk and laugh and look at something that's really important that's a problem, like alcoholism and bad parenting. It's done in a funny, smart way.

I hope they make a show like M*A*S*H, which dealt with a lot of difficult subject matter but was very funny.

Some shows just go away - and that's fine. They serve their purpose and their entertainment value, but there are shows that touch people in different ways and that they remember.

My main point is to be funny; if I can slip a message in there, fine.

Comedy has become, I think, a very important branch of public intellectualism. But it still ain't Washington.

When I first saw Dick Gregory on television, growing up in Queens, it was startling and amazing, because nobody else was doing what he was doing.

I just remember watching 'Brass Eye' and being so utterly blown away by the scope of it and how much it managed to cram into an episode.

I love 'Modern Family.' And I love 'Glee' - the singing, the music - Jane Lynch just kills me.

The social dimension of the art world is fascinating to me, but I also want to entertain the reader, so I will let a character say something funny.

I'm not interested in going and doing a big, action-adventure romp with nothing to say about being a human being.

The best songs/films/collections expose truths about life and make them universally accessible; they progress humanity.

I think Samantha Bee is doing a really good show.

For my wife Mary Corliss and me, 'Colbert' has been destination viewing. Even in the early years, we never took the show's excellence for granted, agreeing that someday we'd look back on the double whammy of 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report' as the golden age of TV's singeing singing satire.

We go to the theater to be entertained, but if what is left after you watch the movie is a sort of eye-opening perspective on some social issues, then it can be a really powerful piece of art.

That was the beauty of 'Roseanne' and Roseanne herself. It could go dark; it could do issues.