Network Approval Quotes

What I do know is how difficult it is in this industry to get a show on the air. There's so many different stages: getting a script bought by the network, then getting a pilot made and having that pilot go to series, and then, when that series gets on the air, having people watch it.

It's actually much harder to develop a TV show than I had anticipated.

TV is a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing to get a show.

We had shot six episodes of the West Wing season when 9/11 happened. An extraordinary thing that would never happen today is Aaron going to the network and saying, "I think we need to go back and reshoot, I have something I want to do," and the network just kind of let him do it.

Television and movies just take so long. If you pitch a show or develop a project, it can be a year before your show even gets on the air, if it gets picked up.

Like, to do a pilot, you don't know what's going to happen with it.

There was so long from when we did the pilot and then when the show was eventually picked up by Comedy Central - and, in fact, we had to shoot the pilot twice.

In television, things move quite slowly. It can take years to get a show off the ground.

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

It's rare to get a part in a show that's greenlit, let alone two shows that have been greenlit.

You just pour your heart and soul into a project, and everyone pays their dues, and everyone on the crew, everyone works so hard. Then you just don't know how the show ends up. You just hope that it turns out great, and you hope that people respond to it, and you hope that the network accepts a Season Two.

It was easy for me to show the films to the studio and the network and say, "This is who I'm hiring."

I just wanted to make it clear that I was saying that the possibility is there and I would've been fine with it, the network would have been fine with it, but we ultimately didn't do that. I can make it official - Daryl Dixon is actually straight.

As a television producer, you do a lot of writing - drafting proposals for pilot shows and other things, so yes, a good deal of writing was involved.

Things maybe take longer usually when it comes to TV - especially network TV. There are usually multiple levels that you have to go through in terms of the casting director, the producers, the studio, the network, reading with other people.

Developing a series is a next step for me.

The first heart you win over is that casting director. In first meetings, they'll be the ones who see your pitch for the character. And then as you get further up, they'll be the ones reading with you in front of the network.

You audition, and then you go and do what's called a test, your network test. So you have to go in front of the network and do it, and the network has to sign off on you.

It's such a process to get a show off the ground initially. And then, to already have a second season announced is a dream come true for any actor.

The funny thing is that making a pilot is sort of an audition, at least for me. There's something psychological there, where you're sort of asking for the job while you're acting. And then when it's been picked up, it's a completely different psychological dynamic.