Everybody who works for Amblin Television has to do five jobs.
In Full Frontal and K Street, I learned to take advantage of the mobility that digital provides.
When I started working on 'Battlestar Galactica' in Canada, I was told to get as fit as a marine for my character Lee 'Apollo' Adama. So I did. But now I have a problem with suits, because I'm 5 ft. 9 in. with a 40 inch chest and a 31 inch waist, so I'm rather too big for that very tailored British look, and they always have to be altered.
People think "The Office" was improvised, but it's all on the page. We do that because what we found is that in the early days of "The Office," we went in with it sort of 80 percent scripted and we did some things and then we improv'd and we did - you know, and it gets a laugh on the floor because it's the first time they've heard it.
If you come on the set of 'Sleepy Hollow,' and you go, 'So, is this a 'Once Upon a Time' spinoff?' That's right when we start slappin' people. It's right then. Now if you came on the set, and you were like, 'I like this show. It kinda reminds me of 'Supernatural,'' that gets you a high five.
In television, a sitcom is probably the closest thing to what it's like working in the theater.
When I create a TV show, it's so that I can write it. I'm not an empire builder; my writing staff is usually a combination of two kinds of people - experts in the world the show is set in, and young writers who will not be unhappy if they're not writing scripts.
I grew up in the '50s, in New York City, where television was born. There were 90 live shows every week, and they used a lot of kids. There were schools just for these kids. There was a whole world that doesn't exist anymore.
That was something that I learned from Alan Ball from “Six Feet Under." He didn”t really like to have too many pop culture references because they don”t really hold up after a few years.
I've been lucky enough that in the U.K., I've done shows that have aired once a week. I make a show there that runs seasonally, and we make one episode a week, and that is great - the value of time. You can really think and finesse what you want to do.
I am the lead on NBC's 'Siberia,' and I loved that experience.
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.
As for 'Twin Peaks,' I'm happy to have been a part of something that was a success. The only time I was concerned was during the second season when it started to lose its focus, and I was thinking, 'What if I get stuck here for five years? I would go crazy.'
Television tends to be a more difficult medium for me to get my head around sometimes when it comes to certain things I get offered.
I liked working in a series, going to work every day and not having to leave town for long locations. I was producing them and building an audience.
We did a remake of Lost in Space. Filmed it in London for four months.
In my experience in series TV, if you have a good crew and a great cast, it's going to be a great group - similar to the theater where it's a bunch of people who are really talented and go to work each day and challenge each other, and if you are lucky enough to get a hit then it's five or six or seven years of this kind of work.
Judd Apatow, together with me and Lena, we're all the showrunners of 'Girls.'
Let me tell you about being executive producer. It is not a job, it's a title. Don't go around asking executive producers what they do because they don't do anything, alright?
People who haven't done commercials, don't appreciate how hard it is.
I think good-looking people seldom make good television. And American television studios almost concede before they start: 'Well, it won't be good, but at least it'll be good-looking. We'll have nice-looking girls in tight shirts with F.B.I. badges and fit-looking guys with lots of hair gel vaulting over things.'
HBO and I have a deal to at least try to make a television series from the Leonid McGill stories. We're going to start with the first novel, 'The Long Fall.'
I love good TV shows, but it's not what I do. I kind of sculpt my films as I go along. And TV is all about writing, so you just shoot, shoot, shoot what's written.
I have a lot of faith in our showrunners.
If we have anything to offer, as filmmakers and as TV makers now, it's this ability to feel as close to a documentary as you can get in a narrative form.
