Words matter. These are the best Dick Wolf Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The threat to free television. The reason television is free is because it is a life support system for commercials. That fundamental aspect is about to change.
I would say that if you really wished to be a working member of the community, don’t go out on strike because then there’s no work and no potential of work.
I get bored with establishing shots of people getting out of cars and walking into buildings, getting into elevators and then 45 seconds later they have a line.
Their argument is that most shows are losers, which is true, but it’s also disingenuous to say, ‘We are not going to take the risk unless it is totally covered by the few successful shows that are out there.’
The ad revenues still go up because nothing dependably delivers the eyeballs that successful series do.
There are professional negotiators working for the writers and the actors, but basically you’ve got the writers and actors negotiating against businessmen. That’s why you get rhetoric.
There are other options out there, after all, like read a book, go on the Internet, rent a movie.
It’s show business. No show, no business.
I think most people don’t react well to being screamed at. It’s counterproductive.
People recognize certain things, like ‘D’ means ‘this dialogue stinks.’ We’re dealing with shows that are written here, shot in New York and posted back here. Accurate communication is a necessity.
If the scripts are not good, I’ll tell somebody, ‘This isn’t good.’
As soon as you become complacent your show gets canceled.
I hardly see myself as a futurist.
The environment doesn’t change that radically. You are still going to go home at night and NBC is going to be there, ABC and CBS will still be there.
You have this disturbing reality that there are a lot of people who would rather say, ‘I’m on strike’ than ‘I’m unemployed.’ And those are the people who vote for strikes.
Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off.
And the consumer doesn’t care. They don’t watch networks, they watch TV shows.
People do have viewing patterns, and you disrupt those at your own peril. That’s something that everybody learned after 1988. The numbers have gone down every year since that strike. Big time.
If you’re going to vote on a television contract, there is a certain rationality to saying that the same structures that are applied to Health Plan participation should be placed on the right to vote on a strike.
I try to just communicate what I want done as clearly and simply as possible.
There was an interesting article in Los Angeles Magazine about women directors. A woman director makes one bad independent film and her career is over. Guys tend to get an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
I don’t think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.
The most positive step is to try to expand the employment base by making it, if not economically friendly, at least not economically disastrous, for studios to take on deficits.
The agendas on the management side of the table now are not in sync like they used to be because you have vastly different entities supplying programming to networks.
TIVO executives stand up and say, ‘Well, we’re not getting rid of commercials, but we are letting them fast forward, because people like commercials, and if they see one that they like they stop and watch it.’ I mean, please.
