The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Dick Wolf
American
Producer
About the author
If the scripts are not good, I'll tell somebody, 'This isn't good.'
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Time
#People
#Numbers
I was raised not to be rude, but I also try to get the best work out of people.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Work
I try to just communicate what I want done as clearly and simply as possible.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Want
I think most people don't react well to being screamed at. It's counterproductive.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Being
I hardly see myself as a futurist.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Walking
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Want
#Television
#Audiences
I do love television. But the business is accelerating and people are not getting the chance to fail.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Love
#People
#Chance
#Television
#Business
Everybody knows things are not the same. The people running the TV end of a major vertically integrated company know how much money a successful show can make.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Successful
#End
#Money
#Running
#Company
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Right
#Saying
#Television
#Vote
#Health
#Participation
When it went on the air, the sales department hated it. It was the highest advertising pullout show in the history of NBC. At the early focus groups, people were saying, 'Who are these people? Why should we watch them?
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Saying
#History
#Focus
#Advertising
#Sales
There are other options out there, after all, like read a book, go on the Internet, rent a movie.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Internet
#Options
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Vote
#Reality
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Writers
#Actors
#Rhetoric
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Film
#Career
#Mistakes
#Woman
#Opportunity
#Women
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
The story drove the book. That had a very seminal effect on the way I saw writing and storytelling. If you can set a character in a story that is compelling and has a backbone, you draw people in.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Character
#People
#Writing
#Effect
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Life
#Support
#Reason
#Television
#Change
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.'
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Successful
#Risk
#Argument
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Positive
As soon as you become complacent your show gets canceled.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
Advertising is the art of the tiny. You have to tell a complete a story and deliver a complete message in a very encapsulated form. It disciplines you to cut away extraneous information.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Art
#Information
#Advertising
Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Comedy
#Drama
#Programming
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Work
#Community
#Potential
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Necessity
#Communication
The ad revenues still go up because nothing dependably delivers the eyeballs that successful series do.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Successful
#Nothing
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Now
#Management
#Programming
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.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Will
#Home
#Night
#Change
#Environment
The heart and soul of network programming is series programming, the weekly repetition of characters you like having in your house.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Heart
#Soul
#Repetition
#Network
#Programming
It's show business. No show, no business.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Business
It was like in Samoa when they'd put up a movie screen on the beach and show movies and the locals would run behind the sheet to see where the people went. It was pretty grim.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#People
#Pretty
#Movies
#Beach
And the consumer doesn't care. They don't watch networks, they watch TV shows.
Dick Wolf,
American
Producer
#Care