Interview mit Stephen J. Cannell (engl.)

[Dan Tanna Spenser]

Producer Stephen J. Cannell

"In the 1980s Stephen J. Cannell defined the state of the art of the prime-time action/adventure hour. No one was more prolific as a series creator (both individually and collaboratively), or as a writer, producer, executive producer, or even as a studio head." (Marc, pg. 205)

Jack Webb started the TV crime series with his white, middle-aged Republican protagonists. Beginning in the late 1960s, Aaron Spelling integrated the drama. Then Cannell took it from there with The Rockford Files (NBC, 1974-80), The A-Team (NBC, 1983-87) and Wiseguy (CBS, 1987-90).

Born May 2, 1941, Cannell grew up in a Pasadena mansion. His parents, Joseph and Caroline, were loving and firm. His dad was an entrepreneur, best known for his chain of furniture stores. Stephen struggled through school, unable to spell. Later in life, he was diagnosed with dyslexia.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Oregon in Eugene, dropping classes when he encountered teachers who would penalize him for spelling mistakes.

A creative writing instructor at the University of Oregon encouraged Cannell. "He told me, 'You have a gift, and you should never stop writing.' That gave me courage."

Stephen graduated from college in 1964. He married Marcia, his high school sweetheart. (They have two daughters, a son and two grandchildren. Their eldest child, Derek, died in 1981 at age 15. A sand fort he was building on the beach collapsed and suffocated him.)

Cannell went to work for his father. He drove a truck during hte day and wrote scripts at night. After five years of writing five hours a night, Cannell sold nothing. He concentrated on "spec" scripts for television, believing that was the best opportunity to make a living doing what he loved.

In 1968, Stephen sold his first script to the show It Takes a Thief. He was hired as a writer and story editor by Universal, a factory of almost indistinguishable TV programs. Though known for quantity over quality, and speed over detail, as well as profits over everything, Universal pioneered the made-for-TV movie, the rotating "umbrella seris and the miniseries. (Marc, pg. 206)

Universal made so much product that it frequently gave rookies like Cannell the chance to direct or produce episodes and series years before anyone else would've taken such a chance.

During the late sixties and early seventies, Cannell wrote for such shows as Adam 12, Ironside, Columbo, The D.A., Madigan, Jigsaw and Escape. He created eight shows for the studio: Chase, The Rockford Files, Baretta, City of Angels, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Richie Brockelman Private Eye, The Duke and Stone. His signature style: "Macho male camaraderie among rightminded heroes too profoundly individualistic to be establishment figures, high-speed chases (By land, air, or sea), mountains of twisted metal, and the triumph of Good (though not necessarily the Establishment) over Evil." (Marc, pg. 207)

Cannell worked for such pioneers as Jack Webb and Roy Huggins, Cannell's mentor during the early seventies.

In 1979, Stephen's Universal contract ran out and he formed his own production company, Stephen J. Cannell Productions. His first show was Tenspeed and Brownshoe, which ran in 1980 on ABC.

A gentle soul, Lionel Whitney, nicknamed Brownshoe (Jeff Goldblum), allows his love of hardboiiled detective fiction to become a private eye rather than a stockbroker, as his family wishes. The scripts frequently refer to Brownshoe's favorite novelist "Stephen J. Cannell." Brownshoe at times offers his favorite quotation from "Cannell." The show was a ratings dud and Cannell was deeply in debt. The 1980-81 season was the first in six years to open without a Cannell show in primetime.

His next show The Greatest American Hero (ABC, 1981-81) garnered modest ratings. It's his first show to finish with the now familiar company logo of Cannell working away at a typewriter that launches the written page onto the video screen at the end of every episode.

As the 1982-83 season opened, Stephen was in perilous financial straights. His company was saved by The A-Team (NBC, 1983-87).

According to one story, Brandon Tartikoff, the head of NBC Entertainment, loved the 1981 Australian film The Road Warrior and he sought a series that would puts its vigilante themes into a contemporary American setting. Cannell mentioned The A-Team idea to Tartikoff who replied: "The A-Team: Mission: Impossible, The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven, all rolled into one and Mr. T. drives the car."

The premise of the series was stated by an unseen narrator at the opening of each episode: "Ten years ago a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security military stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, maybe you can hire... The A-Team."

According to the book Prime Time, Prime Movers: "Contemporaneously with Sylvester Stallone, Cannell helped initiate a historical revision of the Vietnam era that would become a central theme of American popular culture during the 1980s.

"The success of the A-Team changed the way that Cannell made television. Abandoning the craftsmanlike personal approach that had characterized each project from Rockford to The Greatest American Hero, he sent his studio into assemblyline production. Cannell himself began to refer to the company's work as the "manufacturing" of television programs. By the mideighties he would be supplying the networks with as many as six prime-time series in a single season." (Marc, pg. 212)

Hardcastle and McCormick (ABC, 1983-86) featured Hardcastle (Brian Keith), a retired judge who, during his career on the bench, was forced by the criminal justice system to let criminals go free. Now he operates in the private sector delivering justice to the criminals the "system" forced him to let go.

Cannell secured the licensing rights to the merchandise inspired by the Rambo films, including action toys, chewing gum, and lunch boxes.

Riptide (NBC, 1984-86) was about three Vietnam vets who form their own detective service while living out of a cabin cruiser moored in a Southern California harbor.

Hunter (NBC, 1984-91) was one of Cannell's "longest running, if least-celebrated hits." The protagonist Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) is a cop and his partner is a woman, Dee Dee McCall (Stephanie Kramer). In an episode written by Cannell, Hunter knocks a suspect unconscious and then suggests to McCall that she read the scum his rights before he wakes up.

In 1987, Cannell supplied the new Fox TV network with its first hit - 21 Jump Street - a group of cops who pose as high school students. Stephen also created Wiseguy, his most critically acclaimed series after The Rockford Files. Wiseguy introduced the "arc" structure to prime-time series television, running stories for up to ten weeks before coming to a narrative climax. This new format combines elements of the nighttime soap opera (e.g. Dallas) with the action/adventure series.

"With its intelligent dialogue, its attempts at thick characterization, and its socially critical swipes at current events, Wiseguy is perhaps best understood as a high-IQ adaptation of The A-Team aimed at an upmarket audience." (Marc, pg. 215) Television was now shifting its commercial emphasis from grabbing the most viewers to targeted demographics.

A change in federal regulations made the life of independent producing too difficult. So in 1995, Cannell sold his TV empire to New World Communications (now owned by 20th Century Fox) for $30 million. He published his first novel in 1996 and has ground out one a year since then. He still oversees syndicated TV programming like Renegade and feature films.

An article in Forbes on "Hollywood's Idea Moguls," contains this on Cannell:

"He remembers getting $1 million a year plus a cut of the back end at his peak. His output: Adam 12, Baretta, and The Rockford Files. The trouble was that in calculating the net, Universal was charging him for everything on the lot, including the caterers in the commissary and the tram drivers working the back lot tour. In eight years of service, he saw little more than his fee.

"So in 1979 Cannell financed his own company with a $60 million line of credit and went on to produce 35 hour-long series, including The A- Team, Hunter and The Greatest American Hero. Suddenly the profits were real, but he was a little ahead of the boom and on the wrong side of the business. Cannell had no sitcoms to sell. In 1996 he sold out to New World Communications for $30 million, a modest windfall by current standards.

"He's since decided that this market is too hot to let even his old shows languish in a vault. A rapidly expanding pay-TV market overseas has given life to libraries of hour-long dramas that historically had limited resale value. Earlier this year Cannell reacquired his library from News Corp., New World's parent, in exchange for an 8% distribution fee. In August, a few days before flying off on a Westwind jet to his 150- foot yacht docked in the Mediterranean, Cannell signed a deal that brought him $5 million from a handful of European territories." (Forbes, 9/21/98)

On March 8, 2002, I met producer Stephen J. Cannell at his office building on Hollywood and La Brea Blvds. Like his building, Cannell stands tall, straight and impressive. He wears gold jeans and an army jacket.

Luke: "I've spent hours reading about you. Is there any one book or article that you think best captures you?"

Stephen: "Most of them are condensed. One guy wrote his doctorate thesis on me but it was so wrong. I'm willing to cop to shortcomings but this guy had two theories. And one theory was that everything I was writing was chronicling my personal life and career at the major studios."

Luke: "That's interesting."

Stephen: "But it's stupid. He was so fascinated by life at the studios that if I wrote Baretta as a wild man, it was because I was angry at Universal. But I was never angry at Universal. Those guys were all my friends. I'm still friends with all of them. Then he had a theory of recombinance - that the same themes reoccurred over and over again in my life and writing. And there's some truth to that. But then he'd pick on episodes of some series, the scripts of which I didn't even write, that was similar to something I'd done in 1980. It was a doctorate thesis written by some kid. I interviewed with him because I wanted to help him but then I'd really disagreed with his conclusions.

"I know what my motor is. I know how I write. I know what intrigues me. I know how I get my ideas. And I'm certainly not writing my own biography every time I sit down at the typewriter. There is one theme that reoccurs throughout my work - underdogs. I prefer underdogs. If that's recombinance, then I cop to that. As a dramatist, I'd rather write about David than Goliath.

"There have been some nice puff pieces, which have made me look much better than I am."

Luke: "I haven't seen any one slam you?'

Stephen: "I don't get slammed often. I got slammed once in Time magazine around 1983. I was hot at the time. And both Time and Newsweek asked to do a story on me at the same time. I picked Time because it was a little more prestigious magazine. This lady called me from Time and I brought her in like I'm talking to you. And I talked to her. And she shadowed me around. And she writes her article. She calls me up for the fact-checking part of it. And she says, 'It's a good article. You're going to enjoy it. It's really turned out good. I'm really happy with it. And you'll be pleased.'

"So now the article comes out and it's titled, 'The Merchant of Mayhem.' And it is a complete character assassination of me top to bottom. It says that I am an egotist and that I do everything for money. There wasn't one nice thing about anything in there. So I called her up. 'I just saw the article in Time and I've got to tell you, I'm not real happy with it.' And she starts to cry on the phone. I say, 'Don't cry. It's not the end of the world. I can take it.' And she says, 'No, no. It's not the article I wrote. It's nothing like what I wrote.' So I said, 'Who wrote it?' She said, 'I can't tell you but it isn't my article. And I apologize to you.'

"So I look at the bottom of the article and there's another name down there - Harry F. Waters, the entertainment editor of Time magazine. So I call the guy up. I've never met him. 'Harry, Stephen Cannell.' He goes, 'Oh yeah, hi.' 'Listen, I'm curious about this article in Time magazine. I hear that you rewrote it.' He said, 'I didn't get what I wanted from my writer in Los Angeles and so we did some changes.'

"I said, 'I may have a healthy ego but I don't know that I'm an egotist. People have to have healthy egos in this business because there's so much rejection. If you don't have a healthy ego, you get run out of the game. But I don't go around beating on my chest. As far as doing anything for money, I've never done anything for money. I was born wealthy.'

"He stops me right there. And he says, 'I've read your press package. Nobody's ever written anything bad about you. Maybe you just can't stand the heat.' I said, 'Well Harry, if you wrote, which I am now assuming you did, maybe you're just a complete asshole calling me an egotist when you've never met me. How can you make a personal evaluation of what kind of human being I am when you've never met me? It's perfectly ok by me if you hate my television, but to brand me an egotist and a money grubber never having spent a second in my presence.'

"Then he goes in to this whole thing about how he loved the Rockford Files and Tenspeed and Brownshoe and he hated the A-Team. And his whole opinion of me as a sellout was that I'd done two shows he loved and now I'd turned on him. So he decided that he was going to smack me. The whole reason that he put her on the story was to get a negative article. And when she didn't write it, because she came out and met me and she had some sense of who I was... I'm a lot of things but I am not what he wrote. That was the one time I felt hammered.

"A friend told me this once. 'The press is like a fuzzy cute furry little puppy and we all want to hold the puppy. But sometimes it bites you.' And I was holding the puppy and I got bit. So you've just got to laugh about it and move on. Nobody remembers that article except me and Harry Waters and the woman he rewrote. Most of what has been written about me has been positive. And I think that's because my motives for doing what I'm doing are simple. I really just want to make something that I like, whether it's Rockford or Wiseguy or Tenspeed or A-Team, when I was making each of those shows well, I'd go home, watch them, and go, 'Yes!'"

Cannell makes a fist.

"One of the things that has surprised a lot of people, particularly my critics, is that such diverse product has come out of one head. You wouldn't think that the person who did Wiseguy would've also done the A-Team."

Luke: "Surely you are revealed in your body of work? What does your body of work say about you?"

Stephen: "Some things but not everything. There are certain things that intrigue me as a writer that wouldn't intrigue somebody else. And I can't say what those things are. I tend to enjoy writing comedy more than heavy drama. But I'm good at writing dark things like Wiseguy. Several of my novels (The Viking Funeral, Final Victim) are dark.

"I'd imagine that my preference for underdogs and flawed characters comes from my own beginnings as a bad student, an underdog, dyslexic, branded the 'stupidest' kid in the class. I do respond emotionally to underdogs. I much prefer the flaws of my characters to the strengths. I don't find Superman to be an entertaining character. I enjoyed watching the Superman movies because of the special effects, but as a character, Superman doesn't appeal to me because he has too much going for him. One flaw - Kryptonite - and that only shows up occasionally. The guy's good looking, jumps buildings, bend steel bars... What's the problem?

"I much prefer a guy like Rockford who's put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The cops think he's guilty all the time. His father thinks he's a jerk for being a private eye rather than a truck driver, which he views as a good solid manly job instead of running around trying to find divorced women's husbands. Rockford's flaws and his own sense of self-irony made him a fun character for me to write. I was always looking for the flaws in my characters. If you run down the list, the A-Team had the most flawed characters of any show I've created. Everybody on that show was dysfunctional.

"On Wiseguy, Vinnie Terranova was constantly in a moral struggle with himself. He had a set of values as a blue collar cop and all of a sudden he's undercover and accepted by a Mafia family in the first arc, he's driving some guy's Porsche and living in a high rise apartment with a view of the city. He's hanging out with a bunch of actresses from Broadway shows. All of a sudden he's being seduced by the very thing he's trying to bust.

"When I pitched that at NBC, and told them I was going to take five weeks to tell every story, they didn't want to do it. So I had to keep pitching it. I pitched it about ten times and I never sold it. But about four years later, I sold it to CBS and got it on the air. I never gave up on it. It was the flaw that attracted me. This guy struggling to stay on due north when all the input around him was driving him to want to veer south."

Luke: "Did you have to struggle to stay on due north?"

Stephen: "No I didn't because I love this work. It was what I wanted. My father was my greatest hero in life. My dad was a totally ethical guy, a tremendous role model for me, and my best friend. He taught me how to be and how to think and how not to take myself too seriously. He made me realize that you had to be a team player to get anywhere. All those things were ingrained in me.

"And I was raised with money. My father [Joseph] was a self-made millionaire. My sister and were raised great. I went to private schools even though I didn't get fuck all out of them. I was expected to learn. All I've ever wanted was to be a good writer. And in my own mind, I'm an OK writer who's struggling always to get better. I have friends that I think are better than me. I read other novelists and think, 'Wow, this person is so great. Maybe one day I'll be like him.' And that keeps me growing.

"My own fastball doesn't seem that good to me. I throw it real easy. Other writers tell me, 'Oh man, you're the best.' But since they're usually talking about my easy pitch, I tend not to believe them. And I'm looking at someone else's fastball and thinking, 'Wow, I could never do that.' I'm always calling writers that I admire to go to lunch with them.

"I was just reading Andrew Klavan's book, Man and Wife, and thinking, 'I could stretch in that direction.' So I'm now writing a book called Love at First Sight, which is a strange and different novel for me. It's nothing like his book at all but I'm using some of the technique that I saw in his book. I'm using the I-narrative. This guy displays his flaws more than his own strengths as he tells his narrative. I've never written a book in the I-narrative before."

Luke: "Who are your writer heroes?"

Stephen: "David Chase (Sopranos) is one. We worked together on Rockford. I created the show and I was a boy wonder. And I remember the first script of his that I ever read and I thought it was one of the best scripts I'd ever read. Better than anything I'd ever done on the show. I'm supposed to be the guru-writer of the show and I've got a guy working for me who's better than me. Instead of being frightened of his talent, I embraced. I learned many writing techniques from David.

"Steve Bochco is another huge talent. We created a show together - Richie Brockelman Private Eye [1976]. At the time we created the show, I was the hot guy at Universal. I had Rockford, Baretta, Baa Baa Black Sheep... All primetime network shows. Everything I was creating was going on the air. Bochco on the other hand was in purgatory at Universal. He'd been a writer-producer on a show called Griff [1973], which did not work. And the executive producer, rather than taking the blame, which he should've because he was in charge, told the head of the studio that Bochco was doing the show. So Steve, at age 25, owned that whole network failure. And he ended up hiding out as the story editor of McMillan and Wife [1971-76].

"Steven and I were friends on the lot. I was the David E. Kelley of that moment. We'd go to lunch together. One day, I had a meeting at the tower with Frank Price, head of the Universal studio. Frank asked me if I had any ideas for a new series. I could sell almost anything at that time. Without giving any thought to it at all, I said, 'Yeah, I've got this idea about a young guy who's a surfer and a private detective. He's got a surfboard on his car. He's up every morning busting through the curl at Malibu.' Frank says, 'I love it. I can sell it.' He took such a huge bit out of this thing. And I'm going down in the elevator, and by the time I get to the bottom floor, I hated the idea.

"I was scheduled to have lunch that day with Bochco at this Mexican restaurant near Warner Brothers. We were sitting there having a margarita and looking at each other. And he says, 'What's wrong? You're looking really down.' I said, 'I just pitched this idea to Frank Price and he took this huge bite out of it. And it's just about the worst idea I've ever had.'

"Steve said, 'Let's hear it.'

"I told him my idea and he thought it was a good idea. Steve said, 'But you've got the wrong take. It's not about surfing, it's about age. What if he looks so young nobody will take him seriously? What if clients walk into his office, see a guy who looks 16-years old sitting there and they do a U-turn and they're gone? So he has to get the guy down at the end of the hall who's an accountant to pretend to be him. So he tells the clients, 'No, no. I'm not Richie Brockelman. Let me go down the hall and get my dad.'

"So we sat there until 5PM banging this thing out, putting the bones on it, coming up with the pilot idea [Richie Brockelman Private Eye]. So when we were done, Boch said, 'This will be great. Go sell this to Frank.' And I say, 'Boch, you've got to do it with me.' And he says, 'I'm not going to do it. They think I suck.' And they did because he'd been battered so badly by this experience on Griff.

"I said, 'I would never have gone in this direction if it weren't for you. I just had a stupid idea. You've got it going in the right direction. I'm not going to write this without you.' He goes, 'Well, if you put my name on it, there's no way it will ever go beyond the first meeting.'

"I said, OK, why don't we just write it on spec? And when we send it up to the Tower, I'll just put a cover page on it with no name. Once it's sold it, I'll say, 'By the way, this is a co-authored script with Bochco.'

"I called Frank Price up and said, 'I've got an idea for the script. I'm going to start work on it.' And Frank said, 'I've already talked to NBC. They love it. They want to go forward.'

"Boch wrote half the script and I wrote half. We wrote a 90-minute pilot and sent it up to the studio with no cover page. NBC loved it. Then I said, 'Oh, by the way, Bochco is my co-author.' And by that time, they didn't care because they had it sold.

"I always knew Steven Bochco would be huge. I was surprised that it took David Chase so long because David was as good when we did Rockford in 1976 as he is today.

"I love Dick Wolf, David Kelley, Don Bellisario. I gave him his first script assignment."

Luke: "Who are some of the other people who've worked for you?"

Stephen: "Frank Lupo, Patrick Hasburg (21 Jump Street) , Juanita Bartlett, Randall Wallace (Braveheart, We Were Soldiers), David Burke. Director Rob Bowman worked here as a gopher and then as a production assistant. I gave him his first directing jobs. He went on to do the X-Files feature. My job as a studio owner was to find people who were young and inexperienced but I thought had talent. I could buy them cheap and I would train them. Often they were diamonds in the rough and they didn't know how to plot a story or understand three act structure. I'd try to make them stars. If a writer did a good job on the script, and the picture turned out good, I would always take the writer to the network with me. We'd physically screen our pictures for the network. It was a great chance to expose young writers to the network. The network would tend to give me all the credit. But I wasn't going to be able to grow my studio if everybody thought I was the only person with any ability over here.

"If it was a good movie and I brought the writer over and gave him credit, you could just see the writer begin to grow in their eyes. At some point, I would want that writer to have a pilot. And if the network wouldn't go for it, often I'd have to say that I'd co-write. I hated doing that because I much preferred writing my own stuff. But to get the writer that first gig, I'd do it. And if you'd ever see anything that was cowritten by me and another writer, that writer's name is on top. I always took the second credit. my goal was to push those people up.

"Eventually, the network would offer these guys million dollar contracts. I'd be paying them half that. The writers would come in to me and say, 'What am I going to do? I want to stay here but Disney is offering me one million.' I'd tell them to go. You can't turn a million dollar deal down. I can't match it. So I'd be constantly looking for the new young person."

Luke: "Did you know that you had the producer in you?"

Stephen: "My dad was my hero. He was an entrepreneur. He taught me that you need to support other people to be successful. My father used to say, 'Don't go around catching someone doing something wrong. Catch someone doing something right. It's much more effective.' And as a kid, I used to watch him do it because I worked for him in the summers. He owned a bunch of furniture stores. Cannel & Chaffin. He'd walk the floor on these furniture stores and he'd see something he'd like. And he'd stop and ask, 'Who did this?' 'Oh, Lowell did that.'

"My dad would hunt Lowell up and say, 'Lowell, come here. That is great. We need more like that.' He always had people just churning to do more.

"When I was at Universal, I believed in the value of a contract. It would never occur to me to threaten breach of contract to get a better deal. I signed a deal as a head writer to make $600 a week. I was the cheapest writer on the lot. It was the lowest deal you could do by Writers Guild standards. But I'd been working for my dad for $7000 a year. I was at Universal for eight years and I never renegotiated my deal but once. It was late in my arrangement with Universal. There was one thing in my deal that my agent had managed to get in there - I had good fees for my pilots. The reason they did it is that they never thought I was going to write a pilot. So they'd give me $70,000 to write a two-hour pilot and a $100,000 production bonus if it ever got made. Then I became the hottest pilot writer at Universal. I was writing two or three pilots a season. I was making $400,000 a year in pilot fees.

"Because people wanted me to write pilots, I eventually had four shows on for Universal. And I was so under water, that I couldn't do any pilots. So in success, my gross income went down. So my agent said to Universal, 'Steve's been so successful that he can't do a pilot this year. He's got four shows on the air. This is good for Universal but bad for Steve.' And they said, 'Yeah, we see the problem. And we'll address it but we want two more years on his contract.'

"So I called up Sid Sheinberg, the head of the studio at the time. I told him the problem and added, 'You've got to know that if you don't give me a dollar, that's OK I signed this contract and I will live up to the terms of it. And I'm not going to come in here and limp my way through the next two years. I'm going to come in here and swing from my heels like I always have. I just thought you guys wouldn't want to see me get punished because I did a good job for you. But I'm not going to give you two years.'

"Sid didn't know what to do. He wasn't used to hearing this kind of presentation. I didn't threaten him. I just asked him to be paid. There was no anger and no recrimination. And a month later, he changed my deal. My father would say, 'Live up to your agreements.' I used to call him up and ask what I should do. And he'd say, 'Son, you're only as good as your word in life. If you give some guy your hand, they'll always remember that you didn't renege on it. Even if it wasn't in your best interests, that commitment will follow you through your entire career. That story will get told. And that's more valuable than the money.

"Another thing I learned was that many of my friends had a tendency to overvalue themselves. I remember having lunch with a talented writer, producer and director. And he was trying to renegotiate to get his fees improved. So I was the wrong guy to be talking to.

"I sat listening to him yammer about how good he was. And what a talent he was. And how Universal didn't know what they had. I'm thinking, this guy needs to cool down. And he says, 'If I leave this goddam show, nobody else can do it. Not a soul on this fucking lot can do it.' So when he took a breath, I leaned across the table and said, 'I can do it. I can do it good. If they call me up and ask me to do your show, I'll do it. You'll probably see the difference and I'll see the difference. But nobody watching television will see the difference. Calm down. You're going to make an enemy out of this studio. Don't do it. You're too angry. And you're wrong. I can do your show and you can do mine.'

"I used to see so much of that. People saying, 'We've been ripped off. We've been screwed. The studio is fucking us.' They're fucking you? You're making more money than heart surgeons, and many of you didn't even get out of college. They're fucking you? Maybe compared to other people in show business but this is never-never land. We should all be spanked for cashing our checks. This is lunacy.

"Everybody bought into that lunacy but I never did because my dad was so pragmatic. I'd say to myself, 'I'm lucky I'm here because these people don't know what a dollar's worth.' Since I was 13, I had to go to work in my father's factories. I was working with Mexican-Americans who had nothing. Who had no education and had no chance to see what was in life and the world. I'd work all summer with a guy and like the guy and I'd realize how limited his whole existence was because he didn't have opportunity. And I'm being paid all this money to sit down and tell stories. And that guy's working eight-hour shifts on a screenprinting machine in 100 degree heat for a little over minimum wage. Get the fuck out of here.

"Even though I was raised with in a lush environment, I was raised by a man determined that I wasn't going to become a bratty spoiled kid, and that I was going to know the value of a dollar. And that I wasn't going to hang out at the tennis club all summer. When I got to Universal, it meant something to me to make my shows for the money. If Universal told me that I had to make a Rockford Files episode for X number of dollars, I'd make it. And I really cared that I got it in the can for that price. They were paying my salary and I was their employee and I was being given an order. I understood on a business level that there is only so much profit studios can make on every hour of this stuff and if I spent twice the budget, I'd eat up the profit.

"I would work to stay on budget. And quickly the production department knew I was a good guy. The guys in the Universal production building knew that I gave a shit about that problem. So if I couldn't get a show on pattern budget, I'd tell them.

"Every series has a pattern budget - what the average show ought to cost. They're all custom shows, but we're not making Fords that all look the same. So each show would budget out differently though we'd have a pattern for what each show ought to cost. We'd shoot three days on the lot and four days off the lot... We'd use X number of actors as day players and guest stars. X number of stunts. Let's say that Rockford back then would cost $650,000 [per episode]. And that was your pattern budget. And every show had to be on or below pattern before they would approve it.

"Sometimes you'd squeeze 'em down so they would be on pattern, but they weren't realistic boards. So when you went out and shot them, there'd be a lot of overtime and then you'd have a fucking budget disaster. And the production department would yell at you and drag you into meetings. There was constant shit like that going on all the time. Producers on the lot wouldn't cut their scripts to bring them down to budget. So the production department wouldn't let the producers cast.

"The reality is that the better actors in the guest star acting pool work all the time. If you could get to the actor you wanted eight days before shooting, he might be available. But if it's two days before, he's probably already working.

"After I'd produced for a year or two, they realized that I took the pattern budget seriously. If I couldn't get a show on pattern, I'd call up Dick Berni, who was head of production at Universal. 'Dick, I've got a problem with this show. Let me tell you why it is going to go 10-15% over pattern. And here's the problem I can't solve. Maybe you can help me.' And eventually, he'd let me have the extra 15% if I promised to get it back to him in the next two shows. And they trusted me. So I got some leeway that the other guys didn't get.

"When my eight-year contract with Universal expired in 1979, they offered me over a million dollars a year to re-sign. No writer had ever been offered a million dollar deal. I was flattered but I started thinking. I created all these shows and I make no money from them. I just get my fee and a tiny creator royalty. The programs are owned by Universal. If they make $300 million from the Rockford Files, I get none of that. Then my entrepreneurial spirit kicked in. And wanting to be my dad, my hero, I went to him and asked, 'What do you think? Do you think I should try to form my own independent studio?' If you look around, you'll see that David E. Kelly and Steve Bochco Productions are all underwritten by major studios. Those are Fox-owned shows.

"I decided that I didn't want to have a studio as a partner. I wanted to be myself and own my own shows. My dad asked, 'Can you do it?' I said, 'I think so. I think I understand how this animal works. I learned how to control budgets for Universal. I think I can do it for myself.'

"So I walked away from that Universal deal and I formed Cannell Studios. I made a deal with ABC. They guaranteed me three pilots. It was a complicated deal with trigger mechanisms in it for extra series and other things. I signed up. I went off and made Tenspeed and Brownshoe, for which I won a Writers Guild award for the Best Screenplay of 1981. It was a good script and I really needed a good script on my first privately produced deal."

Luke: "And it was touch and go for you the first three years?"

Steve: "I made a lot of mistakes. It turned out that I didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't as smart as I thought I was.

"At the beginning of Tenspeed, I had a small company. I was trying to keep my overhead down, something I learned from my dad. You know what an alligator is? It's a business where the overhead eats the equity. I didn't want my company to be an alligator.

"The pilot sold. We were shooting the first episode of Tenspeed. And I said to Alex Beaton, my line producer, 'I came in to my office this morning and I didn't see my daily production report.'

"At Universal, producers would get a daily production report on their desk every morning. The top of the report would have the budget of the show and then under that would be whatever additions or subtractions occurred when we shot last night. If we went over two hours, into union golden time, there's probably $15,000 in add-ons. If we went under an hour, maybe there'd be a $2000 savings. Underages never equal overages. If something went wrong, like our camera got hit by a car, that would be in there. And then at the end, it would have a new adjusted budget for the show. And that was important. You could look at the new budget and drive the show economically. 'Geez, we're $100,00 over. Maybe we don't need 40 extras in this party scene. Maybe we can get away with 20.' But if you don't know what things cost you, you're flying blind.

"So Alex said to me, 'There isn't a daily production report.' And I was personally at risk. I said, 'How can there not be a report?' And Alex said, 'Steve, there's a whole building at Universal that generated these things for you every morning. A whole building that works all night long. And we've got one production accountant and he's working on next week's show.'

"I asked, 'How many people do we need?' Alex said that we needed at least four people to track this stuff and they won't be up to speed until the fourth episode. I couldn't afford four people. And by the time of the fourth episode, I could be out a million dollars out of my own pocket. It had never occurred to me that I wouldn't be getting a daily production report every day because I'd never looked behind the curtain.

"I finally hired two people and they were slow getting these numbers to me. Well after the episode wrapped, I'd find out that I'd spent $250,000 of my own money. Then the next episode wrapped, and I'd find out that I'd spent another $250,000 of my own money. I was only 32 years old. I was thinking, 'I don't want to sell my house over this.' The network gives you a license fee for a show but it generally doesn't cover your entire cost of production. You sell your foreign rights, and if you're careful, you can get close to covering your costs. [The big TV payday comes in syndication.]

"I'm thinking that I'm going to be in debtor's prison by the end of this 13-episode production. I called Tony Themopolis, head of ABC. 'Tony, I have a major problem. I'm trying to manage a new studio. I've got the final figures on the first two shows and I'm out half a million dollars. And you know that's out of my pocket. If this keeps on, I will be out of business. I need you guys to underwrite some of this.'

"Tony says, 'I see you problem. And the shows look really nice. But we have a contract.' I said, 'I know we have a contract. I'm begging you to give me some relief here.' And I knew at the time that Aaron Spelling had a cost-plus deal at ABC [whereby ABC would shoulder his extra costs], so he could never go into his own pocket. Whatever his overages were, ABC would pay. And Aaron would still own the negatives. Spelling had the best deal in town.

"I didn't want to say, 'Give me Aaron's deal.' They would laugh at me. We had several conversations until I said, 'Tony, I'm going to have to cut the value of the shows down.' He said, 'Don't do that.' I said, 'Put yourself in my place. I don't have any partners. It is me and my wife Marcia. I can't spend $250,000 dollars a week of my own money. I don't have that kind of cash. I only have one option. I have to cut down the value of the shows. I'm going to have to start making some pocket shows.' And he says, "Don't do that. If you do, you'll end your career with ABC.'

"I said, 'Tony, come on man.' He said, 'I'll call you back at 5PM.' He calls me back. 'You keep going the way you're going and we will make some accommodation at the end.' I asked, 'What kind of accommodation?' He said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'Will you put that in writing that you will make an accommodation?' He said no. I said, 'Tony, what if you get hit by a bus?' He said, 'Steve, that's the best I can do.'

"So I had to put my whole life on the line to make the last six episodes of Tenspeed and trust ABC not to let me swing when it's all over, to just look me in the eye and say, 'It didn't work and so we're not going to cover you.' I made a heroic choice to go forward with nothing more than Tony's word. And when it was over, he took care of me. He didn't make me whole completely but he picked up 70%, enough to allow me to stay in business.

"I thought I knew what I was doing, but I plainly didn't. Even though I was a good advocate for Universal, they were still tougher than I was. There were times that they refused me things that I would've probably gone ahead and done if I was my own boss. They wouldn't have let me but I wanted the shows to be better. I didn't want it to look like shit so I'd spend the extra money. When you pile all those things up at the end of the year, it ends up being major dough.

"My overhead was too low and I had to start acquiring more people. Then along comes the A-Team, which we sold to NBC, and suddenly we have our first big hit. And I couldn't afford it. It was costing me half a million dollars a week because of all the stunts. And I knew if I took the stunts out, I didn't have a show. And NBC wasn't about to give me more money. So we had the whole board of my studio in this office and we did a cost analysis and we realized that we wouldn't be able to make our payroll in three months.

"My CFO said we were either going to have to get bank financing or we will have to sell the show to another studio. We'd be selling the number one show on television, which could be worth $100 million. But we've got to be able to stay in the game to collect.

"We hunted around and finally the Wells Fargo bank said they'd be interesting in financing our show. We worked the papers out and there was one thing that seemed odd to me. They wanted me to put my house up along with everything else. So I called my dad and he said not to do it. He asked me how many times had I met with the bank and for how long had we negotiated. I said we'd met four times and negotiated for six weeks. He said don't do it. They will make the deal without it. The only reason that they want your house in the deal is that they want you emotionally committed to this deal. They'll do the deal without making you commit your house. So I kept saying no and they kept saying they wouldn't make the deal. It went right to the eleventh hour on the deal and at the last minute they agreed to make the deal without forcing me to put my house on the line."

Sources:
Marc, David and Thompson, Robert J. Prime Time Prime Movers. Little, Brown & Company. Toronto: 1992.
Gail Pennington, ""ROCKFORD FILES" AND "WISEGUY" MAKE STEPHEN J. CANNELL A TV LEGEND." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 01-25-2001.
Robert La Franco, Hollywood's idea moguls. , Forbes Magazine, 09-21-1998, pp 208.

[Goliath]

Knntest Du es schnell bersetzen...... ?! [4] (Fr mich zu spt es in Englisch zu lesen.)

[Dan Tanna Spenser]

Goliath schrieb am 26.03.2009 22:45 Uhr:
Knntest Du es schnell bersetzen...... ?! [4] (Fr mich zu spt es in Englisch zu lesen.)

Ich habe das Interview via google bersetzer ins Deutsche gebracht.
Wie ihr wit bersetzt google es wortwrtlich, auch wenn manchmal der grammatische Sinn fehlt und sich jetzt etwas merkwrdig liesst. Aber der Kernpunkt ist zu verstehen...

Ein Satz englisch...ein Satz deutsch...etwas mhseelig, habe jetzt leider nicht mehr Zeit. werde es am WE durchfummeln und nur das deutsche stehenlassen.

Regisseur Stephen J. Cannell Cannell

"In the 1980s Stephen J. Cannell defined the state of the art of the prime-time action/adventure hour. No one was more prolific as a series creator (both individually and collaboratively), or as a writer, producer, executive producer, or even as a studio head." "In den 1980er Jahren Stephen J. Cannell definiert den Stand der Technik von der Prime-Time-Action / Adventure Stunde. Niemand war mehr als eine Reihe produktiver Autor (sowohl einzeln als auch gemeinsam), oder als Autor, Produzent, Executive Producer, oder auch als Studio Kopf. " (Marc, pg. 205) (Marc, pg. 205)

Jack Webb started the TV crime series with his white, middle-aged Republican protagonists. Jack Webb startete der TV-Krimi mit seinem weien, mittleren Alters republikanischen Protagonisten. Beginning in the late 1960s, Aaron Spelling integrated the drama. Beginn in den spten 1960er Jahren, Aaron Spelling integriert das Drama. Then Cannell took it from there with The Rockford Files (NBC, 1974-80), The A-Team (NBC, 1983-87) and Wiseguy (CBS, 1987-90). Cannell Dann nahm es von dort aus mit dem Rockford Files (NBC, 1974-80), The A-Team (NBC, 1983-87) und Wiseguy (CBS, 1987-90).

Born May 2, 1941, Cannell grew up in a Pasadena mansion. Geboren 2. Mai 1941, Cannell wuchs in Pasadena Herrenhaus. His parents, Joseph and Caroline, were loving and firm. Seine Eltern, Joseph und Caroline, wurden liebevoll und Unternehmen. His dad was an entrepreneur, best known for his chain of furniture stores. Sein Vater war ein Unternehmer, am besten bekannt fr seine Kette von Mbelhusern. Stephen struggled through school, unable to spell. Stephen kmpfte durch Schule, nicht in der Lage zu schreiben. Later in life, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. Spter im Leben, er wurde mit der Diagnose Legasthenie.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Oregon in Eugene, dropping classes when he encountered teachers who would penalize him for spelling mistakes. Er schloss sein Studium mit einem Bachelor-Abschluss in Englisch an der Universitt von Oregon in Eugene, Drop-Klassen, als er, die Lehrer, die Strafe fr ihn Spellingfehler.

A creative writing instructor at the University of Oregon encouraged Cannell. Ein kreatives Schreiben Dozent an der Universitt von Oregon gefrdert Cannell. "He told me, 'You have a gift, and you should never stop writing.' That gave me courage." "Er hat mir gesagt," Sie haben ein Geschenk, und Sie sollten nie aufhren schriftlich. "Das gab mir Mut."

Stephen graduated from college in 1964. Stephen Absolvent der Hochschule im Jahr 1964. He married Marcia, his high school sweetheart. Er heiratete Marcia, seinen High-School-Freundin. (They have two daughters, a son and two grandchildren. Their eldest child, Derek, died in 1981 at age 15. A sand fort he was building on the beach collapsed and suffocated him.) (Sie haben zwei Tchter, einen Sohn und zwei Enkelkinder. Ihr ltestes Kind, Derek, starb 1981 in Alter von 15 Jahren. Ein Sand Festung wurde er auf dem Strand zusammengebrochen und erstickt ihn.)

Cannell went to work for his father. Cannell ging die Arbeit fr seinen Vater. He drove a truck during hte day and wrote scripts at night. Er fuhr ein Lastwagen whrend hte Tag und schrieb Skripte in der Nacht. After five years of writing five hours a night, Cannell sold nothing. Nach fnf Jahren des Schreibens fnf Stunden pro Nacht, Cannell verkauft nichts. He concentrated on "spec" scripts for television, believing that was the best opportunity to make a living doing what he loved. Er konzentriert sich auf "spec"-Skripte fr das Fernsehen, denn das war die beste Gelegenheit, um ihren Lebensunterhalt zu tun, was er liebte.

In 1968, Stephen sold his first script to the show It Takes a Thief. He was hired as a writer and story editor by Universal, a factory of almost indistinguishable TV programs. In 1968, Stephen verkauft seine erste Skript, das auf die Anzeige Es ist ein Dieb. Er wurde eingestellt als Schriftsteller und Story Editor von Universal, ein Werk von fast ununterscheidbar TV-Programme. Though known for quantity over quality, and speed over detail, as well as profits over everything, Universal pioneered the made-for-TV movie, the rotating "umbrella seris and the miniseries. (Marc, pg. 206) Obwohl bekannt Menge ber die Qualitt und Geschwindigkeit ber Einzelheiten, als auch Gewinn ber alles, Universal Vorreiter der TV-Film, der sich drehende "Dach Seris und der Miniserie. (Marc, pg. 206)

Universal made so much product that it frequently gave rookies like Cannell the chance to direct or produce episodes and series years before anyone else would've taken such a chance. Universal-Produkt so weit, dass sie hufig gab Rookies wie Cannell die Mglichkeit, direkt oder produzieren und Serien-Episoden Jahre vor allen anderen haben wrde, die eine solche Chance.

During the late sixties and early seventies, Cannell wrote for such shows as Adam 12, Ironside, Columbo, The DA, Madigan, Jigsaw and Escape. In den spten sechziger und frhen siebziger Jahre, Cannell schrieb fr eine solche zeigt, wie Adam 12, Ironside, Columbo, Die DA, Madigan, Jigsaw und Escape. He created eight shows for the studio: Chase, The Rockford Files, Baretta, City of Angels, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Richie Brockelman Private Eye, The Duke and Stone. Er hat acht zeigt fr das Studio: Chase, The Rockford Files, Baretta, Stadt der Engel, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Richie Brockelman Private Eye, der Herzog und Stein. His signature style: "Macho male camaraderie among rightminded heroes too profoundly individualistic to be establishment figures, high-speed chases (By land, air, or sea), mountains of twisted metal, and the triumph of Good (though not necessarily the Establishment) over Evil." Seine Handschrift: "Macho mnnliche Kameradschaft unter rightminded Helden auch zutiefst individualistischen zu dem Establishment, High-Speed Chases (Mit Land-, Luft-oder Seeweg), Berge von Twisted Metall, und der Sieg des Guten (wenn auch nicht unbedingt der Einrichtung) ber das Bse. " (Marc, pg. 207) (Marc, pg. 207)

Cannell worked for such pioneers as Jack Webb and Roy Huggins, Cannell's mentor during the early seventies. Cannell arbeitete fr solche Pioniere wie Jack Webb und Roy Huggins, Cannell's Mentor in den frhen siebziger Jahren.

In 1979, Stephen's Universal contract ran out and he formed his own production company, Stephen J. Cannell Productions. In 1979, Stephen's Universal-Vertrag lief aus und grndete er seine eigene Produktionsfirma, Stephen J. Cannell Productions. His first show was Tenspeed and Brownshoe, which ran in 1980 on ABC. Seine erste Show war Tenspeed und Brownshoe, die lief im Jahr 1980 auf ABC.

A gentle soul, Lionel Whitney, nicknamed Brownshoe (Jeff Goldblum), allows his love of hardboiiled detective fiction to become a private eye rather than a stockbroker, as his family wishes. Eine sanfte Seele, Lionel Whitney, den Spitznamen Brownshoe (Jeff Goldblum), lt seine Liebe zu hardboiiled Detective Fiction zu einem privaten Auge nicht als Brsenmakler, als seine Familie wnscht. The scripts frequently refer to Brownshoe's favorite novelist "Stephen J. Cannell." Die Skripte hufig auf Brownshoe's Lieblings-Schriftsteller "Stephen J. Cannell." Brownshoe at times offers his favorite quotation from "Cannell." Brownshoe zu Zeiten bietet seinen Lieblings-Zitat aus "Cannell." The show was a ratings dud and Cannell was deeply in debt. Die Show war ein Bewertungen dud Cannell und war hoch verschuldet. The 1980-81 season was the first in six years to open without a Cannell show in primetime. Die Saison 1980/81 war die erste seit sechs Jahren zu ffnen ohne Cannell in Primetime.

His next show The Greatest American Hero (ABC, 1981-81) garnered modest ratings. Sein nchstes zeigen The Greatest American Hero (ABC, 1981-81) erhielt bescheidenen Bewertungen. It's his first show to finish with the now familiar company logo of Cannell working away at a typewriter that launches the written page onto the video screen at the end of every episode. Es ist seine erste Ausstellung bis zum Ende mit dem bekannten Firmenlogo von Cannell arbeiten entfernt auf einer Schreibmaschine geschrieben, dass startet die Seite auf den Bildschirm am Ende jeder Episode.

As the 1982-83 season opened, Stephen was in perilous financial straights. His company was saved by The A-Team (NBC, 1983-87). Da die Saison 1982/83 erffnet, Stephen in gefhrliche finanzielle Geraden. Seine Firma wurde durch die A-Team (NBC, 1983-87).

According to one story, Brandon Tartikoff, the head of NBC Entertainment, loved the 1981 Australian film The Road Warrior and he sought a series that would puts its vigilante themes into a contemporary American setting. Cannell mentioned The A-Team idea to Tartikoff who replied: "The A-Team: Mission: Impossible, The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven, all rolled into one and Mr. T. drives the car." Nach einer Geschichte, Brandon Tartikoff, der Leiter der ABC-Entertainment, liebte die 1981 australischen Film The Road Warrior, und er suchte eine Reihe, die setzt seine Vigilante Themen in einen zeitgenssischen amerikanischen Einstellung. Cannell auf die A-Team der Idee bis zur Tartikoff, die sich : "Das A-Team: Mission: Impossible, The Dirty Dozen und Die glorreichen Sieben, die alle in einem und Herr T. das Fahrzeug."

The premise of the series was stated by an unseen narrator at the opening of each episode: "Ten years ago a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security military stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, maybe you can hire... The A-Team." Die Prmisse der Serie wurde von einem unsichtbaren Erzhler bei der ffnung der einzelnen Episode: "Vor zehn Jahren ein Riss Kommando wurde ins Gefngnis von einem Militrgericht fr ein Verbrechen, sie nicht verpflichten. Diese Mnner unverzglich escaped von maximal Security Military Stockade der U-Bahn Los Angeles. Heute, noch wollte von der Regierung, sie berleben als Soldaten von Vermgen. Wenn Sie ein Problem haben, wenn sonst niemand helfen kann, vielleicht kann man ... Das A-Team. "

According to the book Prime Time, Prime Movers: "Contemporaneously with Sylvester Stallone, Cannell helped initiate a historical revision of the Vietnam era that would become a central theme of American popular culture during the 1980s. Nach dem Buch Prime Time, Prime Movers: "zeitgleich mit Sylvester Stallone, Cannell half, eine Revision der Vietnam-ra, die zu einem zentralen Thema der amerikanischen Pop-Kultur in den 1980er Jahren.

"The success of the A-Team changed the way that Cannell made television. Abandoning the craftsmanlike personal approach that had characterized each project from Rockford to The Greatest American Hero, he sent his studio into assemblyline production. Cannell himself began to refer to the company's work as the "manufacturing" of television programs. By the mideighties he would be supplying the networks with as many as six prime-time series in a single season." "Der Erfolg des A-Team verndert die Art und Weise aus, dass Cannell Fernsehen. Handwerklich Verzicht auf die persnliche Betreuung, die jedes Projekt zeichnet sich aus Rockford zu den grten amerikanischen Helden, er hat sein Atelier in assemblyline Produktion. Cannell begann sich auf die Gesellschaft Arbeiten wie die "Herstellung" von TV-Programmen. Durch die mideighties er wrde die Versorgung der Netze mit mehr als sechs Prime-Time-Serie in einer einzigen Saison. " (Marc, pg. 212) (Marc, pg. 212)

Hardcastle and McCormick (ABC, 1983-86) featured Hardcastle (Brian Keith), a retired judge who, during his career on the bench, was forced by the criminal justice system to let criminals go free. Hardcastle und McCormick (ABC, 1983-86) sehenswerte Hardcastle (Brian Keith), ein pensionierter Richter, der whrend seiner Karriere auf der Bank, wurde gezwungen, durch das System der Strafgerichtsbarkeit zu vermieten Kriminelle frei. Now he operates in the private sector delivering justice to the criminals the "system" forced him to let go. Jetzt arbeitet er in der Privatwirtschaft liefern, die den Kriminellen das "System" zwang ihn gehen zu lassen.

Cannell secured the licensing rights to the merchandise inspired by the Rambo films, including action toys, chewing gum, and lunch boxes. Cannell sich die Lizenzrechte an der Ware von der Rambo-Filme, einschlielich Manahmen Spielzeug, Kaugummi, und Mittagessen ein.

Riptide (NBC, 1984-86) was about three Vietnam vets who form their own detective service while living out of a cabin cruiser moored in a Southern California harbor. Riptide (NBC, 1984-86) war etwa drei Vietnam Tierrzte, die ihre eigene Detective Service whrend leben aus einer Kabine Cruiser ankern in einer Southern California Hafen.

Hunter (NBC, 1984-91) was one of Cannell's "longest running, if least-celebrated hits." Hunter (NBC, 1984-91) war einer der Cannell der "lngsten, wenn am wenigsten Treffer gefeiert." The protagonist Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) is a cop and his partner is a woman, Dee Dee McCall (Stephanie Kramer). In an episode written by Cannell, Hunter knocks a suspect unconscious and then suggests to McCall that she read the scum his rights before he wakes up. Der Protagonist Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) ist ein Polizist und sein Partner ist eine Frau, Dee Dee McCall (Stephanie Kramer). In einer Episode von Cannell, Hunter klopft ein Verdchtiger Unbewussten und dann schlgt McCall, dass sie den Schaum seine Rechte , bevor er aufwacht.

In 1987, Cannell supplied the new Fox TV network with its first hit - 21 Jump Street - a group of cops who pose as high school students. Im Jahr 1987, Cannell lieferte die neue Fox-TV-Netz mit seinen ersten Hit - 21 Jump Street - eine Gruppe von Polizisten, die sich als High-School-Schlern. Stephen also created Wiseguy, his most critically acclaimed series after The Rockford Files. Stephen auch Wiseguy, seinen Kritikern gelobten Serie nach dem Rockford Files. Wiseguy introduced the "arc" structure to prime-time series television, running stories for up to ten weeks before coming to a narrative climax. Wiseguy die "Bogen"-Struktur zum Prime-Time-TV-Serie, mit Geschichten fr bis zu zehn Wochen vor dem nchsten Hhepunkt zu einer Erzhlung. This new format combines elements of the nighttime soap opera (eg Dallas) with the action/adventure series. Das neue Format verbindet Elemente der Nacht Seife Oper (zB Dallas) mit dem Action / Adventure-Serie.

"With its intelligent dialogue, its attempts at thick characterization, and its socially critical swipes at current events, Wiseguy is perhaps best understood as a high-IQ adaptation of The A-Team aimed at an upmarket audience." "Mit seiner intelligenten Dialog, seine Versuche auf dicke Charakterisierung und seine sozial kritischen swipes auf aktuelle Ereignisse, Wiseguy ist vielleicht am besten als ein hoher IQ-Anpassung der A-Team, die in einem gehobenen Publikum." (Marc, pg. 215) Television was now shifting its commercial emphasis from grabbing the most viewers to targeted demographics. (Marc, pg. 215) Fernsehen wurde jetzt Verlagerung ihrer kommerziellen Schwerpunkt von Grabbing die meisten Zuschauer fr gezielte Demografie.

A change in federal regulations made the life of independent producing too difficult. Eine nderung der bundesrechtlichen Vorschriften, die das Leben der unabhngigen Produktion von zu schwierig. So in 1995, Cannell sold his TV empire to New World Communications (now owned by 20th Century Fox) for $30 million. So in den Jahren 1995, Cannell verkauft seine TV-Imperium von New World Communications (heute im Besitz von 20th Century Fox) fr 30 Millionen US-Dollar. He published his first novel in 1996 and has ground out one a year since then. Er verffentlichte seinen ersten Roman im Jahr 1996 und Boden, die eine ein Jahr danach. He still oversees syndicated TV programming like Renegade and feature films. Er berwacht noch syndizierten TV-Programme wie Renegade-und Spielfilme.

An article in Forbes on "Hollywood's Idea Moguls," contains this on Cannell: Ein Artikel in Forbes auf "Hollywood's Idea Moguls", enthlt diese auf Cannell:

"He remembers getting $1 million a year plus a cut of the back end at his peak. His output: Adam 12, Baretta, and The Rockford Files. The trouble was that in calculating the net, Universal was charging him for everything on the lot, including the caterers in the commissary and the tram drivers working the back lot tour. In eight years of service, he saw little more than his fee. "Er erinnert sich $ 1 Mio. pro Jahr sowie eine Krzung der das hintere Ende an seinem Hhepunkt. Seine Leistung: Adam 12, Baretta, und die Rockford Files. Das Problem war, dass bei der Berechnung der Netto-, Universal-Ladestation wurde ihm fr alles, was auf dem Baugrund , einschlielich der Caterer in der Kommissar und die Straenbahn-Fahrern, die die Partie zurck Tour. In acht Jahren Dienst, sah er kaum mehr als seine Gebhr.

"So in 1979 Cannell financed his own company with a $60 million line of credit and went on to produce 35 hour-long series, including The A- Team, Hunter and The Greatest American Hero. Suddenly the profits were real, but he was a little ahead of the boom and on the wrong side of the business. Cannell had no sitcoms to sell. In 1996 he sold out to New World Communications for $30 million, a modest windfall by current standards. "Also im Jahr 1979 Cannell finanziert seine eigene Firma mit einem $ 60 Millionen Kreditlinie und ging auf die Herstellung von 35-Stunden-langen Reihe, darunter die A-Team, Hunter und The Greatest American Hero. Pltzlich die Gewinne waren real, aber er war ein wenig vor dem Boom und auf der falschen Seite des Geschfts. Cannell hatte keine Sitcoms zu verkaufen. Im Jahr 1996 verkaufte er an New World Communications fr 30 Millionen US-Dollar, eine bescheidene Windfall von aktuellen Standards.

"He's since decided that this market is too hot to let even his old shows languish in a vault. A rapidly expanding pay-TV market overseas has given life to libraries of hour-long dramas that historically had limited resale value. Earlier this year Cannell reacquired his library from News Corp., New World's parent, in exchange for an 8% distribution fee. In August, a few days before flying off on a Westwind jet to his 150- foot yacht docked in the Mediterranean, Cannell signed a deal that brought him $5 million from a handful of European territories." "Er ist da beschlossen, dass dieser Markt ist zu hei, damit auch seine alte zeigt schmachten in einem Keller. Ein schnell wachsenden Pay-TV-Markt in bersee hat, Leben zu Bibliotheken Stunde lang Dramen, die historisch begrenzt Wiederverkaufswert. Anfang dieses Jahres Cannell reacquired seine Bibliothek von News Corp, New World's Elternteil, im Austausch fr eine 8%-Distribution enthalten. Im August, wenige Tage vor dem Flug auf eine Westwind Jet zu seinem 150 - Fu-Yacht im Mittelmeer angedockt, Cannell unterzeichneten eine Vereinbarung, dass brachte ihm $ 5 Mio. aus einer Handvoll europischer Gebiete. " (Forbes, 9/21/98) (Forbes, 9/21/98)

On March 8, 2002, I met producer Stephen J. Am 8. Mrz 2002, traf ich Produzent Stephen J. Cannell at his office building on Hollywood and La Brea Blvds. Like his building, Cannell stands tall, straight and impressive. Cannell in seinem Bro auf Hollywood und La Brea Blvds. Wie sein Gebude, Cannell steht hoch, gerade und beeindruckend. He wears gold jeans and an army jacket. Er trgt Jeans und einen Gold-Armee Jacke.

Luke: "I've spent hours reading about you. Is there any one book or article that you think best captures you?" Luke: "Ich habe stundenlang Lesung ber Sie. Gibt es ein Buch oder Artikel, die Sie am besten fngt man?"

Stephen: "Most of them are condensed. One guy wrote his doctorate thesis on me but it was so wrong. I'm willing to cop to shortcomings but this guy had two theories. And one theory was that everything I was writing was chronicling my personal life and career at the major studios." Stephen: "Die meisten von ihnen sind kondensiert. Ein Mann schrieb seine Doktorarbeit ber mich, aber es war so falsch. Ich bin bereit, cop auf Mngel, aber dieser Mann hatte zwei Theorien. Und eine Theorie war, dass alles, was ich geschrieben hatte, war meine Chronik persnlichen Leben und Karriere auf der groen Studios. "

Luke: "That's interesting." Luke: "Das ist interessant."

Stephen: "But it's stupid. He was so fascinated by life at the studios that if I wrote Baretta as a wild man, it was because I was angry at Universal. But I was never angry at Universal. Those guys were all my friends. I'm still friends with all of them. Then he had a theory of recombinance - that the same themes reoccurred over and over again in my life and writing. And there's some truth to that. But then he'd pick on episodes of some series, the scripts of which I didn't even write, that was similar to something I'd done in 1980. It was a doctorate thesis written by some kid. I interviewed with him because I wanted to help him but then I'd really disagreed with his conclusions. Stephen: "Aber es ist dumm. Er war so fasziniert vom Leben in den Studios, dass, wenn ich Baretta wie ein wilder Mann, war es, denn ich war wtend auf Universal. Aber ich war nie wtend auf Universal. Die Jungs waren alle meine Freunde. Ich bin immer noch Freunde mit allen von ihnen. Dann hatte er eine Theorie der recombinance -, dass die gleichen Themen reoccurred immer und immer wieder in meinem Leben und Schreiben. Und es gibt einige, dass die Wahrheit. Aber dann wrde er holen auf einige Episoden der Serie, die Skripte, von denen ich gar nicht schreiben, das war wie etwas, was ich tun wrde im Jahr 1980. Es war eine Doktorarbeit geschrieben von einigen Kind. Ich habe mit ihm, weil ich wollte, ihm zu helfen, aber dann wrde ich wirklich nicht mit seinen Schlussfolgerungen.

"I know what my motor is. I know how I write. I know what intrigues me. I know how I get my ideas. And I'm certainly not writing my own biography every time I sit down at the typewriter. There is one theme that reoccurs throughout my work - underdogs. I prefer underdogs. If that's recombinance, then I cop to that. As a dramatist, I'd rather write about David than Goliath. "Ich wei, was mein Motor ist. Ich wei, wie ich schreibe. Ich wei, was mich interessiert. Ich wei, wie ich meine Ideen. Und ich bin sicher nicht meine eigene Biographie jedes Mal, wenn ich sitzen an der Schreibmaschine. Es ist eine Thema erneut auftritt, dass whrend meiner Arbeit - Underdogs. Ich bevorzuge Underdogs. Wenn das recombinance, dann werde ich Polizist zu werden. Als Dramatiker, ich mchte lieber schreiben David als Goliath.

"There have been some nice puff pieces, which have made me look much better than I am." "Es gab einige schne Stcke puff, die haben mich viel besser als ich."

Luke: "I haven't seen any one slam you?' Luke: "Ich habe nicht gesehen, eine Slam Sie?"

Stephen: "I don't get slammed often. I got slammed once in Time magazine around 1983. I was hot at the time. And both Time and Newsweek asked to do a story on me at the same time. I picked Time because it was a little more prestigious magazine. This lady called me from Time and I brought her in like I'm talking to you. And I talked to her. And she shadowed me around. And she writes her article. She calls me up for the fact-checking part of it. And she says, 'It's a good article. You're going to enjoy it. It's really turned out good. I'm really happy with it. And you'll be pleased.' Stephen: "Ich habe nicht zugeschlagen oft. Ich habe zugeschlagen, wenn in Time Magazin rund 1983. Ich war hei auf die Zeit. Und beide Time und Newsweek gebeten, eine Geschichte ber mich in der gleichen Zeit. Ich habe Zeit, weil sie war ein wenig mehr renommierte Magazin. Diese Frau hat mich von Zeit und ich brachte sie in, wie ich rede mit dir. Und ich sprach zu ihr. Und sie Schatten mich herum. Und sie schreibt ihre Artikel. Sie ruft mich fr die Tatsache, Kontrolle ein Teil davon. Und sie sagt: "Es ist ein guter Artikel. Du bist zu genieen. Es ist wirklich sich gut. Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit ihm. Und Sie werden sich freuen."

"So now the article comes out and it's titled, 'The Merchant of Mayhem.' "So, jetzt den Artikel kommt und es dem Titel," Der Kaufmann von Mayhem ". And it is a complete character assassination of me top to bottom. It says that I am an egotist and that I do everything for money. There wasn't one nice thing about anything in there. So I called her up. 'I just saw the article in Time and I've got to tell you, I'm not real happy with it.' Und es ist eine vollstndige Rufmord von mir oben nach unten. Er sagt, dass ich bin ein Egoist, und dass ich alles fr Geld. Es war nicht eine schne Sache, in der es ber alles. Also habe ich sie. "Ich sah nur Artikel in der Zeit und ich habe Ihnen sagen, ich bin nicht wirklich glcklich mit ihr. " And she starts to cry on the phone. I say, 'Don't cry. It's not the end of the world. I can take it.' Und sie beginnt zu weinen ber das Telefon. Sage ich, "Don't cry. Es ist nicht das Ende der Welt. Ich kann es." And she says, 'No, no. It's not the article I wrote. It's nothing like what I wrote.' Und sie sagt: "Nein, nein. Es ist nicht der Artikel schrieb ich. Es gibt nichts, was ich geschrieben habe." So I said, 'Who wrote it?' Also sagte ich, "Wer hat es?" She said, 'I can't tell you but it isn't my article. And I apologize to you.' Sie sagte: "Ich kann Ihnen nicht sagen, aber es ist nicht mein Artikel. Und ich entschuldige mich bei Ihnen."

"So I look at the bottom of the article and there's another name down there - Harry F. Waters, the entertainment editor of Time magazine. So I call the guy up. I've never met him. 'Harry, Stephen Cannell.' "So sehe ich am Ende des Artikels und es gibt dort einen anderen Namen - Harry F. Wasser, die Unterhaltung Herausgeber der Zeit-Magazin. Also rufe ich den Kerl auf. Ich habe ihn nie getroffen." Harry, Stephen Cannell. " He goes, 'Oh yeah, hi.' Er geht, 'Oh, hi ". 'Listen, I'm curious about this article in Time magazine. I hear that you rewrote it.' "Hr zu, ich bin neugierig auf diesen Artikel in Time Magazine. Ich habe gehrt, dass Sie sie neu geschrieben." He said, 'I didn't get what I wanted from my writer in Los Angeles and so we did some changes.' Er sagte: "Ich habe nicht bekommen, was ich wollte von meinem Schriftsteller in Los Angeles und so haben wir einige nderungen vorgenommen."

"I said, 'I may have a healthy ego but I don't know that I'm an egotist. People have to have healthy egos in this business because there's so much rejection. If you don't have a healthy ego, you get run out of the game. But I don't go around beating on my chest. As far as doing anything for money, I've never done anything for money. I was born wealthy.' "Ich sagte:" Ich habe ein gesundes Ego, aber ich wei nicht, dass ich bin ein Egoist. Die Menschen mssen gesunden Egos in diesem Geschft, weil es so viel Ablehnung. Wenn Sie nicht ber ein gesundes Ego, Sie Sie laufen aus dem Spiel. Aber ich habe nicht um das Schlagen auf meiner Brust. Was tun alles fr Geld, ich habe noch nie etwas getan fr Geld. Ich war geboren reichen. "

"He stops me right there. And he says, 'I've read your press package. Nobody's ever written anything bad about you. Maybe you just can't stand the heat.' "Er hlt mir Recht gibt. Und er sagt:" Ich habe gelesen, Sie drcken Paket. Nobody's jemals geschrieben alles schlecht ber Sie. Vielleicht haben Sie einfach nicht die Hitze. " I said, 'Well Harry, if you wrote, which I am now assuming you did, maybe you're just a complete asshole calling me an egotist when you've never met me. How can you make a personal evaluation of what kind of human being I am when you've never met me? It's perfectly ok by me if you hate my television, but to brand me an egotist and a money grubber never having spent a second in my presence.' Ich sagte: "Gut Harry, wenn Sie schrieb, die ich jetzt vorausgesetzt, Sie haben, vielleicht sind Sie nur ein komplettes Arschloch ruft mich ein Egoist, wenn Sie noch nicht kennen mich. Wie knnen Sie eine persnliche Beurteilung, welche Art von Mensch ich bin, wenn Sie noch nicht kennen mich? Es ist vllig in Ordnung von mir, wenn Sie meinen Hass Fernsehen, sondern mir eine Marke und ein Egoist grubber nie Geld dafr ausgegeben eine zweite in meiner Gegenwart. "

"Then he goes in to this whole thing about how he loved the Rockford Files and Tenspeed and Brownshoe and he hated the A-Team. And his whole opinion of me as a sellout was that I'd done two shows he loved and now I'd turned on him. So he decided that he was going to smack me. The whole reason that he put her on the story was to get a negative article. And when she didn't write it, because she came out and met me and she had some sense of who I was... I'm a lot of things but I am not what he wrote. That was the one time I felt hammered. "Dann geht er in dieser ganzen Sache, wie er liebte die Rockford Files und Tenspeed und Brownshoe und er hasste die A-Team. Und seine gesamte Stellungnahme des Ausschusses fr mich als Ausverkauf war, dass ich getan zwei Shows und er liebte ich jetzt 'd sich auf ihn. So beschloss er, dass er sich zu mir smack. Der ganze Grund dafr, dass er sie auf die Geschichte war es, einen negativen Artikel. Und wenn sie nicht schreiben, denn sie kamen aus und traf mich und sie hatte einige Sinne von, wer ich bin ... Ich bin eine Menge Dinge, aber ich bin nicht das, was er schrieb. Das war die Zeit, die ich fhlte gehmmert.

"A friend told me this once. 'The press is like a fuzzy cute furry little puppy and we all want to hold the puppy. But sometimes it bites you.' "Ein Freund sagte mir einmal." Die Presse ist wie ein Fuzzy-pelzigen kleinen niedlichen Welpen, und wir alle wollen, um die Welpen. Aber manchmal ist es beit Sie. " And I was holding the puppy and I got bit. So you've just got to laugh about it and move on. Nobody remembers that article except me and Harry Waters and the woman he rewrote. Most of what has been written about me has been positive. And I think that's because my motives for doing what I'm doing are simple. I really just want to make something that I like, whether it's Rockford or Wiseguy or Tenspeed or A-Team, when I was making each of those shows well, I'd go home, watch them, and go, 'Yes!'" Und ich war, der den Hund, und ich habe etwas. Sie haben gerade zu lachen und zu bewegen. Niemand erinnert sich daran, dass Artikel, auer mir und Harry Waters und die Frau, die er neu geschrieben. Meiste von dem, was geschrieben wurde, ber mich wurde positiv. Und ich denke, das ist, weil meine Motive fr das, was ich mache es einfach. Ich mchte nur etwas, das ich gerne, ob es sich um Rockford oder Wiseguy oder Tenspeed oder A-Team, als ich zu jedem dieser zeigt Nun, ich wrde nach Hause gehen, sehen sie, und gehen, "Ja!"

Cannell makes a fist. Cannell macht eine Faust.

"One of the things that has surprised a lot of people, particularly my critics, is that such diverse product has come out of one head. You wouldn't think that the person who did Wiseguy would've also done the A-Team." "Eines der Dinge, ist berrascht, eine Menge Menschen, vor allem meine Kritik ist, dass so unterschiedliche Produkte hat sich von einem Kopf. Sie wrden nicht glauben, dass die Person, die hat Wiseguy wrde habe auch schon die A-Team. "

Luke: "Surely you are revealed in your body of work? What does your body of work say about you?" Luke: "Sie sind, werden in Ihrem Krper der Arbeit? Was ist Ihr Krper der Arbeit sagen Sie?"

Stephen: "Some things but not everything. There are certain things that intrigue me as a writer that wouldn't intrigue somebody else. And I can't say what those things are. I tend to enjoy writing comedy more than heavy drama. But I'm good at writing dark things like Wiseguy. Several of my novels (The Viking Funeral, Final Victim) are dark. Stephen: "Es gibt Dinge, aber nicht alles. Es gibt bestimmte Dinge, die Intrigen mich als Schriftsteller, die nicht Intrigen jemand anderes. Und ich kann nicht sagen, was diese Dinge sind. Ich neige zu genieen schriftlich Komdie mehr als schweren Drama. Aber Ich bin gut schriftlich dunklen Dinge wie Wiseguy. Mehrere meiner Romane (The Viking Funeral, Opfer Final) sind dunkel.

"I'd imagine that my preference for underdogs and flawed characters comes from my own beginnings as a bad student, an underdog, dyslexic, branded the 'stupidest' kid in the class. I do respond emotionally to underdogs. I much prefer the flaws of my characters to the strengths. I don't find Superman to be an entertaining character. I enjoyed watching the Superman movies because of the special effects, but as a character, Superman doesn't appeal to me because he has too much going for him. One flaw - Kryptonite - and that only shows up occasionally. The guy's good looking, jumps buildings, bend steel bars... What's the problem? "Ich wrde denken, dass meine Vorliebe fr Underdogs und manipulierten Zeichen kommt aus meinem eigenen Anfnge als eine schlechte Schler, ein Underdog, Legastheniker, die Marke" dmmste "Kind in der Klasse. Ich bin emotional reagieren zu Underdogs. Ich ziehe den Fehler meiner Charaktere auf die Strken. Ich finde nicht, Superman zu einem unterhaltsamen Charakter. Ich habe gerade die Superman-Filme wegen der Special Effects, sondern als ein Zeichen, Superman nicht Appell an mich, weil er zu viel hat sich fr ihn. Ein Fehler - Kryptonite - und das zeigt sich nur gelegentlich. Der Mann ist gut zu sehen, springt Gebude, biegen Stahl Bars ... Was ist das Problem?

"I much prefer a guy like Rockford who's put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The cops think he's guilty all the time. His father thinks he's a jerk for being a private eye rather than a truck driver, which he views as a good solid manly job instead of running around trying to find divorced women's husbands. Rockford's flaws and his own sense of self-irony made him a fun character for me to write. I was always looking for the flaws in my characters. If you run down the list, the A-Team had the most flawed characters of any show I've created. Everybody on that show was dysfunctional. "Ich ziehe einen Typen wie Rockford, der ins Gefngnis fr ein Verbrechen hat er nicht verpflichten. Die Polizei glaube, er ist schuldig die ganze Zeit. Sein Vater denkt, er ist ein Ruck fr eine private Augen eher als ein LKW-Fahrer, die er mal angesehen als eine gute solide Manly Arbeitspltzen anstatt zu rennen um zu versuchen, geschiedene Frauen Ehemnner. Rockford der Fehler und seine eigenen Sinn der Selbst-Ironie, die ihm ein Spa Charakter fr mich zu schreiben. Ich war immer auf der Suche nach dem Fehler in meinem Zeichen. Wenn Sie laufen die Liste der A-Team hatte die fehlerhafte Zeichen jeder zeigen, habe ich erstellt. Jeder auf, die zeigen, dysfunktional wurde.

"On Wiseguy, Vinnie Terranova was constantly in a moral struggle with himself. He had a set of values as a blue collar cop and all of a sudden he's undercover and accepted by a Mafia family in the first arc, he's driving some guy's Porsche and living in a high rise apartment with a view of the city. He's hanging out with a bunch of actresses from Broadway shows. All of a sudden he's being seduced by the very thing he's trying to bust. "Am Wiseguy, Vinnie Terranova war stndig in einem moralischen Kampf mit sich. Er hatte eine Reihe von Werten, wie eine blaue Kragen Polizist und pltzlich ist er berdacht und von einer Mafia-Familie in den ersten Bogen, er ist der Fahrt einige Guy's Porsche und leben in einer Hochhaus-Wohnung mit Blick auf die Stadt. Er hngt mit einer Reihe von Schauspielerinnen aus Broadway-Shows. Pltzlich wird er verfhrt durch die sehr, was er versucht, Bste.

"When I pitched that at NBC, and told them I was going to take five weeks to tell every story, they didn't want to do it. So I had to keep pitching it. I pitched it about ten times and I never sold it. But about four years later, I sold it to CBS and got it on the air. I never gave up on it. It was the flaw that attracted me. This guy struggling to stay on due north when all the input around him was driving him to want to veer south." "Wenn ich geneigt, dass bei NBC, und sagte ihnen, ich werde die fnf Wochen jede Geschichte zu erzhlen, sie wollten nicht, dass dies zu tun. So hatte ich, um es Pitching. Ich warf sie etwa zehn mal, und ich nie verkauft . Aber vier Jahre spter, ich verkaufte sie an CBS und hat es auf die Luft. Ich habe nie gab es auf. Es war der Fehler, der mich. Dieser Typ kmpfen, sich auf genau nach Norden, wenn alle um ihn herum wurde Eingabe Fahren ihn zu wollen veer Sden. "

Luke: "Did you have to struggle to stay on due north?" Luke: "Haben Sie zu kmpfen haben, sich auf genau nach Norden?"

Stephen: "No I didn't because I love this work. It was what I wanted. My father was my greatest hero in life. My dad was a totally ethical guy, a tremendous role model for me, and my best friend. He taught me how to be and how to think and how not to take myself too seriously. He made me realize that you had to be a team player to get anywhere. All those things were ingrained in me. Stephen: "Nein ich nicht, denn ich liebe diese Arbeit. Es war das, was ich wollte. Mein Vater war mein grter Held im Leben. Mein Vater war ein vllig ethischen Guy, eine enorme Rolle fr mich, und mein bester Freund. Er hat mich gelehrt, wie man und wie man denken und wie man es nicht, um mich selbst zu ernst. Er machte mir klar, dass Sie sich als Team-Player, um berall. All diese Dinge sind tief in mir.

"And I was raised with money. My father [Joseph] was a self-made millionaire. My sister and were raised great. I went to private schools even though I didn't get fuck all out of them. I was expected to learn. All I've ever wanted was to be a good writer. And in my own mind, I'm an OK writer who's struggling always to get better. I have friends that I think are better than me. I read other novelists and think, 'Wow, this person is so great. Maybe one day I'll be like him.' "Und ich wurde mit dem Geld. Mein Vater [Joseph] war ein Self-made-Millionr. Meine Schwester und wurden gro. Ich ging auf Privatschulen, obwohl ich nicht bekommen fuck alle von ihnen. Ich war zu erfahren, . Alles, was ich jemals wollte war es ein guter Schriftsteller. Und in meinem Kopf, ich bin ein Schriftsteller, der OK kmpfen immer um besser zu werden. Ich habe Freunde, die ich fr besser als ich. Ich habe andere Romanciers und denken , "Wow, diese Person ist so gro. Vielleicht werde ich eines Tages werden wie er." And that keeps me growing. Und das hlt mich zu.

"My own fastball doesn't seem that good to me. I throw it real easy. Other writers tell me, 'Oh man, you're the best.' "Meine eigenen fastball scheint nicht so gut zu mir. Ich werfe es wirklich einfach. Andere Autoren sagen mir:" Oh Mann, du bist der beste. " But since they're usually talking about my easy pitch, I tend not to believe them. And I'm looking at someone else's fastball and thinking, 'Wow, I could never do that.' I'm always calling writers that I admire to go to lunch with them. Aber da sie in der Regel im Gesprch ber meine einfach Pech, ich eher nicht zu glauben, sie. Und ich bin auf der Suche an einem anderen fastball und denke, 'Wow, ich knnte niemals tun. "Ich bin immer fordern Autoren, die ich bewundere zum Mittagessen mit ihnen.

"I was just reading Andrew Klavan's book, Man and Wife, and thinking, 'I could stretch in that direction.' "Ich war gerade Lesung Andrew Klavan Buch, Mann und Frau, und denke:" Ich knnte sich in diese Richtung. " So I'm now writing a book called Love at First Sight, which is a strange and different novel for me. It's nothing like his book at all but I'm using some of the technique that I saw in his book. I'm using the I-narrative. This guy displays his flaws more than his own strengths as he tells his narrative. I've never written a book in the I-narrative before." Ich bin jetzt an einem Buch namens Liebe auf den ersten Blick, was ein seltsamer und verschiedenen Roman fr mich. Es ist nichts, wie sein Buch, aber ich bin mit einigen der Technik, die ich sah, in seinem Buch. Ich bin Mit der I-Erzhlung. Dieser Typ zeigt seinen Fehler mehr als seine eigenen Strken, wie er erzhlt seine Erzhlung. Ich habe noch nie ein Buch in der Ich-Erzhlung vor. "

Luke: "Who are your writer heroes?" Luke: "Wer sind Ihre Helden Schriftsteller?"

Stephen: " David Chase (Sopranos) is one. We worked together on Rockford. I created the show and I was a boy wonder. And I remember the first script of his that I ever read and I thought it was one of the best scripts I'd ever read. Better than anything I'd ever done on the show. I'm supposed to be the guru-writer of the show and I've got a guy working for me who's better than me. Instead of being frightened of his talent, I embraced. I learned many writing techniques from David. Stephen: "David Chase (Sopranos) ist. Wir arbeiten gemeinsam an Rockford. Ich habe die Show, und ich war ein Wunder. Und Ich erinnere mich an das erste Skript sein, dass ich je gelesen, und ich dachte, es war eines der besten Scripte ich je gelesen. Besser als alles, was ich jemals auf der Show. Ich bin angeblich der Guru-Autor der Show, und ich habe einen Mann fr mich, besser als ich. Anstatt Angst der sein Talent, ich umarmte. Ich lernte viele Techniken von David.

" Steve Bochco is another huge talent. We created a show together - Richie Brockelman Private Eye [1976]. At the time we created the show, I was the hot guy at Universal. I had Rockford, Baretta, Baa Baa Black Sheep... All primetime network shows. Everything I was creating was going on the air. Bochco on the other hand was in purgatory at Universal. He'd been a writer-producer on a show called Griff [1973], which did not work. And the executive producer, rather than taking the blame, which he should've because he was in charge, told the head of the studio that Bochco was doing the show. So Steve, at age 25, owned that whole network failure. And he ended up hiding out as the story editor of McMillan and Wife [1971-76]. "Steve Bochco ist ein riesiges Talent. Wir haben eine Show zusammen - Richie Brockelman Private Eye [1976]. Zur Zeit haben wir die Show, ich war der heie Typ auf Universal. Ich hatte Rockford, Baretta, Baa Baa Black Sheep .. . Alle Primetime Netzwerk zeigt. Alles, was ich war die Schaffung ging die Luft. Bochco auf der anderen Seite wurde im Fegefeuer bei Universal. Er war ein Schriftsteller-Hersteller auf eine Show namens Griff [1973], die nicht arbeiten. Und Executive Producer, statt die Schuld, die er haben sollte, weil er war, sagte der Leiter des Studios, dass Bochco tat der Show. Also Steve, im Alter von 25, im Besitz der gesamten Netzwerk-Ausfall. Und er beendet bis zu verstecken, wie die Geschichte der Editor McMillan und Ehefrau [1971-76].

"Steven and I were friends on the lot. I was the David E. Kelley of that moment. We'd go to lunch together. One day, I had a meeting at the tower with Frank Price, head of the Universal studio. Frank asked me if I had any ideas for a new series. I could sell almost anything at that time. Without giving any thought to it at all, I said, 'Yeah, I've got this idea about a young guy who's a surfer and a private detective. He's got a surfboard on his car. He's up every morning busting through the curl at Malibu.' "Steven und ich waren Freunde auf die Partie. Ich war der David E. Kelley von diesem Moment. Wir gehen zum Mittagessen zusammen. Eines Tages hatte ich ein Treffen auf dem Turm mit Frank Preis, Leiter der Universal Studios. Frank fragte mich, ob ich schon Ideen fr eine neue Serie. Ich konnte fast alles verkaufen, zu diesem Zeitpunkt. Ohne Angabe von dachte sie an alle, ich sagte, 'Ja, ich habe diese Idee von einem jungen Mann, der ist ein Surfer-und ein privater Ermittler. Er hat ein Surfbrett an seinem Auto. Er ist jeden Morgen Zerschlagung durch die curl auf Malibu. " Frank says, 'I love it. I can sell it.' Frank sagt: "Ich liebe es. Ich kann es verkaufen." He took such a huge bit out of this thing. And I'm going down in the elevator, and by the time I get to the bottom floor, I hated the idea. Er hat solch ein groes Stck aus der Sache. Und ich werde in den Aufzug, und die Zeit, die ich auf den Grund Stock, ich hasste die Idee.

"I was scheduled to have lunch that day with Bochco at this Mexican restaurant near Warner Brothers. We were sitting there having a margarita and looking at each other. And he says, 'What's wrong? You're looking really down.' "Ich war zum Mittagessen an diesem Tag mit Bochco in diesem mexikanischen Restaurant in der Nhe von Warner Brothers. Wir saen dort mit einer Margarita und auf jeden anderen. Und er sagt:" Was mache ich falsch? Sie suchen wirklich nach unten. " I said, 'I just pitched this idea to Frank Price and he took this huge bite out of it. And it's just about the worst idea I've ever had.' Ich sagte, 'Ich habe gerade diese Idee Tonhhe Frank Preis, und er hat diese groe Bissen aus ihm heraus. Und es ist nur ber die schlechteste Idee, die ich jemals hatte. "

"Steve said, 'Let's hear it.' "Steve sagte:" Lassen Sie uns hren. "

"I told him my idea and he thought it was a good idea. Steve said, 'But you've got the wrong take. It's not about surfing, it's about age. What if he looks so young nobody will take him seriously? What if clients walk into his office, see a guy who looks 16-years old sitting there and they do a U-turn and they're gone? So he has to get the guy down at the end of the hall who's an accountant to pretend to be him. So he tells the clients, 'No, no. I'm not Richie Brockelman. Let me go down the hall and get my dad.' "Ich sagte ihm meine Idee, und er dachte, es war eine gute Idee. Steve sagte:" Aber Sie haben die falsche nehmen. Es geht nicht um das Surfen geht es um das Alter. Was ist, wenn er sieht so jung niemand wird ihn ernst nehmen? Was wenn die Kunden zu Fu in seinem Bro, ein Mann, der sich 16-Jahre alt, und sie sitzen dort eine U-Turn und sie sind? "Und er hat, um den Mann am Ende der Halle, der ein Buchhalter, so zu tun zu ihm. Und er erzhlt die Kunden, "Nein, nein. Ich bin nicht Richie Brockelman. Lassen Sie mich gehen die Halle und zu meinem Vater."

"So we sat there until 5PM banging this thing out, putting the bones on it, coming up with the pilot idea [ Richie Brockelman Private Eye ]. So when we were done, Boch said, 'This will be great. Go sell this to Frank.' "So saen wir dort bis 5PM hmmern diese Sache aus, die den Knochen auf, bevor mit dem Piloten Idee [Richie Brockelman Private Eye]. Also, wenn wir fertig sind, Boch sagte:" Dieser wird gro sein. Gehe zu verkaufen Frank. " And I say, 'Boch, you've got to do it with me.' Und ich sage, 'Boch, Sie haben zu tun mit mir. " And he says, 'I'm not going to do it. They think I suck.' Und er sagt: "I'm not going to do it. Sie glaube, dass ich saugen." And they did because he'd been battered so badly by this experience on Griff. Und sie hat, weil er geschlagen wurde, so schlecht von dieser Erfahrung am Griff.

"I said, 'I would never have gone in this direction if it weren't for you. I just had a stupid idea. You've got it going in the right direction. I'm not going to write this without you.' "Ich sagte:" Ich wrde nie haben in diese Richtung, wenn es nicht fr Sie. Ich hatte gerade eine dumme Idee. Sie haben es in die richtige Richtung gehen. Ich bin nicht zu schreiben, ohne dass Sie. " He goes, 'Well, if you put my name on it, there's no way it will ever go beyond the first meeting.' Er geht, "Nun, wenn Sie meinen Namen auf, es gibt keinen Weg, es wird immer ber die erste Sitzung."

"I said, OK, why don't we just write it on spec? And when we send it up to the Tower, I'll just put a cover page on it with no name. Once it's sold it, I'll say, 'By the way, this is a co-authored script with Bochco.' "Ich sagte, OK, warum wir nicht nur schreiben Sie es auf spec? Und wenn wir es bis zum Turm, ich werde nur eine Seite, auf die es keine Namen. Wenn es verkauft ist, werde ich sagen, "Durch die Art und Weise, dies ist ein Co-Autor Skript mit Bochco."

"I called Frank Price up and said, 'I've got an idea for the script. I'm going to start work on it.' "Ich habe Frank Preis und sagte:" Ich habe eine Idee fr das Drehbuch. Ich werde die Arbeit auf sie. " And Frank said, 'I've already talked to NBC. They love it. They want to go forward.' Und Frank sagte: "Ich habe bereits Gesprche mit NBC. Sie lieben es. Sie wollen nach vorn."

"Boch wrote half the script and I wrote half. We wrote a 90-minute pilot and sent it up to the studio with no cover page. NBC loved it. Then I said, 'Oh, by the way, Bochco is my co-author.' "Boch hat die Hlfte der Schrift, und ich schrieb die Hlfte. Wir haben eine 90-mintige Pilot und ihn bis zum Studio ohne Deckblatt. NBC loved it. Dann habe ich gesagt:" Oh, by the way, Bochco ist mein Co - Autor. " And by that time, they didn't care because they had it sold. Und von dieser Zeit, sie auch nicht, weil sie es verkauft.

"I always knew Steven Bochco would be huge. I was surprised that it took David Chase so long because David was as good when we did Rockford in 1976 as he is today. "Ich wusste immer, dass Steven Bochco wre enorm. Ich war berrascht, dass er David Chase so lange, da David war so gut, wenn wir Rockford hat im Jahr 1976, als er heute ist.

"I love Dick Wolf, David Kelley, Don Bellisario. I gave him his first script assignment." "Ich liebe Dick Wolf, David Kelley, Don Bellisario. Ich gab ihm seine erste Skript Zuordnung."

Luke: "Who are some of the other people who've worked for you?" Luke: "Wer sind einige der anderen Menschen, fr die Sie gearbeitet haben?"

Stephen: " Frank Lupo , Patrick Hasburg (21 Jump Street) , Juanita Bartlett , Randall Wallace (Braveheart, We Were Soldiers), David Burke . Director Rob Bowman worked here as a gopher and then as a production assistant. I gave him his first directing jobs. He went on to do the X-Files feature. My job as a studio owner was to find people who were young and inexperienced but I thought had talent. I could buy them cheap and I would train them. Often they were diamonds in the rough and they didn't know how to plot a story or understand three act structure. I'd try to make them stars. If a writer did a good job on the script, and the picture turned out good, I would always take the writer to the network with me. We'd physically screen our pictures for the network. It was a great chance to expose young writers to the network. The network would tend to give me all the credit. But I wasn't going to be able to grow my studio if everybody thought I was the only person with any ability over here. Stephen: "Frank Lupo, Patrick Hasburg (21 Jump Street), Juanita Bartlett, Randall Wallace (Braveheart, We Were Soldiers), David Burke. Direktor Rob Bowman arbeitete hier als gopher und dann auch als Produktions-Assistentin. Ich gab ihm seine erste Regie Arbeitspltze. Er ging auf, um die X-Files-Funktion. Meine Arbeit als Studio-Besitzer war zu finden, Menschen, die jung und unerfahren, aber ich dachte, hatte Talent. Ich knnte sie billig kaufen, und ich wrde sie trainieren. Oft waren sie Diamanten in der rauen und sie nicht wissen, wie die Handlung einer Geschichte oder Handlung verstehen, drei Struktur. Ich wrde versuchen, ihnen Sterne. Wenn ein Schriftsteller hat eine gute Arbeit am Drehbuch, und das Bild sich gut, ich wrde immer die Schriftsteller zum Netz mit mir. Wir wrden uns physisch Bildschirm unsere Bilder fr das Netz. Es war eine groe Chance, um die jungen Autoren mit dem Netzwerk. Das Netzwerk wrde, um mir alle Kredit. Aber ich war nicht zu knnen, wchst mein Atelier, wenn jeder dachte, ich war die einzige Person mit einer Fhigkeit hier.

"If it was a good movie and I brought the writer over and gave him credit, you could just see the writer begin to grow in their eyes. At some point, I would want that writer to have a pilot. And if the network wouldn't go for it, often I'd have to say that I'd co-write. I hated doing that because I much preferred writing my own stuff. But to get the writer that first gig, I'd do it. And if you'd ever see anything that was cowritten by me and another writer, that writer's name is on top. I always took the second credit. my goal was to push those people up. "Wenn es ein guter Film, und ich brachte die Schriftsteller ber und gab ihm zur Ehre, Sie knnen nur die Schriftsteller zu wachsen beginnen, in ihren Augen. An einem gewissen Punkt, ich mchte, dass Schriftsteller, ein Pilot. Und wenn das Netz wouldn 't Go for it, oft wrde ich sagen, dass ich Co-schreiben. hasste ich tun, weil ich viel bevorzugte meine eigenen Sachen. Aber, um den Schriftsteller, dass erste Konzert, wrde ich es tun. Und Wenn Sie immer sehen, dass cowritten wurde von mir und einem anderen Schriftsteller, Autor, dass der Name an der Spitze. Ich habe immer den zweiten Kredit. Mein Ziel war, um den Menschen auf.

"Eventually, the network would offer these guys million dollar contracts. I'd be paying them half that. The writers would come in to me and say, 'What am I going to do? I want to stay here but Disney is offering me one million.' "Irgendwann, das Netz wrde diese Jungs Millionen-Dollar-Vertrge. Ich wrde sie zahlen die Hlfte. Die Autoren kommen zu mir und sagen:" Was soll ich tun? Ich mchte hier bleiben, aber Disney bietet mir eine Million. " I'd tell them to go. You can't turn a million dollar deal down. I can't match it. So I'd be constantly looking for the new young person." Ich wrde sagen, sie zu gehen. Sie knnen nicht aus einem Millionen-Dollar-Deal ab. Ich kann es nicht mit. So wre ich stndig auf der Suche nach den neuen jungen Person. "

Luke: "Did you know that you had the producer in you?" Luke: "Wussten Sie, dass Sie hatten die Hersteller in dir?"

Stephen: "My dad was my hero. He was an entrepreneur. He taught me that you need to support other people to be successful. My father used to say, 'Don't go around catching someone doing something wrong. Catch someone doing something right. It's much more effective.' Stephen: "Mein Vater war mein Held. Er war ein Unternehmer. Er hat mich gelehrt, dass Sie brauchen die Untersttzung anderer Menschen, um erfolgreich zu sein. Mein Vater pflegte zu sagen," Geh nicht auf den Fang von jemand etwas falsch. Catch jemand etwas Recht. Es ist viel effektiver. " And as a kid, I used to watch him do it because I worked for him in the summers. He owned a bunch of furniture stores. Cannel & Chaffin. He'd walk the floor on these furniture stores and he'd see something he'd like. And he'd stop and ask, 'Who did this?' Und wie ein Kind, habe ich um ihn, weil ich fr ihn in den Sommermonaten. Er besa eine Reihe von Mbelhusern. Cannel & Chaffin. Er wrde zu Fu auf dem Boden dieser Mbelhuser und er mchte sehen, etwas, das er "D wie. Und er wrde anhalten und fragen:" Wer hat das getan? " 'Oh, Lowell did that.' "Oh, Lowell hat, dass".

"My dad would hunt Lowell up and say, 'Lowell, come here. That is great. We need more like that.' "Mein Vater wrde Jagd Lowell und sagen," Lowell, kommen Sie hier. Das ist groartig. Wir brauchen mehr so. " He always had people just churning to do more. Er hatte immer nur tobenden Menschen, mehr zu tun.

"When I was at Universal, I believed in the value of a contract. It would never occur to me to threaten breach of contract to get a better deal. I signed a deal as a head writer to make $600 a week. I was the cheapest writer on the lot. It was the lowest deal you could do by Writers Guild standards. But I'd been working for my dad for $7000 a year. I was at Universal for eight years and I never renegotiated my deal but once. It was late in my arrangement with Universal. There was one thing in my deal that my agent had managed to get in there - I had good fees for my pilots. The reason they did it is that they never thought I was going to write a pilot. So they'd give me $70,000 to write a two-hour pilot and a $100,000 production bonus if it ever got made. Then I became the hottest pilot writer at Universal. I was writing two or three pilots a season. I was making $400,000 a year in pilot fees. "Als ich bei Universal, glaubte ich, in den Wert eines Kontraktes. Es wre mir nie in den Sinn zu bedrohen Vertragsverletzung, um ein besseres Geschft. Ich habe einen Vertrag als Leiter Schriftsteller, um $ 600 pro Woche. Ich war der gnstigsten Schriftsteller auf dem Baugrund. Es war die niedrigste behandeln Sie tun knnen, von Writers Guild Normen. Aber ich arbeite fr meinen Vater fr $ 7000 pro Jahr. Ich war an Universal fr acht Jahre, und ich meine nie neu, sondern sich einmal. Es kam zu spt in meinem Vereinbarung mit Universal. Es war eine Sache in meinem viel, dass mein Agent hatte es geschafft, sich dort - ich hatte auch gute Preise fr meine Piloten. Der Grund dafr hat sie es ist, dass sie nie gedacht, ich werde schreiben, ein Pilotprojekt . Und sie wrde mir 70.000 $ an, um einen Zwei-Stunden-Piloten und einen $ 100000 Produktion Bonus, wenn sie je gemacht haben. Dann wurde ich der heiesten Pilot Schriftsteller bei Universal. die ich geschrieben hatte, zwei oder drei Piloten einer Saison. Ich war die $ 400.000 ein Jahr, in Pilot-Gebhren.

"Because people wanted me to write pilots, I eventually had four shows on for Universal. And I was so under water, that I couldn't do any pilots. So in success, my gross income went down. So my agent said to Universal, 'Steve's been so successful that he can't do a pilot this year. He's got four shows on the air. This is good for Universal but bad for Steve.' "Denn die Menschen wollten mir zu schreiben, Piloten, ich hatte vier schlielich zeigt fr Universal. Und ich war so unter Wasser, dass ich konnte nicht alle Piloten. Also den Erfolg, mein Bruttoeinkommen ging. So meinem Agenten gesagt, Universal "Steve war so erfolgreich, dass er nicht kann ein Pilot in diesem Jahr. Er hat vier zeigt auf der Luft. Das ist gut fr Universal, aber schlecht fr Steve." And they said, 'Yeah, we see the problem. And we'll address it but we want two more years on his contract.' Und sie sagte: "Ja, wir sehen das Problem. Und wir Adresse, aber wir wollen, dass zwei weitere Jahre auf seinen Vertrag."

"So I called up Sid Sheinberg, the head of the studio at the time. I told him the problem and added, 'You've got to know that if you don't give me a dollar, that's OK I signed this contract and I will live up to the terms of it. And I'm not going to come in here and limp my way through the next two years. I'm going to come in here and swing from my heels like I always have. I just thought you guys wouldn't want to see me get punished because I did a good job for you. But I'm not going to give you two years.' "So habe ich bis Sid Sheinberg, der Leiter des Studios an der Zeit. Ich sagte ihm, das Problem und fgte hinzu:" Sie haben zu wissen, dass, wenn Sie nicht geben Sie mir einen Dollar, das ist OK Ich habe diesen Vertrag und Ich werde leben, bis die Bedingungen fr sie. Und ich bin nicht gekommen, um hier und lappig meinem Weg durch die nchsten zwei Jahre. Ich werde kommen und hier in Schwung von meinem Fersen, wie ich immer haben. Ich habe gerade Denken Sie Jungs wollen nicht, um zu sehen, mich bestraft, weil ich habe einen guten Job fr Sie. Aber ich bin nicht, um Ihnen zwei Jahre. "

"Sid didn't know what to do. He wasn't used to hearing this kind of presentation. I didn't threaten him. I just asked him to be paid. There was no anger and no recrimination. And a month later, he changed my deal. My father would say, 'Live up to your agreements.' "Sid nicht wissen, was zu tun ist. Er war nicht zu hren, dieser Art der Prsentation. Ich habe nicht eine Bedrohung fr ihn. Ich fragte ihn, zu zahlen. Es gab keinen rger und keine Beschuldigungen. Und einen Monat spter, er verndert sich meine. Mein Vater sagen wrde, "bis zum Live-Abkommen." I used to call him up and ask what I should do. And he'd say, 'Son, you're only as good as your word in life. If you give some guy your hand, they'll always remember that you didn't renege on it. Even if it wasn't in your best interests, that commitment will follow you through your entire career. That story will get told. And that's more valuable than the money. Ich habe, um ihn auf und fragen, was ich tun soll. Und er wrde sagen, "Sohn, du bist nur so gut wie dein Wort im Leben. Wenn Sie einige Typen der Hand, werden sie immer daran erinnern, dass Sie didn 't verletzen sie. Auch wenn es nicht in Ihrem besten Interesse, das Engagement wird Sie durch Ihre gesamte Karriere. Diese Geschichte wird erzhlt. Und das ist mehr wert als das Geld.

"Another thing I learned was that many of my friends had a tendency to overvalue themselves. I remember having lunch with a talented writer, producer and director. And he was trying to renegotiate to get his fees improved. So I was the wrong guy to be talking to. "Eine andere Sache, die ich gelernt, dass viele meiner Freunde hatten eine Tendenz, sich berbewerten. Ich erinnere mich, Mittagessen mit einem begabten Schriftsteller, Produzent und Regisseur. Und er war zu neu, um sein Honorar verbessert. So war ich der falsche Mann zur zu sprechen.

"I sat listening to him yammer about how good he was. And what a talent he was. And how Universal didn't know what they had. I'm thinking, this guy needs to cool down. And he says, 'If I leave this goddam show, nobody else can do it. Not a soul on this fucking lot can do it.' "Ich sa auf ihm jammern hren, wie gut er war. Und was fr ein Talent er war. Und wie Universal nicht wissen, was sie hatte. Ich denke, dieser Kerl muss abkhlen. Und er sagt:" Wenn ich lassen Sie dieses goddam zeigen, niemand sonst kann es tun. Nicht eine Seele auf dieser fucking viele knnen es schaffen. " So when he took a breath, I leaned across the table and said, 'I can do it. I can do it good. If they call me up and ask me to do your show, I'll do it. You'll probably see the difference and I'll see the difference. But nobody watching television will see the difference. Calm down. You're going to make an enemy out of this studio. Don't do it. You're too angry. And you're wrong. I can do your show and you can do mine.' Also, wenn er einen Atem, lehnte ich mich ber den Tisch und sagte: "Ich kann das erledigen. Ich kann es gut tun. Wenn sie rufen Sie mich an und fragen mich zu tun, zeigen Sie, ich tue es. Sie werden wahrscheinlich sehen den Unterschied, und ich sehe den Unterschied. Aber niemand Fernsehen werden den Unterschied sehen. beruhigen. Sie gehen, um einen Feind aus diesem Studio. es nicht tun. Sie sind auch wtend. Und Sie 're falsch. Ich kann das Ihre Show und knnen Sie mir. "

"I used to see so much of that. People saying, 'We've been ripped off. We've been screwed. The studio is fucking us.' "Ich habe so viel zu sehen sein. Die Leute sagen:" Wir haben seit Tisch gezogen. Wir sind verschraubt. Das Studio ist fucking uns. " They're fucking you? You're making more money than heart surgeons, and many of you didn't even get out of college. They're fucking you? Maybe compared to other people in show business but this is never-never land. We should all be spanked for cashing our checks. This is lunacy. Sie sind fucking Sie? Sie sehen, die mehr Geld als Herz Chirurgen, und viele von Ihnen noch nicht einmal aus der Schule. Sie sind fucking Sie? Vielleicht im Vergleich zu anderen Menschen im Show-Business, aber dies ist nie-nie Land . Wir sollten alle Spanked fr die Einlsung unserer Kontrolle. Das ist Wahnsinn.

[Dan Tanna Spenser]

"Everybody bought into that lunacy but I never did because my dad was so pragmatic. I'd say to myself, 'I'm lucky I'm here because these people don't know what a dollar's worth.' "Jeder gekauft, dass in Wahnsinn, aber ich nie, weil mein Vater war so pragmatisch. Ich wrde sagen, fr mich selbst," Ich habe Glck, ich bin hier, weil diese Menschen nicht wissen, was einem US-Dollar wert. " Since I was 13, I had to go to work in my father's factories. I was working with Mexican-Americans who had nothing. Who had no education and had no chance to see what was in life and the world. I'd work all summer with a guy and like the guy and I'd realize how limited his whole existence was because he didn't have opportunity. And I'm being paid all this money to sit down and tell stories. And that guy's working eight-hour shifts on a screenprinting machine in 100 degree heat for a little over minimum wage. Get the fuck out of here. Da war ich 13, hatte ich zur Arbeit gehen, in meines Vaters Fabriken. Ich arbeitete mit mexikanischen-Amerikaner, die nichts. Wer hatte keine Ausbildung und hatte keine Chance zu sehen, was im Leben und in der Welt. Ich wrde alle Arbeit Sommer mit einem Kerl und wie der Kerl, und ich mchte wissen, wie begrenzt seine ganze Existenz, weil er keine Chance. Und ich bin zu Lasten all dieses Geld zu nehmen und erzhlen Geschichten. Und dass der Mann arbeitet acht Stunden Schichten auf einem Siebdruck-Maschine in 100 Grad Hitze fr etwas mehr als ein Mindestlohn.