Jon Feltheimer Quotes

When I build something for somebody, I always add $50 million or $60 million onto the price. My guys come in, they say it's going to cost $75 million. I say it's going to cost $125 million, and I build it for $100 million. Basically, I did a lousy job. But they think I did a great job.

There's a lot of politics in television and a lot of in-fighting and all that sort of stuff, but in the end, we are purveyors of entertainment. Viewers are not really bogged down in who's doing what and who hates who and who's doing best in the ratings. They watch television to be entertained.

Textile mills are not a very high-margin business and have fixed overheads, so it was challenging. But I think it is only in challenges that you get opportunities.

We're really trying to make movies for TV. Producers and writers are taking risks that they weren't in the past.

In Pakistan, our medium is the small screen. We don't make many films, and hardly have theaters. A majority of people seek entertainment while sitting at home and TV gives it to them, so we excel on that part.

I think TV is evolving, but on the other hand, there is a presence of regressive shows happening, but I choose to ignore that because I am part of a very different and challenging soap.

In 1995, I had been chosen to make a short presentation about the state of the TV business at a company retreat in Santa Barbara. At the time, I felt we were not real competitors in network television. The studio wasn't prolific; we didn't have much of a brand.

I think HBO and a couple of the other cable channels in America are making some of the best television that's ever been made.

What I'm good at is making sure we have the best resources, the best talent, the best marketing, and the best access to distribution.

Our economic model allows us to invest a disproportionate amount in our food costs. We have a very efficient system: customers go through a single line, the people who serve you are the ones who make the food, and our menu board is not cluttered.

I am convinced that most companies don't maximize their barter possibilities. Instead of aggressively reducing costs by trading their services with those of their suppliers, they seem content to pay top dollar for everything.

My experience in TV is that it takes time for shows to find their way.

Television is a tough business. It's not that easy to jump shops.

In the era of networks only, I cannot tell you the number of shows that we don't know about that did not survive. They got canceled. But there are a few that survived by accident, because they didn't have anything else to do, and they stayed with it.

I always wanted to work with a TV. So I'm open.

Paddy Chayefksy was writing and it was a time where everybody was happy to be there [on TV].

The key issue when you're looking at cost cutting is to always plan for the future.

To understand this whole area, you have to stop thinking like a viewer and start thinking like a network programming exec.

I'm not a big believer in slavishly following research. It's one of the things that's wrong with television is that if you throw the whole - the decision-making process to the research department, you're not making any instinctive, visceral judgments about programs, which are show business.

Then why flounder around waiting for good business? Get the costs down by better management. Get the prices down to the buying power.

People in business understand paying money to be more efficient. You can bootstrap markets where the devices are too expensive at first because these are so valuable to some people.

PRICE, n. Value, plus a reasonable sum for the wear and tear of conscience in demanding it.

It's a really incredible time to be working in television.

It's difficult for them to do a deal at these levels.

A lot of things that people think are risky, I don't think are risky. I don't get all that. I think what was really risky for network television was to let cable television to take the summers.