Steven Bochco Quotes

Over the years, TV has gotten so much better, especially with the advent of cable. The bar has been raised. I think HBO really set the standard with 'The Sopranos,' and then on mainstream TV, shows like 'Lost' broke amazing ground.

Broadcasting for advertisers is still the best game in town, and they know it. Look, I admire a lot of the shows on cable. I think 'Mad Men' is wonderful. I think 'Breaking Bad' is wonderful. But let's remember they're about one-tenth the audience of NCIS.

I'd like to do a little bit more adventurous TV. Maybe Showtime or HBO or just a little bit edgier. But I would go back to NBC, CBS, whatever.

The worst thing you can do is end up with a network show on cable or end up with a cable show on network.

I think the amazing thing about 'Twin Peaks' was that it completely changed television from that point forward.

I feel that 'Person of Interest' is the same quality as 'Brotherhood.' I think it's one of the smartest network television shows on the air today. The audience is a wide range of individuals.

In the early '90s, there was such a limited idea of what you could see on TV.

I have no problem at all going back and forth between cable and network.

Prior to 'The Shield,' basic cable was just a wasteland of reruns and NASCAR. When we came along, I think there was a collective, 'Hey, if they can do that, why can't we?' from the basic-cable networks of the world. We ended up being the cornerstone for a network, and a great one.

With network, shows are pulled half the time after three episodes whether they're good or they're not good. It's a numbers game. With cable, they can take a lot more liberties.

For me, I think there's a lot more room in cable television to tell broader stories. NBC and the networks, they're all very mainstream, and they're a little more conservative in how they approach storytelling.

Because I'm seen on 'Oz', a lot of the urban cats in the city are like, 'Yo, I thought you'd be rolling in a Mercedes?' And I'm just like, 'Not at all!' This is cable money. There is a big difference between that and a network. But still I can't complain. It's better than doing a 9 to 5 any day.

You have Showtime, you have AMC, you have all of these, you know, incredible networks that are now bringing forth their product without the handcuffs, if you will, of trying to sell soap to the entire country.

Every time I hear about a new show, and I see a show that is being created that is nothing like I've ever thought about, I just get so excited about that expansion. Because I started working when 'L.A. Law' was on. It was lawyers and cops.

All the great shows owe a lot to 'Hill Street Blues.'

There seems to be a vulnerability at the networks in late night. They are losing more and more audience, particularly young viewers who are now looking at cable television. 'Tonight' is an old show. CBS has reruns, and having a public affairs series like 'Nightline' on ABC is a big mistake.

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.

Look, we can definitively agree that cable is far superior to network. That isn't to say that there can't be a great network drama or comedy that makes 20-plus episodes a year. We know that there are, and there have been.

There's still formulaic stuff on network television, but there's also more of an opportunity to have your way with storytelling, especially in sitcoms. That's what the difference is.

I do prime time network shows like 'Blue Bloods.' I've done 'Fringe,' I've done 'The Good Wife,' done a lot of 'The Mentalist.'

With drama, especially, it seems like the bigger the budgets and the edgier the characters, the more interesting they are. We're very lucky because 'Modern Family' wouldn't fit on cable: they'd want us to push it more and be edgier and turn it into something that it's not.

I've been a huge fan of the cable network FX for a very, very long time. I think their brand of comedy is incredible. For me, as an audience member, that's a go-to channel.

I was so sad that 'Best Friends Forever' got cancelled. I thought it was a great show and NBC didn't give it a chance. I'm a big fan of the NBC comedies.

I started working at Bravo in 2005, when I was offered a job by Lauren Zalaznick, the network's chairman. She encouraged me to start a blog. I wrote behind-the-scenes gossip about 'Battle of the Network Reality Stars,' the first show I took on as head of current programming.

You know, we've got so much on Bravo and coming up on Bravo, and I think we have so much more going on than 'The Real Housewives.' And I think 'The Real Housewives' is a great, you know, great addition to the portfolio. I think it brings a lot of viewers under our umbrella. And I think they stay and sample other shows.