Bruno Heller Quotes

There's probably a little more creative freedom in cable versus network, a little less of a committee looking over everyone's shoulder, but it depends on the network; it depends on the show; it depends on who the head writer or show runner is and what track record they have.

I was running the show on 'United States of Tara' and 'How To Make It In America' where I could say, 'Okay, I'm in charge of everything now.' But it still wasn't my show.

While the TV show 'Rizzoli & Isles' may have been inspired by my books, show runner Janet Tamaro has total control over where the TV characters go from there. As Janet once put it, I'm the birth mother, but she's the mother who adopted them, and now that Jane and Maura are living in her house, they have to do what she tells them to do.

When you're a writer on a show, your job is to write in the show runner's voice, really.

What is absolutely true is that any good [Television] series has a specific voice. And I think that voice is almost exclusively the domain of the executive producer. . . . As a staff writer you're not being called upon to be the great creative person. You're sort of called upon to understand the characters and their voices and put them through certain paces.

Something I've really been wanting to do, ever since 'Six Feet Under' ended, was create my own version of this idealized writer's room as well as the ideal family.

I believe that 99 percent of successful TV shows change an immense amount from the pilot to the tenth or twelfth episode.

'Battlestar Galactica' executive producer Ronald D. Moore told Tor.com that the series finale of 'Battlestar' turned out exactly as he'd intended, but there were several alternate endings that were considered before the final version was produced.

Movies, particularly the big hit movies, are all just special effects. But on television, the writers are in control of the shows, and they control the scripts.

I think one of the reasons for the success of 'Breaking Bad,' and now for 'Better Call Saul,' is that we have been blessed by AMC and Sony with enough time to figure things out.

I don't think there's any show that really escapes it: It's very rare that a creative producer stays with the show. As soon as the producer leaves, they cut the budget.

The show runner's the boss until the network shows up. And then they're the boss, because it's their money.

Showrunning is when you're the constant creative voice in the show. For a year-and-a-half, you are working on the scripts, you're fine-tuning them, you're the final say on the edit, the music and the cast.

On 'Mr. Robot,' because I run the writers' room and know every decision behind every line of dialogue, I'm able to be nimble and adapt with the scripts and the moments. I never have to question what I'm doing as I'm directing the actors or going through the scenes.

Honestly, the life of a serial character on television, I'd love to write an essay about it.

I think that it's just extremely rare to see any kind of TV show that's completely written by one person, regardless of what any showrunner will tell you.

Being on 'Veep,' it's so much fun, and I get to put so much creative input in there, but at the end of the day, what they say, I do.

I don't think of myself as a producer. In television, it's part of the business - if you progress and become successful as a writer, you're called a writer-producer. What that means is that you have a lot of say in casting and behind-the-scenes stuff. But I'm just a writer.

I don't watch daily soap. I've never seen my shows as well except for the scenes in which I really want to improve something or correct something.

There's a certain order to network shows that doesn't exist so much in cable, which is, you know, if you want to change a line you've got to talk to the writer.

We often compare the experience of writing a book to that of playing God. It is up to us, and only us, to determine what happens to the people we invent. It is for us alone to determine what is good and bad, just and unjust, appropriate and inappropriate for the worlds we create. I love that about writing books.

Any show in its first season goes through multiple changes. There is little or no difference to changing the cast on a talk show.

When I first found out what a show runner was, I thought it was the strangest job I had heard of in my life.

Limited series ensure that we maintain the quality of the writing on the sets.

That was mandatory in the contract with Aaron Spelling, that if you were contracted to do one of his shows, you had to do any other shows that were his.