Donald Sumpter Quotes

Sometimes in TV, it can get really stale, especially if you're doing these 23-episode years. It's a lot of work, and to put your family through that, on a location, is not always the greatest thing in the world.

On 'State of Affairs,' we're going after some names that you wouldn't think would traditionally do TV. A show that shoots in Los Angeles is such a rare bird in hand that I think we're gonna have the pick of the litter.

In the U.K., there's absolutely no money for television. So you can do pretty much whatever you want. They're not losing money on any of the shows, so they'll give you a lot of creative freedom. In the United States, there are millions and millions of dollars at stake, so they need a sure formula.

In order to have the success with 'Empire,' you have to have Fox; you have to have huge P&A. You have to have huge budgets for the show. I'm pretty confident that the budget of 'Empire' is six times what I'm spending on 'Have And Have Nots.'

I come out of TV, where you never reshoot, because you don't have time. If you do reshoot, it's because someone really screwed up.

The development process is not that simple... When I started working at Fox in '92, the company had decided that dramas were dead: they weren't viable businesses and because newsmagazines were so efficient to produce and financially so much more tolerable than a drama. So that year, our company developed very few dramas.

You can't do anything yourself on TV... unless you have a LOT of money, but you can do an independent movie.

Most of TV works this way: You try to get something up and running, and once you do, you just try to keep it going, because there's a lot of money involved.

I guarantee there's people who watch television who have no idea how complicated it is to make a television show.

'Generation Kill' was not a very glamorous shoot. For all intents and purposes, it was low budget, and all the money they had went to what you see on the screen.

That's the hard part of television: When you walk into the network tests, you're signing away seven years of your life.

I'd been working with Chuck Lorre since the dawn of time, starting with 'Dharma and Greg,' so when I get a call about a really cool opportunity to work with him, I say yes, even before I know what it is.

I have heard a lot of people talk about this grind of series television. I have not seen it yet.

As a television actor, when we work in TV, what we're doing is making a product so that networks can sell ad space.

I did a network show in the U.S. before, and I loved it, but you have eight days to shoot an episode, and it's just a ridiculous pace.

I really enjoy working, you know, on streaming outlets because there's so much creative control for the creators of the shows, and, you know, you're allowed to make such great television.

Usually in TV... A TV director could be anything from a main grip to just a glorified cameraman, and sometimes a director can be the person who is hired last. It's very much a producer's medium.

I've been doing stuff for ABC for a long time, since 2004. I've had several deals with them. Like, 'Life on Mars,' that was a large event for me in my career.

Making good television is what Simon Cowell does. That's his business.

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.

A studio that's designed to make television shows is not a studio designed to make a fashion line, so a lot of times, we have ideas for things we might want to do but don't necessarily have the infrastructure to do them in a timely manner.

TV is a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing to get a show.

You have to fight to get your show not only on the air but then to keep it what it is and make sure that it doesn't get manipulated into something else.

My son works as a production assistant in television.

I feel like I don't have much of a preference. With TV, it's just a longer process, so you need to be more sure that you really want to be involved in it for a longer time than you would be with film.