Scripted Show Quotes

Working on 'Dexter' is like shooting one big movie every year.

I have to tell you, TV is an incredibly difficult medium. The most challenging show to do is the hour long dramedy. It's a very tricky format.

I had never watched a law show prior to being cast on The Practice.

We're blessed on 'How I Met Your Mother' to feel like we're doing a bit of a funny playlet everyday.

You should really treat stand-up like you would a play. It's a one-man play.

On a television show, precise acting isn't the order of the day.

'Big Bang' is very tightly scripted. Because we shoot in front of a live audience, it's basically like doing a filmed piece of theatre, really.

'Dinner' is completely scripted. There are some improv elements, but I'm not interested in pranking people. It's more like a play than standup.

With 'The Soup,' obviously it has to be totally scripted out, and then, within that, I improvise punchlines and sometimes setups if I can't read the teleprompter properly.

I wouldn't be comfy going toe to toe launching a new scripted show against broadcast.

Working on 'WAGS' is obviously very different than working on wrestling television. It's very different in the way that there is not nearly as much to do for 'WAGS.'

I was on a sitcom called 'Gary Unmarried' for 37 episodes, and then I was in 'Bad Teacher' with Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake.

You don't get to rehearse much on TV. You are kind of rehearsing on film. Depending on the way you work, that's either a good thing or a bad thing.

It's a different kind of acting, this 'Law & Order' thing. They want two partners who can play off each other well and are fun to watch, but depth of character is not necessary in this job. Too much character gets in the way of the story. This is a very specific gig.

Obviously Mad TV, SNL are one kind of show, whereas The State belongs to the kind of show that is entirely conceived written and performed by a set group that existed before the TV show.

Half-hour comedy shows are like a play, one night a week.

Being on a Dick Wolf show is different than other shows. It's one of the most stable ships you can be on. You can count on the difficult decisions being made, which makes you, as an actor, feel more comfortable and relaxed.

'Drake and Josh' was strictly nine to five. We'd go in and know what we were doing, and 'Superhero Movie' was just nuttiness every day because there's a joke every ten seconds.

The first time Rachie and I will be working together is on an episode of 'Doctor Who' specially written for us by Mark Gatiss. How lucky is that?

We have a full writers' room, and with something like 'MyMusic,' we've scripted it out with professional writers. There is some very basic improv from the actors, but everything is very to the letter, so it's easy to edit down to an episode. There are fun little things an actor might throw in there.

I'm unable to do the thing that Broadway actors do in plays, sometimes for years. The same exact blocking, the same exact lines. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with that. Every night I'm looking for ways to try something else.

I think it's a lot easier to put together a reality show than to actually create a scripted show.

You know what I would really like to do? I'd like to do a half hour drama with comedy in it.

In 'Sugar' I'll be singing in every episode and I'll be acting and doing comedy. It's ideal for me if it works.

One of the problems with 'SNL' is that, if you tried to adlib, the director would put you off camera and off the mic, so only you would know that you ever did it. The director always directed to the script; he wasn't listening to what you were doing. He was calling shots whilst looking at the page.