'Family Ties,' to me, was strictly '80s. It was from the beginning of the '80s until the end of the '80s, and it was very specific to that time. Ronald Reagan was president.
I set out to tell my story, which is based on my family. Dr. Cosby told his story in 'The Cosby Show.' The comparisons stop there in terms of my creation of the show. We just both happen to have black fathers at the center of it.
Your average sitcom writer is a very intellectual person.
I like the sitcom, as a structure.
I've been very busy working on the ABC Family sitcom, 'Baby Daddy.'
I've been fired from a situational comedy with a script they wrote specifically for me because of my voice.
One thing I won't do in television is a sitcom. I find that world to be so neurotic and bizarre.
The key to sitcom success is miserable people. If you see a happy couple, it's just gone, like when Sam and Diane got together on Cheers.
'The Office' is less a comedy than so many other 'comedies' that have been on the air. It's really about the balance between what is real and what is comic.
Remember the diner in 'Happy Days?' I do want to do a show like that. But an updated version.
Emotionally, shows like 'Cheers' and 'Taxi' were classic sitcoms when I was growing up.
I feel like it's a dangerous and dark world if 'Sunny' becomes mainstream comedy. If you were to turn on CBS at 8 o'clock on Thursday and see an episode of 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia,' I don't know if I want to live in that world.
I've never made a show that goes right on the air and is perfect. People don't remember, but the original 'Goldbergs' pilot was poorly received, and I had to retool that for ABC, where it eventually became a hit.
I don't watch television, but I saw 'The Office' by accident. I thought it was so sophisticated, the Victorian love story, and so bold. We'd do anything, all of us, to not work in that environment, and then I'm sitting there watching hours of it.
After the series 'Roc' ended, every role offer I got was for the wise-cracking, ne'er-do-well brother or boyfriend, and I could have made a very good career doing those characters.
The writers are the stars of every really successful sitcom.
The show is called 'The Office,' and while it focuses on the people, the architecture of the space is very important.
Even before I got on 'SNL' I assumed I would do some type of sitcom; I kind of thought that was how I would start. I don't mean to sound arrogant - I just thought I would be best suited to the form.
I thought The Office was good, though I didn't think of it as a sitcom, just as a very good programme.
The Monkees was a straight sitcom, we used the same plots that were on the other situation comedies at the time. So the music wasn't threatening, we weren't threatening.
'Wings' was a blessing, but it was also very difficult. Whenever you do situation comedy, no matter how excellent the execution - and we had a great cast and great writers - but the format is somewhat limited.
We hoped to get a TV show, and we almost did, but 'The State' beat us out for this MTV show. So because they were there, and 'SNL' and 'Kids in the Hall' were there, we thought, 'Let's go try to do what Python did, and instead, let's make movies.'
Reviews are written by people who don't understand the process of sitcom. I don't read reviews of anything. I go by word of mouth.
I was 16 when I auditioned for the series '8 Simple Rules.' They cast the kids first.
Black Books adheres to a more old fashioned, traditional sitcom format, which I think works, because in its own way, it's quite theatrical.
