Successful Series Quotes

None of us had any idea of how successful Downton was going to be. I thought I was signing up for another period drama that had a slightly modern feel. It had a freedom about it because it was coming out of the head of Julian Fellowes. Anything could happen and generally did.

Every show on television has a downward trend because there are so many more things to watch. You can only deal with what is the benchmark of a hit series and 'Survivor' clearly remains a hit series.

The ad revenues still go up because nothing dependably delivers the eyeballs that successful series do.

I feel very lucky 'Arrested Development' was so successful because I never really got too much attention, and I was able to evolve instead of only being seen as one character.

I will never do another TV series. It couldn't top I Love Lucy, and I'd be foolish to try. In this business, you have to know when to get off.

I'm incredibly proud of 'Hannibal' and the cast - I feel like we're doing really good television.

I started in the industry when I was 4 years old, but I started in the spotlight when I was 11 years old, when I got 'Modern Family.'

I don't know the secret of 'Mission: Impossible''s success. If I did, I'd have probably produced a couple of TV series, made myself rich, and retired!

A lot of people give actors credit when they gain weight for a role in a drama when they win an Oscar, but when you're doing a sitcom, people don't give you a lot of credit, because you've got to keep your weight on for five or six years if it's successful.

I want to be on a show that's as good as the one we're doing and that we get to make for many years.

'Marco Polo' had some negative reactions in the press. Viewers have loved it, and the volume of viewing has been phenomenal.

In TV, you can carve out a beautiful little niche like 'Breaking Bad' did. Like 'The Wire' did. Like 'Homeland' did.

I think there's really no rhyme or reason as to what keeps a show on air. Surely it's a numbers game, but some of the best shows get canceled, and some shows where you don't totally understand why they're on the air stay on for 15 or 20 years.

In the case of Five-O, I believe it was a combination of many ingredients - timing, chemistry, Hawaii.

I was lucky enough to be on a show like 'Breaking Bad' for 5 seasons; it changes how you look at other projects that come up.

Six years ago, I completed the premier episode of Hawaii Five-O, and Jack Lord and I immediately realized that we had a good series, that this was a success such as we'd never hoped for!

In our first season we had a 22 rating. Today Seinfeld, a hit show, gets a 15. Lost in Space actually had a bigger audience than Star Trek got at that time.

'The Inbetweeners' would have been a success with a totally different cast because the scripts are good - so while we were fortunate enough to be cast in it, we feel we still have a lot to prove.

I have been lucky because sometimes things go really pear-shaped with a second or a third part, but I have been lucky enough to be in good sequels.

I thought 'ER' was a really good script, but I didn't have any inkling that it would become the phenomenon that it did, and I don't think anybody did back then.

When I came on 'The West Wing,' I jumped onto something that was already a steaming locomotive of a hit. It was very exciting for me because I knew, the moment I got the 'West Wing' job, 'Well, hey, so now I'm on a hit show because it already is established and very popular.'

It starts with the writing - which is really, really good. And the production values are phenomenal. HBO and Sky have spent money on it, and you get what you pay for. This has money put into it properly - not lavish amounts - but as each season is successful, they maintain the money that's being spent to maintain the quality.

I can't even begin to describe what kind of a response 'Humsafar' got. Personally, I feel my other show, 'Zindagi Gulzar Hai,' was better, but it didn't match the success of 'Humsafar.'

The original 'CSI' grew stronger once the spinoffs became entrenched. Like any good franchise, when there's a great story to be told, viewers can't get enough.

Pilot season in L.A. is just this blood bath. They make so many pilots, and such a small percentage are picked up. And then if you are picked up, there are so many variables. You have to get a good time slot, and you have to get promoted. And then you have to thrive in that time slot.