Television Sitcom Quotes

I went on a road trip and ended up in Portland, Oregon, and from there, I did non-stop theater. I had just graduated, and I had all these ideas about what good acting was, but I hadn't put any of it into action. I spent five years honing my acting chops. And then I had this epiphany one day that I need to go to L.A.; I need to be on a sitcom.

Chuck Lorre and I had been talking about doing one of his shows for a while. I said I'd like to do 'The Big Bang Theory,' because I think it's the best written, most intelligent show on television.

I never watched Friends, maybe because it was written by people straight out of college....The only way to avoid age discrimination in Hollywood is to die young.

'30 Rock' is one of the best things on TV, I think.

I wanted to be a doctor, because I grew up on 'Cosby.'

Theres always next year, ... except, you know, for Ray Romano.

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.

Contrary to popular opinion, 'Leave it to Beaver' was not a documentary.

Jerry Lewis played on the very first season of Mad About You, and he played basically himself, but he was called some other name. He said he's never done it; he'd never done a half-hour of [sitcom] television. This was 1992 or '93. And I said, "Well how is that?" And he goes, "Nobody ever asked me." It's like the pretty girl at the dance; everybody's too afraid to ask.

I have always approached 'Housewives' as a comedy.

You can't do every movie - although I do a lot of them - and the thing I'm longing to do is... it's not that I think I'm funny... but I long to do a situation comedy.

The repeat run of Fawlty Towers (BBC2) drew bigger audiences than ever and deservedly so. Statistical surveys reveal that only the television critic of the Spectator is incapable of seeing the joke, which is that Basil Fawlty has the wrong temperament to be a hotel proprietor, just as some other people have the wrong temperament to be television critics.

'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.

I think Night Court was the first thing I did when I came out to Hollywood. It was just one of those things that... I'm from Texas, and it was a character I'd been doing when I was a kid, just for fun.

Well first of all, I think the phrase 'jump the shark' has jumped the shark. I read it in every article and I think that when Fonzie actually jumped the shark, 'Happy Days' was on the air for another five years.

Growing up, I was in love with Jennifer Aniston from 'Friends.'

Many people have fond memories of 'The Monkees.' I fondly remember it, too.

There was another guy suggested. He was a tall and dark-haired and Jewy, and I said, "No, he's too close to me." It ended up being Jerry Seinfeld.

While I had done the movies through Revolution Studios, we own the sitcom. It was a situation where, once the team was assembled, I knew we could create something really, really good.

You can't hold me to the same standard as the president or a school teacher. I'm just a comedian. My job is like Archie Bunker.

I watched 'The Sopranos,' I saw a couple of episodes of 'Mad Men.' I loved 'Seinfeld.' In fact, I got some CDs of 'Seinfeld.' 'Seinfeld' was hilarious. Oh, boy. The Nazi soup kitchen? 'No soup for you!'

I'm a latecomer to popular TV. This is rather new to me, being in a sitcom. It's been an ambition of mine.

Culturally, I think 'All in the Family' was universal enough to have good timing at any time.

Every actor has periods of their life that are a little less busy than others, and that was just a time when I needed that. And to be back on a sitcom stage, with Julia [ Louis-Dreyfus], was really, really fun.

I would say that Lucy, 'I Love Lucy,' she was my idol.