My mom is a teacher, my dad was a writer for television, his dad was a writer for television, and combining those two has been sort of the goal of my life.
Before you get to 'SNL,' you have your own sensibility. And when you get to 'SNL,' it's the show's sensibility.
If someone said, 'Sit down and write a 'Community' episode,' I would be panicked.
I have admiration for people who can do it well - the guys who wrote 'Cheers' and 'Frasier.' They created sort of a blissful comedic universe.
I started making movies in 1977, and I didn't even think about the idea that I would ever be on a television show. Once I finished the 'Guiding Light,' I was like, 'I'm done with television!'
I think television scripts have become really intriguing and well-done. And writers have stopped drawing any actual line between film and television they used to never cross.
I learned how to write TV by writing 'Grey's Anatomy.'
I'm crazy about 'Breaking Bad,' but I wouldn't know how to write an episode of it.
Matt Weiner is an amazing writer. He's one of the best, greatest writers that's ever written for television - or just written.
I wrote on a show called Johnny Bravo when I was at Hanna-Barbera.
I was in Los Angeles in 1968, and I was fortunate enough to be a writer on 'Laugh-In' and a couple of other television shows.
For sure, without question, the writing is better on TV pound for pound than movies because the businesses have changed so much. So all the great writers would rather work for TV, and they do.
'Banshee' was kind of a lark. I was getting paid pretty well to write movies no one was making - and so I decided to try my hand at TV and get paid much less to actually get something produced.
I especially love 'Web Therapy' and I did 'Eastbound and Down' too. I had a lot of fun doing that.
When I first started writing for television in the seventies and eighties, the Internet didn't exist, and we didn't need to worry about foreign websites illegally distributing the latest TV shows and blockbuster movies online.
I got written out of 'G.I. Joe' and was like, 'Welp, I'm going to go back to what I do: writing and producing comedy.'
Like most comics, I tried to come up with a sitcom idea that was based around my life. And it didn't work out. But maybe because it didn't work out, that's why I ended up on 'Breaking Bad;' I don't know.
My first series, I wouldn't even know where to get a clip of it. It was called 'Cracking Up.' It was on 'FOX' in 2004.
Not Going Out' is what I'm most proud of.
Your average sitcom writer is a very intellectual person.
The writing is so great on TV now; it's such a pleasure to watch.
I don't know of any American playwrights who earn the bulk of their living writing plays. Many of the older ones teach, while a growing number of younger ones write for series television.
Seeing the energy of 'SNL' made me want to be a part of it. If that was a job, I thought, that was the job I wanted. That was my plan. Comedy.
My showbiz career started with 'SNL,' and to write an 'SNL' book... well, there are already enough of those.
I would like to have a go at TV. I think, especially when you have kids, that you spend a lot of time watching telly, and you think, 'How come I'm not doing that?'
