A lot of Christmas episodes feel like stories in quotation marks. Uh, a homeless guy comes to live with them and they all learn a lesson. That didn't come from an organic place.
I remember watching TV as a kid, and whenever there was some sort of jeopardy involving the hero, I could reassure myself that they were what I'd call a 'can't-die' character, so everything would be OK.
Pilot season after pilot season, I read the same part: the wife who rolls her eyes at her somewhat immature husband that she still loves. Literally.
In soaps, people come back from the dead all the time, to the point where death is just a bus stop.
I think the longer a sitcom is on the air, by necessity, the dumber the characters have to get: otherwise, they would be learning and growing, and they won't be funny, so they have to get more and more extremely whatever they are.
The joke that I make is that there are instances on the TV series that happen to me, - except on Sex and the City they always make it better or worse than real life and I am actually saying that in a joking way.
One of my complaints with American TV characters is that they all have a particular schtick, a hook.
It's really rare in TV not to think, 'Well, I've seen a version of this before.'
In sitcoms, the women are so beautiful, understanding and well-bred. They have humor, but sort of display it with a twinkle of the eye and not a guffaw. But there's no juice in that for me.
In the old days, when a star left a still-thriving hit show, they'd celebrate by killing him or her off. But 'The Office' dispatched Michael Scott in a crueler and more final way: they made him normal. Since we're talking about Michael Scott, 'normal' might be stretching it, obviously.
Very few people run around and get amnesia and have comas and come out of them and do all the silly of people have strokes and have comas and come out of them and do all the silly things we do on soaps.
There are lots of comic bosses and fathers in sitcoms, but the comic landlord remains rare.
It's become impossible to enjoy most quality television shows because the hurt or endangered women device is so frequently used.
Dan Harmon has this idea that characters on TV are allowed to talk about their favorite movies and TV shows and songs.
(In) most cop shows, every cop in the squad speaks exactly the same and the same kind of short clipped film noir-ish talk.
I've done my share of period stuff. I'm not sure why, but people say I have a period face. The bread and butter of British TV is Jane Austen adaptations and bridges and bonnets and boats and horses.
In the 1970s, there was a trend for all detectives on TV to have some quirk or gimmick, and this was often physical.
With a lot of shows, what you'll see happen is they start off really well, and they're very original, but they become sort of a version of themselves. They stand outside the show... they become a cliche of the show they once were. That's the whole 'jumping the shark' thing.
The whole saas-bahu drama is very cliched. I feel there's already too much of that on TV. So I was waiting for something like 'Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi.' The show offered a fresh and interesting plot.
It always staggers me when series don't use their sidekicks.
There are so many tropes in 'Sex Education'; don't get me wrong. There are lots of formulaic things, but the reason they're in there is because they work, and we can rework them because people recognize them.
So often in TV, when you have an antagonist who's supposed to be the 'big baddie,' it's so easy for them to become cliched.
Sometimes in television, if there are storylines that are oft-told, people can be hypercritical of them.
We're used to boy meets girl, boy likes girl, instant attraction on TV. But you throw a son in there, you throw a marriage in there, and you've got some really good character stuff.
TV shows always pit girls against each other; there's always a nemesis.
