Dick Wolf Quotes (57 Quotes)

The great strikes of the '50s and '60s were bloody and awful, but at that point there were only three networks. Everyone came back to work.

When it went on the air, the sales department hated it. It was the highest advertising pullout show in the history of NBC. At the early focus groups, people were saying, 'Who are these people? Why should we watch them?

I hardly see myself as a futurist.

Well, television has become an unforgiving environment and you don't get to make mistakes. That was the great thing about Universal in the old days.

I do love television. But the business is accelerating and people are not getting the chance to fail.

And the consumer doesn't care. They don't watch networks, they watch TV shows.

Now we're tied with two of the greatest shows of all time,

I was incredibly upset, disappointed, dismayed, any other adjectives that you could care to add.

I was running Miami Vice, but it wasn't my show so I got to learn an enormous amount. You were basically getting trained to have your own show.

New York City is as much a part of every 'Law Order' ensemble as the actors.

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

The agendas on the management side of the table now are not in sync like they used to be because you have vastly different entities supplying programming to networks.

We are all saddened by the loss of Gregory Hines, one of the most versatile performers of his generation, ... Law Order.

There are other options out there, after all, like read a book, go on the Internet, rent a movie.

There was an interesting article in Los Angeles Magazine about women directors. A woman director makes one bad independent film and her career is over. Guys tend to get an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

I was raised not to be rude, but I also try to get the best work out of people.

Crime is a constantly renewable resource. Every day people continue to kill each other in bizarre and unfathomable ways. Even if murder goes down by double digits, there are still thousands of people killed in this country every year and killers who warrant prosecution.

The story drove the book. That had a very seminal effect on the way I saw writing and storytelling. If you can set a character in a story that is compelling and has a backbone, you draw people in.

The environment doesn't change that radically. You are still going to go home at night and NBC is going to be there, ABC and CBS will still be there.

I would say that if you really wished to be a working member of the community, don't go out on strike because then there's no work and no potential of work.

I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th-century show business,

The heart and soul of network programming is series programming, the weekly repetition of characters you like having in your house.

There are professional negotiators working for the writers and the actors, but basically you've got the writers and actors negotiating against businessmen. That's why you get rhetoric.

Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off.

I'm certainly not gonna say that there should never be another show with Law Order in the title.

You have this disturbing reality that there are a lot of people who would rather say, 'I'm on strike' than 'I'm unemployed.' And those are the people who vote for strikes.

It was like in Samoa when they'd put up a movie screen on the beach and show movies and the locals would run behind the sheet to see where the people went. It was pretty grim.

When you have four shows on a network, some decisions you're going to agree with and other decisions you're going to violently disagree with. You've heard me violently disagree with other decisions (and) it has absolutely no effect on the decision-making process.

TV is not about ideas. It's about execution. And writing and casting. That's why most of TV drama's biggest stars have been character actors, not romantic leads. Peter Falk. Telly Savalas. Angela Lansbury. They can inhabit a role for years, and that's the TV challenge. I like to say a successful movie lasts 110 minutes. A successful TV series lasts 110 hours.

I think most people don't react well to being screamed at. It's counterproductive.

Everyone connected with 'Conviction' is excited about being part of the breaking wave of a brand new technology.

It's a very competitive business. And everybody I know who does it is extremely competitive, but they show it or don't show it in different ways.

Advertising is the art of the tiny. You have to tell a complete a story and deliver a complete message in a very encapsulated form. It disciplines you to cut away extraneous information.

I try to just communicate what I want done as clearly and simply as possible.

The three 'Law Order' shows have turned TNT into the number one network on cable and USA the number two network on cable,

I've been on the air continuously at NBC for 21 years. So this is an extraordinarily long relationship, and it's like a very long-term marriage. I mean, there are stresses and strains intermittently, but we're kind of stuck with each other forever.

T.V. has to be edited and scored and everything else, and if you don't like what you're watching it can be a very painful process.

It's show business. No show, no business.

As soon as you become complacent your show gets canceled.

No blood on the floor.

If the scripts are not good, I'll tell somebody, 'This isn't good.'

The threat to free television. The reason television is free is because it is a life support system for commercials. That fundamental aspect is about to change.

It's like a long-term marriage. There are stresses and strains intermittently, but we are kind of stuck with each other.

The most positive step is to try to expand the employment base by making it, if not economically friendly, at least not economically disastrous, for studios to take on deficits.

People recognize certain things, like 'D' means 'this dialogue stinks.' We're dealing with shows that are written here, shot in New York and posted back here. Accurate communication is a necessity.

When this strike is over, there will be fewer jobs. The people who were unemployed prior to the strike aren't going to be the first ones back to work.

I don't think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.

To quote General Patton, 'I don't like paying for the same real estate twice.' If it's not done, you say, 'This is not what we agreed on.'

TIVO executives stand up and say, 'Well, we're not getting rid of commercials, but we are letting them fast forward, because people like commercials, and if they see one that they like they stop and watch it.' I mean, please.

Their argument is that most shows are losers, which is true, but it's also disingenuous to say, 'We are not going to take the risk unless it is totally covered by the few successful shows that are out there.'