Mitchell Hurwitz Professions : Television writer Born : May 29, 1963 Browse All Authors Top 72 quotes by Mitchell Hurwitz Television is a very writer-driven business, and it's one of the few parts of entertainment where writers are treated with respect, only because they need you. If they didn't have to treat you with respect, they would be happy to dismiss you. Mitchell Hurwitz entertainment would-be television It's very hard, I think, for critics to write positive reviews, because there's not that much to say about something you like. You can kind of say 'I really like that band' and then if you're forced to fill up the rest of an article, you've got to start saying heady things. It's much easier to say negative things in a review. Mitchell Hurwitz writing negative thinking One of the challenges of the show has always been trying to be surprising, and that was easy to do when nobody was watching it. Now that people have started watching it, they get ahead of us. We've all started really guarding the material, just to make it fun for the audience. Mitchell Hurwitz challenges fun people There were a couple times when we started working out the stories - and I was doing this with Jim Vallely and our friend Dean Lorey, who was on the show originally - and we were working on a movie. There would be some fan fiction things that would scoop us. It happened a couple times, where I thought, "Well, we can't do that!" Mitchell Hurwitz work-out fans couple I think that timing is everything. At first, it was too soon. And then, the time was right, but I was busy with other things, and the cast was busy with other things. By the time we sat down to work on the movie, enough time had passed that suddenly a different story emerged. Mitchell Hurwitz enough-time firsts thinking If you've got a restaurant, you definitely want the line to be out the door the first night, but you're more interested in people continuing to come to the restaurant. And that's their outlook, a little bit. I think it allows for more creativity, in the process. It allows people to make interesting programming that maybe wouldn't have a place on broadcast networks, if you were just counting people. Mitchell Hurwitz creativity night thinking I will tell you that we're all human beings, and we all care about what people think of us. But in general, their outlook is, "We're not looking at opening night numbers. We're not looking at opening night box office. We want this to be part of the reason you come to our service." Mitchell Hurwitz numbers night thinking The revolution is here. It's established that Netflix is a place where you can get premium content. It's a whole new world. It's very interesting. We'll be discovering it together. It's going to be interesting because they don't have a lot to compare it to. Mitchell Hurwitz revolution together interesting Netflix will know everything. Netflix will know when a person stops watching it. They have all of their algorithms and will know that this person watched five minutes of a show and then stopped. They can tell by the behavior and the time of day that they are going to come back to it, based on their history. Mitchell Hurwitz algorithms netflix behavior I had a cookie business there, with my brother, when we were growing up, called the Chip Yard, and that became the inspiration for the banana stand. My father said that he wanted us to develop a work ethic, so we'd sit there selling cookies, all day. Mitchell Hurwitz growing-up brother father They say to just write about what's happening in your backyard because that's where you find the most creativity. It's in the DNA of the show. There's no question. Mitchell Hurwitz creativity dna writing As somebody who wanted to be creative, growing up, I remember always thinking that the thing I had going against me was Orange County because it seemed like all of the comedy was coming out of New York, and it still is, to a certain extent. Mitchell Hurwitz growing-up new-york thinking I joked recently that I thought 30 seconds a day for three years would be the best way to enjoy it, and I'm going to stand by that statement. Mitchell Hurwitz would-be way years I always feel funny when I don't reveal things, especially to you [the press], who have supported us so much and are really the big reason we're here. But, we hold back information about the plot because we want to reward the fans for sticking with us, and that's so much fun. That's the funnest part of it. Mitchell Hurwitz plot fans fun It's much easier to say negative things in a review. Mitchell Hurwitz reviews easier negative Even on the old show, we would maybe not all be in the scene. Sometimes there would be a penthouse scene and everyone would get together. But, even in that context, it would be because somebody was missing. Mitchell Hurwitz would-be missing together I hope to take advantage of the Netflix organism and see if there are ways to get in new material and see if there are ways to do deleted scenes. Mitchell Hurwitz netflix scene way There are a lot of things that are in the show that harken back to the old show, but I really wanted to resist doing a greatest hits. It was irresistible to do a greatest hits, but it was almost too easy. There are things that I know are still ahead of us, in the future of whatever Arrested Development brings. Mitchell Hurwitz development shows easy Violence has not really been an issue. Even in my wildest hopes, I wasn't trying to get violence in. Mitchell Hurwitz issues violence trying I've never had a working relationship like I have with them. I developed a lot of the design of this show with them. That conversation was about, "What are your needs? What are you looking for? Will this work for you guys? Will a show work where you've got one episode per character?" They really were a creative partner. Mitchell Hurwitz design creative character Similar Authors Brad Falchuk television-writer Bridget Carpenter television-writer Andrew Kreisberg television-writer Amy Sherman-Palladino television-writer Alec Sulkin television-writer Adrian Hodges television-writer All Authors
