You can make a good show, but you still need some magical alchemy to get people to watch. Shawn Ryan More Quotes by Shawn Ryan More Quotes From Shawn Ryan I think the bar is higher these days in terms of audience expectations of authenticity. Shawn Ryan barsexpectationsthinking I've spent a lot of time thinking about what the audience would want. That's my job, is to anticipate ahead of the audience. Shawn Ryan wantjobsthinking I'm very humble in terms of knowing that television is an extraordinary collaborative medium and that one person alone cannot make a great TV show. Shawn Ryan tv-showsknowinghumble Nothing makes me happier than to have a smart person tell me why the show is smart, especially if I didn't intend that. I tend to be a very instinctual writer, and I don't plot shows out like, "This is my thesis and this is how I'm going to subtly sneak my thesis into this episode." I just approach it from, "We know these characters well, here are the situations that they're in, now how would they behave? What would the consequences be?" And it's always fun to see how people interpret that and dissect it afterward, and make me and the other writers seem probably smarter than we really are. Shawn Ryan smartfuncharacter I'm perfectly happy to color within the network lines when I have to. Shawn Ryan linescolor I would say on a creative level I put a lot of pressure on myself. Shawn Ryan levelscreativepressure I still feel driven to try to make great shows and to make each episode great. Shawn Ryan drivenepisodestrying Cheers was one of the first shows where I paid attention to the writers because their [work] was better than everything else I was watching. The writers weren't afraid to let a joke fall slightly flat if it advanced the characters. Shawn Ryan cheercharacterfall I don't want my writing to be so unique that when you apply it to different genres, it seems like the previous show that people know you from. Shawn Ryan uniquewritingpeople There will always be economic pressure to make hits, identify hits, and then exploit hits. And you're going to exploit them with as many episodes as you probably can. Shawn Ryan economicepisodespressure There are certain economics involved in making a network TV show that you want to amortize the costs of that, so the more episodes you make, the cheaper they all are individually. Shawn Ryan tv-showscostwant Obviously there are different standards and practices that are allowed on cable versus network. You just have to embrace what your network is going to allow. Shawn Ryan embracedifferentpractice Series finales have that responsibility to leave you feeling good about entire series. You want to feel like the viewer closes the book satisfied. And if you strike out on the finale it skews how you feel about the entire series. Shawn Ryan feel-goodresponsibilitybook One of the tricky things about running a TV show is that you just never know how good the guest stars you cast on a weekly basis, how good they're going to be in the episode. Sometimes they surprise you in good ways and sometimes they surprise you in disappointing ways. Shawn Ryan tv-showsstarsrunning In order to appeal to a wider audience on network in order to survive, generally your characters need to be, at a base level, a little bit more likable. Shawn Ryan characterorderneeds The worst thing you can do is end up with a network show on cable or end up with a cable show on network. Shawn Ryan worstendsshows I've worked in network and cable on and off for a number of years, and you just understand what your parameters are. A lot of times, I think the best work that my team has come up with comes from having to deal with certain boundaries. Shawn Ryan teamyearsthinking I was never that kid who grew up in New York and was always at the arthouse watching important films. I was the kid who grew up in the Midwest where there weren't any art films, and I watched TV. And that was really the medium that affected me and that I fell in love with. Shawn Ryan new-yorkkidsart I've always read a lot of historical books and I'm a big fan of documentaries, and I've always thought of ways to do it. Shawn Ryan fanshistoricalbook Working as a showrunner has made it tougher to watch other shows and movies. Shawn Ryan showsmadewatches
