Shawn Ryan Quotes

Quotes about:

• I'm perfectly happy to color within the network lines when I have to.

  Shawn Ryan

  Color, Lines

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Book, Responsibility, Feel Good

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  Fun, Smart, Character

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Jobs, Thinking, Want

  4 Copy quote

• I still feel driven to try to make great shows and to make each episode great.

  Shawn Ryan

  Trying, Driven, Episodes

  4 Copy quote

• When you start a TV show, you're not necessarily thinking, "Are we setting up what we need for season seven?" You're just trying to stay on the air, and you try to learn your job as you go, and do what you can.

  Shawn Ryan

  Thinking, Trying, Seven

  4 Copy quote

• There are story-room sessions where you think about the big picture, like a novel, but once you have certain things in place, you have to treat each episode like an hour of TV, and think that maybe this will be the only episode that anyone will ever watch. You want to have some sort of beginning, middle, and end to the episode, even if you have storylines that are carrying over. You still want it to feel like a cohesive hour of entertainment. And you can't think about both at the same time.

  Shawn Ryan

  Thinking, Over You, Hours

  4 Copy quote

• I always think it's better to take your time and go through a lot of ideas - and dismiss a lot of ideas - before figuring out where to land. It's a good way to care for your audience, too. If you spend hours and hours and days and weeks coming up with the ending, then there's a chance the fans won't figure it out on their own.

  Shawn Ryan

  Thinking, Care, Chance

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Cheer, Fall, Character

  Source: www.gq.com

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Practice, Different, Embrace

  Source: collider.com

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Ends, Worst, Shows

  Source: collider.com

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Book, Historical, Fans

  Source: collider.com

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Pressure, Economic, Episodes

  4 Copy quote

• 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 Shows, Cost, Want

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Running, Stars, Tv Shows

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Character, Order, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Team, Thinking, Years

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Art, New York, Kids

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. November 24, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• The payment for sins can be delayed. But they cant be avoided.

  Shawn Ryan

  Sin, Payment, Avoided

  7 Copy quote

• Everyone in Hollywood who is successful becomes less successful at some point. I'm just trying to delay that fall for as long as I can.

  Shawn Ryan

  Fall, Successful, Long

  4 Copy quote

• I don't ever want to have a weak episode of television with my name on it.

  Shawn Ryan

  Names, Television, Want

  4 Copy quote

• I don't want my writing to be recognized.

  Shawn Ryan

  Writing, Want

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Writing, Unique, People

  4 Copy quote

• I would say on a creative level I put a lot of pressure on myself.

  Shawn Ryan

  Creative, Levels, Pressure

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Humble, Tv Shows, Knowing

  4 Copy quote

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