My strength as a TV writer was my total lack of interest in television.
Now you watch reality TV, you watch them in all those pools or Jacuzzis and I say to myself was I that stupid? But that was me then.
As an actor, I feel there isn't much to explore on TV. So, if I get better work as a host, why wouldn't I do it?
Even when people are rich and successful on TV shows, there's always some trouble - you have to poke holes in them, throw them out of a job, put a pie in the face.
TV is easier: it's all planned out for you, and the audience is there to see a show and they are all pumped up, but when you are in a comedy club, you have to be really funny to win them over. To me, that's more pure.
One time, my mom told us, 'No TV.' It was 3 P.M., and I was sneaking it in. She put her hand on the back of the TV to see if it was warm, and it was. So she pulled the cord out of the wall, opened the second-floor window, and just threw it out the window.
Many of you might already recognize me as the guy in the question-mark suits appearing in the late night TV commercials and on the cover of educational books and CDs.
We have stay-in date nights where we make a plan to watch certain TV shows together. 'Survivor,' for example, is our favorite show. And I make a healthy dinner and we sit down and it's our date. I love it.
In theory, food writing is an aid or a prelude to actual meals: you read a recipe, and then you cook. In practice - in a 'paradox' that Michael Pollan, among others, has identified - our current gastronomic fantasies, particularly on TV, have coincided with a decline in home cooking.
When I started off with 'Dance India Dance,' even the TV show people thought it won't be accepted. But with the talent that the show received, I was able to personally tutor dancers to amalgamate contemporary dance moves on Bollywood tracks.
I was from the bush, watching Greg Norman on TV, but it was a world away.
I've been on national TV since 1994, and I can communicate in a compelling and decisive way.
The Internet offers opportunities that are more unique than ever before. With TV, I know I'm making 22 minutes; I know there's a commercial in the middle. With the Internet, no one knows anything. No rules.
In the early '80s, my sound - especially that mysterious kind of synthesized sound that was used so much - every relatively cheap TV show eventually had it because it's not expensive. It's just one guy doing the whole soundtrack. So it was overdone.
It's a wonderful thing to see a segment of our population that is open and eager to learn more about Chinese culture. It has filtered into the mainstream. You see credit-card ads on TV with white couples and Chinese babies.
Kids today know way more than you think they do, with the Internet and 500 TV channels.
I'm a big fan of unflinching drama and bold drama. If you shy away from dark subject matters, there's only certain places for TV drama to go. If there are shows that can break through that and be brave, those are the shows that I personally enjoy watching. I try and do work that I would watch.
The critics - how come you never see any of them on TV?
Now, I've never hosted a reality TV show, but I know the true mark of a successful businessman is not the number of times you say, 'You're fired.' It's the number times you say, 'You're hired.'
When I get on TV, I'm going to be talking about a silly basketball game, and I'm going to be having a lot of fun doing it. But I'm very aware of all the social stuff going on.
Woe to us if we get our satisfaction from the food in the kitchen and the TV in the den and the sex in the bedroom with an occasional tribute to the cement blocks in the basement!
There is no such thing as national advertising. All advertising is local and personal. It's one man or woman reading one newspaper in the kitchen or watching TV in the den.
So, if falling crime rates coincide with the rise of violent video games and increasing violence on TV and at the cinema, should we conclude that media violence is causing the drop in crime rates?
When synchronised swimming first appeared on TV, we laughed very heartily, and I, for one, applauded the decision to introduce humour into the Olympics.
At almost forty years old, I assumed my career on camera was over. And I was certainly given that message by all the TV managers and news directors who passed on me when I was trying to get a job back in the business.
Let's be honest: we all watch the show at home and play 'armchair' 'Survivor,' inserting our opinions, comments and yelling at the TV screen.
I feel like obviously the standard for what TV looks like changes all the time.
The Middle East Media Research Institute has spent decades detailing the diseased messages emanating from Palestinian TV and textbooks, instructing children in the glories of suicide terrorism against innocent Israelis.
There's this lingering philosophy that movie stars shouldn't do TV.
At the Emmys, you've got a bunch of people who are used to being on TV on TV. You don't have that at the Oscars. At the Oscars, you have people who are used to having 40 takes.
TV's 'real' agenda is to be 'liked,' because if you like what you're seeing, you'll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it's its sole raison.
I can work every day of the year. TV is easy. My call's at 8:30 a.m. I'd like to break out of the comedy thing and take a shot at something serious like theater. The off-season allows me to do movies, but I'm not tired of TV yet. There's nothing like it. I've got the best of both worlds.
Most voters assume because these political 'pros' are on TV or write for national papers, they know politics. Sadly, most don't have a clue.
I never really thought of myself as a TV critic. I was presenting TV before I was writing about it.
One of my complaints with American TV characters is that they all have a particular schtick, a hook.
When you work in TV, it's such a group effort, it's not about you.
