I say what's on my mind and have a good time. I try to give people a show. It's all about giving people a good time once you get out under those lights.
A lot of films need planning in order to survive at all. It's part of the dog and pony show.
There's been a lot of talk of me being a one-man show but that's simply not the case. We win games when I score 40 points and we've won when I score 10.
'Bridesmaids,' I think, opened up a door to allow women to show a bunch of different women in different ways of being funny. It was kind of like an arrival moment.
Regardless of how good or bad a collection might be, it's a letdown after the show is over. It's done. Something you've worked on for months is just over.
I kind of worry about that a little bit - we lost our film culture for 30 years because the Americans came in and bought up all the cinema chains and wouldn't show any Australian films.
We gave the show away and in return, we received a certain number of minutes per hour for the three-hour show that we could sell to Madison Avenue. One of the first sponsors was MGM Records.
It's always a really great feeling when I talk to people who watched 'Jett Jackson' because we were the same age. We were all kids. I was 13 when I started working on that show, and that was part of my childhood.
Art imitates life. It's definitely helpful to feel that way. You feel that way when you're leading a show and you're on a set.
When people start to write articles about what might be wrong with the 'Today' show you know where you should point the finger, point it at me because I have been there the longest. And it's my responsibility.
When I used to go into bars people would try and fight me. Women would punch me 10 years ago or put cigarettes out on my arm or my face. But it doesn't seem to happen any more. They show us a lot of love.
With 'Nostromo', Joseph Conrad said that he had wanted to write a novel about the degradation of an idea. That's what we wanted to show in the case of Dustin Hoffman's character, Bernstein.
I find that everything I do is demanding, like Jack Bristow is a complicated man and I do a lot of explaining in the show, it takes a lot of energy and concentration.
I like to do talk show appearances where I get to just be myself, and I do stand-up where I can completely be myself. That's what I've always loved the most, of anything.
The writers are writing human beings, and they're writing about the human condition and how difficult it is to function in that condition. I think it's one of the charms of the show, the idea of redemption and working towards becoming better people, for everybody involved.
I eventually became an actor, starting with doing stand-up comedy in New York and then theater wherever they would let me. Finally, I moved out here to Los Angeles and got on a show.
Los Angeles is just a more open place. The way L.A. functions is that people give you a forum. They say, Show us what you can do.
The one thing people like about my show is it's universal. Everybody can relate to it. I think people enjoy going to a show and saying, 'Something like that happened to me.'
I have been sent three or four scripts for television series, but there wasn't anything I really wanted to do. I want to tell a good story, whether it's a TV show, a movie, whatever. That's really my No. 1 criteria.
Also, if I did join another show, I'd end up burning my bridges to the show I love most.
Because sorry to say, women run the house. They run the family. They hold things up. I mean, it's like you don't ever see your mom get sick because she handles everything. And it's kind of amazing I think to show people just how strong women are.
Pain has been part of my life. I don't complain about much. When you grow up with six boys, you can't show your pain, and if you do, they'll give you another piece of pain.
I want to do a show about a woman who's juggling a career with a relationship.
There's no conversation more boring than talking about what it's really like to live in Newport and how the show compares to the real thing. I just don't care.
I watched 'The Shield.' That was a big show for me.
'Parks and Rec' is definitely a mainstream show - the group that watches it on TV on Thursday night is small, but the audience that watches it on things like Hulu, Netflix, and Tivo is enormous.
And the thing is, every time you start a new show or do a new series, you're committing to another six years.
I guess because I was on the 'Early Show' for so many years, any little victory here is something kind of new for me.
Whenever I did sitcoms, that always happened on your show. Once the show was on the air, it takes on a life of its own. It develops, and it becomes something else.
Original 'Dallas' fans, please come back, because it's the same show 20 years later - same drama.
I started trying to be a writer and failed for years. I tried novels, short stories, sitcoms, movies, plays, anything. And then, to support myself, I had millions of jobs on the fringes of show business.
I was doing a show at the National Youth Theatre, playing an old man. Before that I had played fat clowns and I thought, 'If I want to have the career I would like, I am going to have to lose weight.' I was just starting drama school, and found I was moving around a lot. I also started to eat sensibly. The weight just dropped off.
I got a call from the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah had chosen Spanx as one of her favorite products in 2000. I had boxes of product in my apartment and I had two weeks notice that she was going to say she loved it on TV and I had no shipping department.
Doing a half-hour TV show is a dream.
It's very trying on a marriage when you're doing a one hour show, week after week after week. You don't have enough time for people that maybe you should have top priority.
I grew up loving Walter Payton. My dad used to always show us film of him.
