I did a network show in the U.S. before, and I loved it, but you have eight days to shoot an episode, and it's just a ridiculous pace.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Directing television is really hard - it's so fast. You shoot an hour show in seven days.
I respect the hell out of everyone who does a network show. That is a marathon. It's so many episodes, and it can be a meat grinder. Anyone making a network show, and on top of that making a very good network show, that's an insane feat of Herculean endurance and fortitude.
It takes a week to do a sitcom in Hollywood. I do a show a day in my studio, three or four shows a week.
Ten episodes goes by really quickly, especially when you've got a really tough shooting schedule of seven-day episodes.
'Party Down' is the most fun I've ever had working in my life. We shoot 10-episode seasons and we shoot it in 10 weeks, so it's very brief: 4-day episode shoots. You never get sick of anybody, and it never feels like a drag. It's way, way, way too short.
I'm ridiculously fortunate to get a chance to experience the sitcom world. The schedule is extremely easy, and you get fed as an artist because you're not only working on a project, but you get to work with cameras, and you get the audience there.
I've always had a show that went seven episodes or 13 episodes or whatever. And I've never had a show that's gone past a first season. It really is a lot of work.
On a television show, you basically make a movie a week. Movies take three months - it's crazy. They're so slow, it's like vacation to me.
We worked under a lot of pressure... three days to do an episode, sometimes two in a week, 39 episodes a year.
I love the sitcom schedule. It takes a week to make an episode, but we don't work on weekends. I'm usually done in time to get home for dinner with my wife and daughter.