I left 'The Bob Newhart Show,' which was my decision. CBS wanted it to go on. But I could see television changing; I could see the tastes were changing.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I knew I wanted to do a show on NBC - it's rooted in its history; it's part rooted in nostalgia and part rooted in the potential of it. For me, there was no other choice.
I wasn't really excited about doing television, to be quite honest.
When you watch the sitcoms that were the big hits when I was growing up, TV was still just TV. It was allowed to just be TV. There were three channels that were competing for the whole family and you couldn't take your business elsewhere.
'Futurama' was a big deal. People had already started to hear about me a little bit here and there, but that was the first series I booked to be a regular on.
I was fortunate to be part of a very successful show on CBS in 1986. I switched to NBC for eight years and through these experiences have gotten terrific insight into television; it's a fascinating medium.
I've been on one TV series after another. None of the network decisions have ever made sense to me.
Sitcoms are what got me excited about show business.
In the case of 'News Radio,' I loved that show. I loved the actors and the producers, but I was longing very much for something more to sink my teeth into me. I think it was an incredibly smart show, but I found myself on the peripheral of a lot of it.
I still feel driven to try to make great shows and to make each episode great.
I left the golden age of documentaries to go into the golden days of the 'CBS Evening News.' You could see that the audiences were eroding.