Peter Tolan (Rescue Me, Outsiders, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Analyze This) talks TV pilots and his creative journey.
We talk about:
- The central idea, the nugget, the central question of what a show is and writing to it
- Mapping out the season/seasons of a series
- Episode balance of comedy and drama on Rescue me
- The Larry Sanders Show
Quotes from the show:
“You slowly put everything in place so you can get to that last moment. We knew what the last image of the first season of Rescue Me was so we could always write to it. We slowly could make our way towards that.”
“If you’re young and starting out, you can shoot on your phone. Write something and make it. Put it on YouTube and people will see it.”
“You write somebody who’s a dick – who has outrageous behavior, but then how do you have an audience empathize with that character, care about that character? So an essential character is not the dick, it’s the other guy.”
