Sherwood Schwartz Quotations

I honestly think I could sit down and write a show tonight that the critics would love, and I know it would be canceled within four weeks. I know what the critics love. We write and produce for people, not for critics.

The critics say it's a bad show, but there ain't no critic who can climb into people's windows and turn off their sets.

A lot of people say television holds up a mirror to life, and that's why you see all the drug busts and the killings and the seamier side of life. I personally take the view that it's not sufficient to portray only negative role models. It's not enough to say 'no' to drugs. What do you say 'yes' to?

If you study both 'Gilligan' and 'Brady,' you will see they are based on a similar philosophy: that it's possible for different kinds of people to learn to live together, either in a family or stuck on an island with no escape.

I own all the characters I created, thanks to the Writers Guild, so nobody can do anything without me. The way it works is: If the copyright owners instigate a project, like the movie, then I get a fee as creator. If I instigate a project, like the musical, I pay a percentage to the copyright owners.

I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications.

It was like Burns and Allen, and any twosome really. They fed off each other with physical stuff and vocal.

He was a great actor, ... People think it's easy to fall down and get hit in the head with a coconut. And, every time, he'd find a different way to do that.

He was a complex man. He was not a guy who just slipped on banana peels. He knew most people thought of him as a funny guy who could do funny things. But he was really an intellectual at heart.

When you say the name Gilligan, you know who that is. If a show is good, if it's written well, you should be able to erase the names of the characters saying the lines and still be able to know who said it. If you can't do that, the show will fail.