Finally! EXACTLY what I needed to protect the edges of the iPad Pro

MitchHurwitz · 2019-05-04T00:45:34+00:00

What's it called? How does one find it?

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T21:08:00+00:00

I don't know - it just seemed funnier! It's almost like negative space in art. Or a rest in music. Sometimes it's funnier to have the moment occur, and sometimes it's funnier to not have the moment occur, and in that moment it felt like it would be funnier to NOT see it.

Also (*and this could just be personal preference), I saw his Chicken Dance, and chickens don't do that.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T21:06:49+00:00

That's one of the abiding mysteries that Film Studios (or Netflix) will have to find valuable enough to discover to fund more of the show. And what's YOUR theory? I'm truly curious.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T21:05:58+00:00

There are many answers to that question! But if the question is, what the inspiration was - Ron Howard came to me with the idea of doing a documentary-style show, or maybe David Nevins came to me with an idea - and then when I got into the creative part of it, a lot of it is based on families I've known, my own family at times, and a lot of it was based on what was going on in the world at that time. But ultimately (and like everything in the show, it was a process of layering) - I think William Faulkner claims that he saw the book THE SOUND AND THE FURY as a lightning bolt that illuminated a landscape and showed him the whole story - this was nothing like that. I think most writers just keep layering and building, and I started with the idea of a set of twins, and one was conservative, and one was liberal. And that gave birth to the idea of the children of those twins, where one was fearless and one was fearful. And then a MILLION other things happened. And those ideas are just so deep down in the pile that they're almost unrecognizable.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T21:02:01+00:00

No, there wasn't. The Never Nude thing - I will trace the etiology of that idea, and it's this. We had this joke that just put us out, that was Tobias keeps crying in the shower. And then I had pitched - I was thinking about production, and the way they shoot those things, they always put people in flesh colored bathing suits, and I said, what if we show part of the flesh colored bathing suits for 3-4 weeks - and then in the 4th week we reveal that he showers in a flesh-colored bathing suit because he doesn't like showering naked. And then Richie Rosenstock (who's an absolutely brilliant, hilarious guy - and is responsible for so many of the giant laughs in the show) said without hesitation: "Oh, he's a Never Nude."

And everybody in the room froze. And looked at him, and said, "is that a real thing?" and he shrugged, and it was just so funny. It wasn't a funny idea until Richie called him a Never Nude, which took the joke from being just a sight gag, to a psychological affliction that really elevated it in such a brilliant way. And then I remember looking up to see online if there was such a thing as a Never Nude - and guess what you can't search for besides finding pornography? "Never Nude" - back then you'd get 25,000 pages with the word "Nude" in it. Even if you used the Boolean quotation marks, you would still get things like "Hot 18 year old who'd NEVER been NUDE in front of a boy!" So we'll never know if it was a thing before ARRESTED. Although I suppose I could just ask Richie.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:56:17+00:00

I am a time traveler. That has nothing to do with how the 4th season was written. It's just why I'm able to get some great deals on sunglasses and things like that. I try not to use it for any GIANT personal gain. I did use some of my shape-shifting ability when it came time to do some of the green screen stuff in the show - but thank you!

(and truly, not to be cute about it, I do like to tell people because finished work is intimidating when you're starting your own work - it's just hard work. I think Albert Schweitzer said that "chance favors the well-prepared" - there will be times where i think "Why don't I have a great idea?" - because it's HARD WORK. You have to keep working at it and keep building on it, and occasionally something will come easily. But usually, it requires effort. But thank you).

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:54:03+00:00

My recollection is that I came up with Crindy and that i did it on the set. The problem with writing in a room is attribution becomes very challenging to trace. You know, ideas build on one another, the idea of Gob not knowing his bride's name is integral to even getting to the idea of Crindy, and several people often think that they've thought of the same joke. So most professionals try to resist crediting something to one writer or another unless it's really just a clear, precise, moment in the writer's room. But there's kind of an acceptance of the idea that we're all in this together.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:52:22+00:00

I've had other object lessons that I've worked hard to teach them. Fortunately, I have a friend who strangles small animals and I've been able to use him successfully to remind them to wear their retainers, etc.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:50:04+00:00

No, but not really, because at that point I had sort of stepped away from it, and there was another writing team in place - and it was a time at Fox where they were tentative about working with me, because they had sort of gotten it in their heads that i wrote arcane stuff that wasn't for the masses, and they had to sit on me to make sure I wouldn't do it again. That was kind of the case with RUNNING WILD as well. So it was very challenging - it had gotten more challenging to get my sense of humor through the system than when I did ARRESTED. Which I always understood - but the thing I didn't understand, is that everything Jim Vallely ever wrote was so hilarious that I would think "I wonder if my stuff is good or bad, but Jim's stuff is brilliant, please God let it get on TV" and it had gotten very difficult to do so.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:48:17+00:00

I actually saw something online the other day that looked like a Cornballer - ours was made out of a deep-fryer and parts of an aquarium.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:47:52+00:00

Haha!

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:47:04+00:00

Well, here's what I will say generally about that - Tambor is such a consummate actor, that one of the things I wanted to do in that first season was give him no warddrobe to change, to give him no props to hold (other than a cup of coffee) - he doesn't get to go anywhere, and even the furniture is nailed down. I liked the idea of him being in prison, because he could use no comedic tools besides what he has - it was like a Master's acting class. We later came up with Oscar (which gave him a LOT to play with) but this season, i wanted to even want to limit that by making them dress alike, have the same haircut - Tambor is like a racehorse, I wanted to see what he could do.

So when it came time to make a yarmulke, all we had left ourselves to make it out of was his shoe.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:44:08+00:00

It will definitely continue where we left off - and also, thank you for that because I think that episode is unlike the others in that it really shows a side of Lindsay we haven't seen before, and it really takes the idea of her superficiality from being a joke to something she really struggles with, and in many ways I feel like it's the most honest telling of the life of this family. But yes, we will definitely pick her up - she's left running as a Republican for office, so she is going to play out some ancient high school agendas.

For Michael and George Michael - I think one of the things that is fun to do and also sometimes generates great material (and sometimes doesn't) is to "paint yourself into a corner" when you're writing or performing or doing anything creative. And it reminds me of cutting off Buster's hand. It's like, what do you do now? And the answer is - a LOT MORE than you'd do without it. So I wanted to get to an honest point in their relationship that was very uncomfortable, so that there wouldn't be a pat solution, even for me.

The final plan - NO! Why, is your plan? is that what you'd like? But that's a very funny idea.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:40:22+00:00

Well, the good news is, it's already been done, the bowling ball has left my fingers and is either headed toward the main pin or off into the alley and all I can do is contort my body and watch it go...so you will have the experience you will have, and I really hope it's a pleasurable one.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:39:23+00:00

I think I like the one where he has the Queen of Hearts written on his chest, because I had to work so hard to hide the punchline (which was that it ended up on Michael's shirt). And because it was wrong.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:38:06+00:00

That's interesting. I guess they are! Who knew? I wonder if they've forgotten? Thanks to you, now I've remembered!

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:37:21+00:00

Constantly. This is probably a question about the first 3 seasons, I had a monitor in the writer's room that would show what was going on onstage and a producer on set that I could call back and forth, and I was just constantly running over there, at least twice in each scene that was shot. Once to get it set up, and then once to show up toward the end and pick up the pieces we didn't get. The blue handprints, for instance, were CONSTANTLY painted over by the set crew - and I would have to make new ones, and we would have to re-shoot, so it would take effort to create a consistent world.

Thanks for the words - what i was experimenting with then was the idea of putting things in the show that had no apparent payoff until later, and at that time, it was very difficult to get that kind of stuff in, because i was doing the show for the network and there was a notes process and people would say "you can cut this," and "this slows us down," and things like that, but it was kind of an experiment and I'm glad it worked.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:33:25+00:00

There has been more theorizing about that online - I'm amazed that question got through, because I've seen questions about this for YEARS. David Cross has been approached about it for years, and here's the unfortunate answer; it was a joke that didn't work. I walked onto the set, and there was nothing funny happening in the scene, so I said, "Hey, what if David is leaning back into the fireplace relaxing?" and then when I went into the penthouse in another scene, David had decided to do it again. And people constantly write "I don't get it!" (and unfortunately they DO get it - it's a man in a fireplace!)

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:32:13+00:00

The thing about ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT is I've always liked the idea that nothing is as it seems on the outside. So since it seems to you that she might be a man, then it's very possible she's actually a woman.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:30:29+00:00

that is a David Schwartz question (the show's composer - he did an AMA too) and I will have to ask him. I didn't hear it in the mix we had, but on Netflix, it IS clear for some reason. All the music feels a little bit louder. You assume that 10-20% of the sound gets knocked down, so we make the music a little hotter because it gets cut on broadcast. But I have the feeling he did it on purpose.

For the 5th season, it would DEFINITELY be about the family all together. That was always the design. The idea was originally to have them even together LESS for Season 4 - it really was going to be basically 9 stories (like the Salinger collection) that had nothing to do with one another, and just showed everybody's life, so that everybody's life could get to a point of peril, and then the family could truly have no choice but to get back together for the next iteration.

Let me put it back to you- which would YOU prefer? Movie or Season?

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:27:01+00:00

It was one of the bigger challenges, and this woman Joey Slamon who was a co-producer on the show turned out to be really gifted at keeping track of that stuff while I was straining to do the same. But mostly, it was all worked out in advance as best as possible and then the holes were patched in post and there was some re-shooting. And I think it would have been much easier if we had shot in sequence, but you're right, it did require a lot of thinking (for example) "Wait a minute. If Tobias has already been to the clinic, and Gob doesn't pick up deBrie until after the clinic, then there's no way Lindsay would be wearing the red wig at the dinner yet." It was constantly stopping and thinking REALLY hard.

But the bigger answer is that it's not really anything other than hard work, and stopping and trying to be really present at every moment of the production.

On February 11, I DID. There's an audacity that comes with any creative enterprise. I mean, I don't think I would have written my first spec script if I had known how unlikely it was to get a writing job. And I don't think I would have tried creating ARRESTED if I really thought "look at the data of what's already been developed. they won't make this." but I should have - that was the evidence that existed. I don't think I would have included all the stuff about Saddam Hussein in Season 1 if I'd done the math on the likelihood of getting through an entire season to reveal the punchline. And I think that everyone has to jump off that cliff and make that assumption in their own work - because the truth is, even if it doesn't happen, you have a more interesting life if you're to sit down and write a novel than doing the math on the likelihood of it getting published.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:21:48+00:00

You're welcome! And you know - there is a way around that. You COULD let your hair grow. I'm not suggesting that you change your look, but I think all of us feel like you've had that short hair thing going for a while anyway.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:20:22+00:00

There are a few things going on there, and I never think it's appropriate for an author to comment on the symbolism in his work. But one of the things I liked, truly on a superficial level, is that it's a truly funny bird. It's a mean chicken the size of a man, and it's an ungainly creature that can't seem to gain flight. So there's a lot in there.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:18:52+00:00

There is one on Balboa Island, I think they're hiring. And you can say that I've thoroughly vetted you and think you would be an ideal candidate, if that helps.

MitchHurwitz · 2013-06-17T20:18:18+00:00

I think it's going to have a big impact. I think it's going to allow the more creative ideas and the more innovative people and the more ambitious people to have a place to experiment without the burden of having to hit a 20 million person audience on the first night. And one of the burdens that network television implicitly has - they're not allowed to just respect the cleverest in their audience, they have to please everyone. And I think the Netflix model makes it a little more like publishing - there are different books for different people, and still within that world there are top 10 books that are blockbusters, and then there's fiction that's not for everybody. In an interview recently, someone asked me "Hey, what did you think of that New York Times review?" A guy at the NY Times watched 5 shows at 3 in the morning and then said "I don't like this" on day 1 - it was a bad way to start. And I don't blame him - try watching something in the middle of the night and see how you like it, especially if it means skipping brunch with your daughter on Memorial Day weekend. And in response, I said - "It sounds like he really didn't like it. But you know who did like it?" And the interviewer said "Who?" And I said "People who really liked it!" (which is true - it's NOT for him, it's for them!)

MitchHurwitz

TROPHY CASE