Aaron Spelling Quotes

1. On a gay situation, I think we set a trend too. I remember how Blake Carrington in Dynasty hated his son being gay. And the son finally moved out and Blake was mean to his son's lover, but in the last show, I'll never forget that, Blake visited the apartment his son and his lover were living in. They were expecting trouble and hell, but nothing happened and he kissed his son.


2. One thing my wife says is bad about me, is that I still care too much.

3. A show that no one thought had a chance has just finished its fifth year: Charmed. I think it's tougher for the younger networks, so I think they have a little more patience for the sake of the show. But who knows?

4. I think detail is just paying attention...Would she say that? Would he say that? Why is he saying that? That's the detail.

5. I love my wife, she deserves anything and everything.

6. I love giving time to gay actors, gay characters; I think it's wrong to say, You don't exist. I like diversity in shows, and I must say, the networks are really selling that, finally. African Americans, Latinos, diversity, diversity. Even love scenes, I'm pleasantly surprised that we've come that far.

7. You know what shows today are missing? Stars.


8. Wow, you're saying better things than I am, and this is my interview!

9. You can't predict a show, that is the damnest thing, you can't predict if a show is going to work or not until it's on the air.

10. But it's true, when you see some television, you carry it with you. It's like 90210. Tell me what young shows were being done then…We were thrilled about the ratings around the world.

11. As a writer, I was writing for the Jane Wyman Theater, that was an anthology, and The Dick Powell Show was an anthology, and then the Danny Thomas Hour, and then Playhouse 90.

12. I don't remember a drama on TV that had shown a couple could be married but still love each other very much, spend every day as if they were still on their honeymoon, be sensuous, and have fun together.

13. Family, many, many years ago, was a simple, correct family, and now I think if you're going to do a family show, you'd better make sure your characters are liked by the families watching, that's it. And now it's more about issues that confront families and their kids, and those are very important issues.

14. But, I don't know, the violence, I can't even talk about. We don't do a lot of violent shows. When I started in television, breaking a pencil was a violent act.


15. I can kid around and say it's entertainment and everybody likes our shows, but we have something else at stake. This is a chance to teach-not preach, teach.

16. I must tell you, I haven't done the drug problem that is faced by cops and people on the border. It's a hard show to do, but I think it's going to say a lot about drugs and the problems related to them. I just hope people can watch it, it's a pretty strong show.

17. I'll tell you what I miss most. What I would love to do, more than anything, is just anthologies. With an anthology you can tell any story and be in every division of television. We don't have any anthologies anymore, do we?

18. I don't travel by airplane. I mean that because when my wife, my kids and I travel on trains or boats, we meet a lot of people and we talk to them.





19. I think there are two ways to depict a family. One is what it's really like, and one is what the audience would like it to be. Between you and me, I think the second one is what I would prefer.

20. I think our shows are entertaining. I think that they're clean. I hate to talk about that, but, boy, where some of the shows are going today, it's amazing. I'm ashamed of my wife seeing some of these shows, much less making them. I don't even want the cast of my shows to see some of those other shows.




21. It's been a straight strip, I must tell you, I've enjoyed it all the way. If I'm saying things to make it sound like it's hard, hard work, it's not. It's beautiful work. It's fun work. It's everything you'd ever want to do.

22. I think you reach so many people, and so many different people. We have to be very careful of that out here in Hollywood because if you saw the list of parties we are invited to here, and if you scan that list, it's always that higher, higher echelon, you never really get to know real people.

23. When we did Dynasty, it was the clothes. I think the clothes affected every woman around the world. I got so many letters, I think we made the designer a millionaire!



24. It's OK to do cute little things like kissing a turtle, but you can't kiss another person because he's a different color? Give me a break. And you have to remember, I'm from Dallas, Texas.

25. I'm basically a writer. I never wanted to be a producer. Dick Powell made me a producer, because I was writing his host spots on Zane Grey Theater.



26. We do 32 episodes a season and will have shot 267 episodes by the end of the ninth season...It's impossible to sell that many episodes in the foreign market.

27. Now I've even gotten to running out to the fan buses that pass by our house, so I can talk to the people. I think I'm trying to gather fans, frankly. They're very, very nice people - they really understand. It's fun talking to them.

28. Right now I'm doing four shows at a time, trying to read four outlines every week, four scripts every week, and watching four rough cuts; it's a lot of good work. It's fun to do it, but it does wear you out.

29. If your pilot does something that either sends somebody to jail or to hell, then you know what the pilot is. If your pilot is dealing with someone who just made a terrible mistake and is sorry for it, then you don't know if your pilot is going to work or not. It's really crazy.




30. I hope we don't go any further on this. I think we're all sick of it. It's like a bad soap opera, and had I written the soap opera, I would have had probably Lewinsky pull off her wig and reveal herself to be a man or something, I don't know, so he could have gotten out of it easier.

31. Nowadays, people always say, how come he's doing such young shows? But they never mention The Mod Squad. I was very proud of that show. It's the first time an African-American guy kissed a white girl.


32. Stay tuned! I may not be here, but my show was picked up!

33. There are a couple of things that I'm sure people don't think are important, but I do. I don't like hair changes unless there's a reason for it. Clothing - I don't like to see an outfit worn more than one time in an hour - you can wear it again a few weeks later.

34. I think you have to be very careful you don't make the audience hate someone by giving him a retort that is not funny. Funny retorts work, but when you're vicious to someone, they do not work. My wife says I'm vicious all the time! Thank God she's supporting me, so I have to stop!


35. Ten years of any show is amazing, but one about a minister? Wow.


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