I came to NBC on ‘Friday Night Lights’ and they have supported that show and found ways – unprecedented ways – to keep it on the air for a long time. And when I came to them with the idea of doing ‘Parenthood,’ they not only supported me in doing it but also got behind it in such a way that we were able to put together this incredible cast. Jason Katims Read Quote
How do you do something where you’re able to be specific and edgy enough to compete with what the cable networks are doing and, at the same time, appeal to a broader audience? That’s the line that everyone in network television is trying to tread. Jason Katims Read Quote
Something that I learned from ‘Friday Night Lights,’ sometimes if you have four or five scenes in an episode, it’s not having less than having 10. It’s what you do with those scenes. Jason Katims Read Quote
I sort of was inspired by ‘Friday Night Lights,’ where it was a very different show, but similar in that they were both large ensemble dramas where you had many stories going on at once. I wanted to do a show that shared that element, and that’s really why I wanted to develop ‘Parenthood’ as a series. Jason Katims Read Quote
I feel that people are basically trying to do their best in the world. Even when you see people making mistakes, you understand why they’re making a mistake. Everybody has flaws, everybody has demons, everybody has ghosts, but I think you watch people and you see everybody trying to do their best. Jason Katims Read Quote
You’re breaking up, you’re getting together, you’re changing your life, you’re arguing with your parents, you’re making terrible mistakes, you’re having great triumphs. It’s what happens to teenagers. Jason Katims Read Quote
Many of the things that I have written on have focused, at least a big part of the story, on adolescents. I think that in that period of life, so much happens, and it’s the period of life where you’re forming into an adult. In certain ways, you’re already an adult and in certain ways you’re still a kid. Jason Katims Read Quote
The frustrating thing about ‘Friday Night Lights’ is I know a lot more people would respond to the show if they saw it. Jason Katims Read Quote
If nobody has really done a show about people in their twenties that has been successful, why? Jason Katims Read Quote
I think there’s definitely a way to tell a story, to also look at marriages that are working, but find drama from what’s challenging them. That’s what I think, certainly, ‘Parenthood’ is kind of about: the unexpected things that come up in your life that challenge you as a man, as a woman, as a husband and a wife, and as a parent. Jason Katims Read Quote
