"Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan; you just hope for it"
About this Quote
The fantasy of total creative control dies the moment a cast actually shares a room. David E. Kelley, a producer synonymous with tightly engineered network hits, admits a stubborn truth about storytelling: the most valuable ingredient can’t be scheduled, budgeted, or punched up in a rewrite. “Chemistry” is the stuff audiences feel before they can explain it, and Kelley is basically saying that television’s most bankable magic is also its least producible.
The line works because it punctures the executive mythos. An “executive producer” is supposed to be the person with levers: casting, tone meetings, table reads, notes. A writer is supposed to build relationships with dialogue and structure. Kelley draws a bright line between craft and alchemy. You can design the conditions - put two actors in a scene with great material, hire directors who know how to catch micro-moments, create a set culture that allows play - but you cannot force the click that turns competent into compulsive viewing.
There’s a quiet humility here, but also a shrewd reframing of responsibility. If chemistry is un-orchestratable, then failure isn’t always proof of incompetence; sometimes the spark just doesn’t happen. In an era where IP, analytics, and franchise logic promise predictability, Kelley’s point is almost subversive: audiences aren’t machines, and the human element at the center of television is still irreducibly weird. The job becomes less “control the product” and more “earn the right to get lucky.”
The line works because it punctures the executive mythos. An “executive producer” is supposed to be the person with levers: casting, tone meetings, table reads, notes. A writer is supposed to build relationships with dialogue and structure. Kelley draws a bright line between craft and alchemy. You can design the conditions - put two actors in a scene with great material, hire directors who know how to catch micro-moments, create a set culture that allows play - but you cannot force the click that turns competent into compulsive viewing.
There’s a quiet humility here, but also a shrewd reframing of responsibility. If chemistry is un-orchestratable, then failure isn’t always proof of incompetence; sometimes the spark just doesn’t happen. In an era where IP, analytics, and franchise logic promise predictability, Kelley’s point is almost subversive: audiences aren’t machines, and the human element at the center of television is still irreducibly weird. The job becomes less “control the product” and more “earn the right to get lucky.”
Quote Details
| Topic | Team Building |
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