Parenting & Family Quote by Peter Krause

Krause is doing a kind of diplomatic dunk: praising “every show” while quietly staking out a hierarchy of attention. The examples he chooses aren’t random. Married With Children and The Nanny are shorthand for broadcast sitcom comfort food - big jokes, familiar rhythms, minimal narrative debt. By naming them, he signals respect for the working purpose of “easy TV” while also carving out space for the kind of work he’s associated with: character-driven drama that asks you to stay in the room.

The key word is “able.” His imagined viewer isn’t lazy; they’re busy, tired, multitasking, managing a life. “Iron their clothes or grab a sandwich” turns watching into domestic maintenance, entertainment as background noise that doesn’t punish you for looking away. That’s a precise read of television’s social function in the pre-streaming, schedule-bound era: TV as a household appliance as much as an art form.

Subtextually, he’s defending complexity without sneering at simplicity. It’s an actor’s argument for why some shows demand presence and why that demand is worth making - but also an acknowledgment that not everyone wants homework at 9 p.m. The line “not have to follow the story” lands as both a gentle jab and a genuine concession: narrative ambition can be thrilling, but it’s also a contract. Krause’s intent is to normalize different modes of viewing while subtly positioning “follow the story” as the higher-stakes, higher-reward lane he’d like you to choose when you’ve got the bandwidth.