"There was so long from when we did the pilot and then when the show was eventually picked up by Comedy Central - and, in fact, we had to shoot the pilot twice"
About this Quote
A lot of Hollywood mythology is built on the fantasy of the overnight yes. Thomas Lennon punctures it with a line that sounds casual, almost tossed off, yet lands like a quietly brutal production note: there was a long gap, and they had to do the pilot twice. That double admission matters. It frames success not as inspiration rewarded, but as endurance measured in months (or years), budget meetings, shifting network tastes, and the creeping fear that the moment has passed.
The phrase "eventually picked up" does the heavy lifting. It signals how little control creators actually have once an idea leaves the room. Comedy Central becomes less a triumphant destination than a gate that opens on its own timetable, when the market, the execs, and the brand strategy align. Lennon also slips in "in fact", a small rhetorical shrug that reads like: you think thats bad, wait until you hear the rest. Its the comedian's instinct to underplay the pain for the sake of the punchline.
"Shoot the pilot twice" is the industry version of repeating yourself until someone believes you. It implies notes, retooling, maybe recasting, maybe sanding down the weird edges that made the project interesting. The subtext is compromise without surrender: you keep the core alive long enough to get the greenlight. In a culture that treats TV as content churn, Lennon reminds you that even comedy is built out of stubborn logistics, and that persistence is often the real creative signature.
The phrase "eventually picked up" does the heavy lifting. It signals how little control creators actually have once an idea leaves the room. Comedy Central becomes less a triumphant destination than a gate that opens on its own timetable, when the market, the execs, and the brand strategy align. Lennon also slips in "in fact", a small rhetorical shrug that reads like: you think thats bad, wait until you hear the rest. Its the comedian's instinct to underplay the pain for the sake of the punchline.
"Shoot the pilot twice" is the industry version of repeating yourself until someone believes you. It implies notes, retooling, maybe recasting, maybe sanding down the weird edges that made the project interesting. The subtext is compromise without surrender: you keep the core alive long enough to get the greenlight. In a culture that treats TV as content churn, Lennon reminds you that even comedy is built out of stubborn logistics, and that persistence is often the real creative signature.
Quote Details
| Topic | Perseverance |
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