Längerer Artikel aus dem New Yorker über die Genese von David Lynchs ursprünglich als Fernsehserie konzipiertem "Mulholland Drive". Zitate:

David Lynch wanted to make a TV series unlike any other. The network said it was eager to get beyond the formulas of prime-time programming. What could go wrong?

[...]

Most television shows are sold as the offspring of previous hits, and targeted to their advertising demographics. Joss Whedon, the creator of the WB network hit "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," recalls, "We sold 'Buffy' as 'The X-Files' meets 'My So-Called Life.' They liked it because 'The X-Files' was a big hit, and because the kid audience buys a lot of shit."

Television is a bastion of tradition. Susanne Daniels, the president of entertainment at the WB, told me, "One reason we bought 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' was that we had been talking about 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker' and how it was scary and funny at the same time, and we wanted to recapture that." Peter Roth, the president of Warner Bros. Television, says he often pages through television nostalgia books and circles shows that could be profitably updated Proudly recalling one of his achievements when he was at Fox, Roth said, "I circled 'Kolchak,' and then had lunch with Chris Carter, and out of that conversation came 'The X-Files.' Every top-ten show has been seen before. The trick is to repackage and contemporize to make a modern hit. 'E.R.' is derived from the likes of 'Medical Center.' 'Ally McBeal' is 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show."'

Und hier wirds lustig:

Yet privately the executives at ABC were increasingly nervous. That same week, Tony Krantz [Lynch's production partner] said, "Steve Tao ["ABC's vice-president of drama programming"] is seeing the dailies"--each day's raw footage--"and saying, 'Oh, my God, we love it, we love it.' But then he said, 'What is it? What is it?' And when he saw some of the closed ending he said, 'What the fuck is it?'"(The closed ending features a Blue Lady and a magician who explodes in blue flames.)