We made a deal that was acceptable to us. We got paid very handsomely for our final season.

And New York needs no explanation. I mean, if you come from Sandusky, Ohio or West New York, New Jersey, you have to start explaining.

You know, because of the lack of budget, we had to find neighborhoods where time had stopped - kind of stuck in the `50s. And no place had that better than Staten Island.

I`m always more motivated by the pain of a funny character than by what makes him funny.

Well, let`s put in this way, I grew up in West New York, New Jersey.

The greatest part of the job was... that was for nine years it was a pleasure to go to work.

But I didn`t know much about directing a movie.

I still don`t know much about directing a movie.

I would work with any one of them again in a heartbeat because it was joyous and incredibly easy.

The thing about For Better or Worse is the only thing that made me an okay director for that is that I have a sense of humor, and it was supposed to be funny.

The show is like an Edwardian play - emotional life gets stepped on for the sake of accepted manners, and that`s terrific for actors to play in.

But one sets of grandparents lived on Davidson Avenue in the Bronx and one lived in Manhattan and I had an aunt and uncle in Queens, so in my heart I was a New Yorker.

I`m not really bald. I shave my head to keep in character with George.