Louis C.K. controls Louie.

The New York Magazine website has a fantastic article about Louis CK and his television show, Louie. It's one of the only TV shows which I can stand to watch.

One of the reasons the show is so good is that it is truly a singular vision. Louis CK has unprecedented control over the show and its content:

"The show is based on his life. Louis is the director. He’s also the only writer, the sole editor (he no longer shares duties with the co-editor he had last season), not to mention the person who oversees music (when the music guy’s budget ran out, he decided to do it himself). He also hired his own casting team: Last season, he turned down FX’s offer to help out and doesn’t inform them about casting in advance. But perhaps the most unusual aspect of the show is that Louis C.K. gets no notes from the network during filming, no script approval—an ­unheard-of “Louis C.K. deal” that has made him the envy of comics and TV writers alike. It’s a situation Louis is not taking for granted.

'No one on the planet Earth has what I have right now,' he says in his trademark tone—a deadpan delivery that somehow manages to sound at once bleak and exhilarated. 'No one ever has. And I don’t know that I ever will again.'"

 

(photo cc by Jungleboy.)