Interpreting DreamWorks

The person considered most respectable for the first project of DreamWorks, Gary David Goldberg, talked in a recent article about how personal relationships can either encourage creativity or lead studio executives to hold back (“DreamWorks’ New Dreamer,” Calendar, April 3). Goldberg noted that, at first, he was very nervous about such a demanding responsibility: “I was afraid the desire to succeed and make everybody look good would push me into creative decisions that were safer than they should be or not as daring.”

But he goes on to acknowledge that the quality of his relationships with the rest of the DreamWorks team is a key to long-term success and for the realization of their creative visions: “Ultimately I believe these guys, who have been friends, will love me in success and they’ll love me in failure. . . . Whatever flower I’m gonna be, I’m gonna bloom more fully here.”

Regardless of DreamWorks’ eventual impact in terms of box office, its visionary leaders are helping show that enlightened management is realizing a new state of mind, an evolution from seeking power to empowering others, from controlling to enabling people to be more engaged and creative.

DOUGLAS EBY

Beverly Hills

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Reading Daniel Howard Cerone’s article about DreamWorks and how their first TV show is being created by Gary David Goldberg proves just why TV is so bad.

Goldberg says he would rather create 35 episodes of a show he likes (like “Brooklyn Bridge”) than 3,500 episodes of a hit show “that I didn’t feel that way about.”

Shouldn’t people in TV be striving to create programs that the viewers want?

C. RICHARD KAJELYN

Sherman Oaks