Roger Ailes
Roger Ailes

I don't have any focus groups on talent and programming. If I need five people in a mall to be paid $40 to tell me how to do my job, I shouldn't do my job.

Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper

This party will not take its position based on public opinion polls. We will not take a stand based on focus groups. We will not take a stand based on phone-in shows or householder surveys or any other vagaries of pubic opinion.

Steve Sabol
Steve Sabol

When we started NFL Films, there were no focus groups, there were no demographic studies, there were no surveys. Every decision that we made, we made with our hearts, not with our heads. And, in the very beginning, we really didn't even have a business plan.

Susan Wojcicki
Susan Wojcicki

In the old world, people used to have to go to focus groups and ask people what they thought. Now, people are writing all over the Web what they think about things.

Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack

By that I mean, I think that it is true that politics and political heroes have to satisfy our need to be greater than mortal in some way, and that's led them into creating illusions, sound bites, focus groups that tell you what to do.

Viola Davis
Viola Davis

In life, you know, they do this in focus groups; if you were in such and such circumstance, what would you do? Well, you never know what you're going do unless you're faced with it.

Bolt
Bolt

The Director: [Checking the latest film for errors] Boom mike!
Crewman 1: Got a boom mike.
Crewman 2: That's a boom mike.
[a man holding a boom mike in the background lowers it discreetly]
The Director: That's sloppy. The dog could've seen that. He could've seen that!
Mindy: Uh, who cares if the dog sees a boom

mike?
The Director: Forgive me for answering a question with a question, but - who are you?
Mindy: Mindy Parker, from the network.
The Director: Of course. Let me ask you, Mindy From The Network, what do you see here?
[Gestures toward a screen showing Bolt]
Mindy: Uhh... the dog?

The Director: "The dog", she says. Oh, Mindy. Poor, poor Mindy.
Mindy: Am I missing something?
The Director: You're missing *everything*, Mindy. You see a dog. I see an animal that believes with every fiber of his being, *every fiber*, that the girl he loves is in mortal danger. I see a depth of emotion on the face of that canine the

likes of which has never been captured on screen before. *Never*, Mindy From The Network. We jump through hoops to make sure Bolt believes everything is real. It's why we don't miss marks. It's why we don't reshoot.
[Turns back to the main screen]
The Director: And it's why we most certainly do not let the dog see boom mikes!
[Reaches for one of the screens

showing Bolt with a determined expression on his face, while speaking passionately]
The Director: Because, Mindy From The Network, if the dog believes it, the audience believes it.
Mindy: [unimpressed] Wow. Okay, you want reality, here you go, chief. The show's too predictable. The girl's in danger, the dog saves her from the creepy English guy, we

get it. There's always a happy ending. And our focus groups tell us 18 to 35 year olds are unhappy. They're not happy with happy. So maybe you should, I don't know, spend a little less time worrying about the dog's method acting and more time figuring out how to stop 20 year olds in Topeka from changing the channel. Because if you lose so much as half a rating point, so help me, I will fire

everyone in this room, starting with you! How's that for real?

Bolt
Bolt

The Director: How did your focus groups feel about cliffhangers?