How did it come about that NBC skipped the pilot-stage and went straight to a thirteen-episode order?

I think the studio, Gaumont TV, that was kind of their edict, ‘If you want it, you want it for thirteen episodes, and otherwise we’ll take it someplace else’, so NBC said ‘No, we want it.’

I think that they were bold in embracing the show because we sat down and said, ‘Why should we do this on NBC?’ And they said ‘Because we’ll let you tell the story that you want to tell’. Nudity and strong language aren’t really kind of cornerstones of the way I write anyway so…