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The idea for Empire, Fox's midseason drama, came to Danny Strong when he was driving. "Empire was just some random idea I had," Strong told The Wire at Fox's upfront after party yesterday. "I was literally driving in my car and I thought, I wonder if you could do King Lear in a hip hop empire. I literally was like: King Lear. Hip hop Empire and then my next thought was, 'I should call Lee Daniels.'"

Though Strong's face is probably still best known as Gilmore Girls; Doyle or Buffy's Jonathan—in fact, at the party, his Buffy co-star David Boreanaz was posing for photo ops just a short ways away—Strong's most most recent accomplishments have come as writer. He won two Emmys for Game Change, which he also executive produced, and penned the critically-acclaimed Lee Daniel's The Butler. Hence, his first call when he got the idea for Empire was the director. "We were just talking," Strong said. "We got very close on The Butler. We worked on it for four years. It took forever to get it made. So then when I came up with this idea I was like, well, that’s the guy. And then he loved it immediately, and here we are at the upfronts." Though Strong pitched it as a movie, Daniels suggested a show. "I was like, 'oh my God, you’re right. Because it’s about a family. It’s Dynasty. We call it hip hop Dynasty," Strong said. "It’s like King Lear meets hip hop meets Dynasty."