"Life is like a war, if you think about it"

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First of all, I can't be sure if I'm looking for a movie or a TV series. I also can't be sure if it's from the 90s or the 60s or what. I don't remember much except for an anecdote I read (probably on wikipedia) about it.

The filmmaker/creator was talking about taking his--I think he was a he--he was talking about getting his concept greenlit by a studio. His previous film (or tv show) was in the war genre, and it must have been a relative success because now he wanted to cash in and make a less thrilling, more personal project. So, on the heels of his successful war picture, with the industry presumably wanting more of the same from him, this filmmaker/creator pitched his new idea for a drama by saying something like, "My last picture was a war film. And if you think about it, isn't life like a war? All of your daily struggles are each a battle unto itself." He stressed in the anecdote how cheesy and transparent his pitch was, and yet they ate it up and said yes.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? A successful war film (possibly just a thriller??) from a director, followed up by a drama, possibly a box office flop.

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I realized it was King Vidor talking about following up The Big Parade (the hugely successful 1925 war movie) with 1928's The Crowd, a drama about an everyman.

http://thefilmspectrum.com/?p=19931

After directing the highest grossing silent movie ever in The Big Parade (1925), King Vidor inked a long-term deal with MGM, where producer Irving Thalberg allowed him enormous artistic freedom for his next project. According to Vidor’s 1954 autobiography, Thalberg came to him asking what his big follow-up would be, and Vidor described a film about the common struggles of an ordinary man. Thalberg asked, “Well, what are you going to try next? It’s going to be hard to top The Big Parade.” Vidor replied, “Well, I suppose the average fellow walks through life and sees quite a lot of drama taking place around him. Objectively, life is like a battle isn’t it?”

Originally titled One of the Mob, the project eventually became The Crowd, a film detailing the lost promise of the American Dream that so many face, often in urban dwellings. In this atmosphere, it’s not man vs. nature, but man vs. man-made circumstances, both socially — with limited class mobility — and physically — trapped in the proverbial “concrete jungle.” It was his most personal work, far less successful at the box office, but far more renowned by academics decades later. Thus, The Crowd stands as the art masterpiece that got its chance off the success of The Big Parade blockbuster, the expression of the one after the cheers of the mob...

well there you go