Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale producer Warren Littlefield has predicted the turmoil in the global TV industry won’t end for another two years.
The former NBC President of Entertainment was commenting on how to survive as an indie producer during an interview at the Edinburgh TV Festival, and gave an assessment that many are expecting the current commissioning downturn to end faster than it will.
“The difficulty now is that fewer things are getting made,” he said. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Stay alive ‘til ‘25.’ I think we’re probably two years out from getting through this particular challenging time – two years from seeing the end of the tunnel.”
While he acknowledged that streamers and networks are ordering shows at a slower rate than in the past, Littlefield said the the fact streaming shows are usually released in full was a positive step on from the network cancellation model.
In a rousing talk, Littlefield repeatedly talked about how his job as a network executive and producer was ti “find” and “support” a creative’s vision — something he did during the 1990s at NBC on shows such as Friends, Seinfeld and Will & Grace and more recently with Hulu drama The Handmaid’s Tale and FX’s anthology drama Fargo.
“The things I loved, I fought for,” he added. “The artists I work with count on me for that. I like being afraid.”
He recalled how he had rejected NBC exec calls to replace Jennifer Aniston in Friends because she was already contracted to film a CBS comedy on at the same time. He had met her at a gas station and provided her with words of encouragement a few months before casting her as Rachel, a move that led to producer Warner Bros. demanding NBC took on the financial burden if the show was unable to move forwards due to the competing CBS title, Muddling Through.
“My business affairs team said it was time to cut Jennifer, but I said, ‘No we will take the risk and kill that show on CBS,’” he said. Friends, of course, went on to become one of the biggest ratings and cultural hits of the 1990s and early 2000s.
He also recalled how Seinfeld‘s pilot had been badly received, leading him to order a short run of the series using money that had been earmarked for a Bob Hop birthday celebration program, and how executives feared ordering Will & Grace would put off major advertisers — it didn’t and the show was also a major success.
Asked how he knew when to take a creative risk, he said: “I just leap and cut against the grain. You can do a gut check: Is the creative vision there? If it’s there, then yes, go, jump.”
He praised Baby Netflix, which was commissioner by his interviewer, Anne Mensah, noting how its “highly specific pint of view of the world resonated with so many people around the world.”
Littlefield revealed he is next taking an international route by working on a scripted project in Japan, set in the Japanese language and based on the concept of ‘jōhatsu’ (The Evaporated) — people who disappear without trace from their established lives.
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