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MUST-READ TV
After a quarter-century of living here in
Cootsvilie, very little about my hipster breth
ren and sistren surprises me anymore, except
for one thing. Fm amazed at how few people I
meet admit to watching television. Personally,
I don't believe it—nobody actually spends the
endless hours listening to and dissecting the
music of Serge Gainsbourg or Magnetic Fields,
or exclusively watching the experimental
foreign-language rinemah that these people
claim to do without some sort of respite.
Nobody can possibly be that arch. Even if you
watch it ironically, you still watch TV.
The fact is that there is nothing wrong
with watching television. Sure, it's a lowest-
common-denominator pastime, but that also
means that it's the only activity that comes
anywhere close to a nationally
shared experience. It's the only
activity that 300 million people
can do at the same time. You
want to live like common peo
ple; you want to do what com
mon people do? Then you watch
the television people cavort
for your pleasure or present
the day's events in stentorian
tones, and you do so without
anyshame.
Because TV is ubiquitous,
both as an entertainment
medium and as a primary source
of information, the study of
television is a legitimate subject
for historians and sonologists.
What we watch reflects who we
are and helps to shape what we
think—people who heard the
famous 1960 Kennedy-Nixon
debate on the radio thought
Nixon had won—and at no
time is that more evident than
when we look at TV at its most
watched.
For the bulk of the
'90s, there was no more power
ful regular event in America
than the Thursday night prime
time lineup on NBC, what would
become known as "Must-See
TV." At its peak, that single night of program
ming generated more advertising revenue than
an entire week on the rest of the broadcast
networks. Combined. The shows that ran on
Thursday nights during that time period were
the definition of water-cooler shows, domi
nating the national conversation on Friday
mornings, and while many of us could not
have cared less about Sam and Diane, Ross
and Rachel or Will and Grace, we knew what
everyone else was talking about And though
"Seinfeld" has now been off the air for five
more years than it was on, we still quote it
relentlessly, and several of its phrases have
entered the lexicon.
The guiding hand at NBC during those
years was Warren Littlefield, who served as
director of comedy programming and then
president of entertainment for the network,
an exalted and precarious position in the
cutthroat business of amusing America.
During his tenure, Littlefield shepherded the
development of "Cheers," "The Cosby Show,"
"Seinfeld," "Friends," "Frasier," "ER," "Mad
About You," "Will & Grace," "Law & Order" .
and a number of other programs that con
tinue to generate millions in syndication. His
new book, Top of the Rode Inside the Rise
and Fall of Must See TV (with T.R. Pearson,
Random House, 2012) is a chronicle of those
years and a surprisingly fascinating read.
Although he was one of the suits,
Littlefield's secret as a developer of TV pro
grams was to assemble talent and allow them
to do what they did best, to facilitate their
process rather than impose his authority.
He does the same thing here. Rather than
■ the usual chest-pounding memoir one would
expect from a former entertainment executive
about his years as the biggest cock on the
walk, Littlefield and Pearson give us the story
of NBC's most fallow period as an oral history,
told through the voices of many of the actors,
creators and executives from the shows that
aired during Littlefield's tenure. Littlefield's
voice directs the discussion, but then he steps
John G. Netties
lets everyone else tell the story.
Here is Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander
discussing the process of creating their unique
show week after week, then cast members
from "Friends" and " r R" giving a practical
seminar on how to work as an ensemble cast
in high-stakes TV. We also get the inside
stories about who almost got the parts and
how close many of these shows came to dying
on the vine, a glimpse into an alternate
TV-universe where Fred Dryer was Sam Malone,
Megan Mullally was Elaine Benes and Cliff
Huxtable was a limo driver. And throughout
the book is an extended love letter to James
Burrows, the most accomplished and possibly
the best director of four-camera situation
comedy in the history of the medium.
Top of the Rock is a quick read—all dia
logue, no narrative—and a pocket educa
tion in how television is created, produced,
written and performed. Anyone who aspires
to work in TV vrill benefit from this collec
tion of anecdotes by the people who were
the most successful at it. And for the rest of
us, Littlefield's book is an engaging look at
how all of us, hipsters included, were brought
together by the flash of the Peacock's tail.
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