Although this is presented as an oral history of NBC's "Must See TV" programming block, it's really Warren Littlefield's memoir of his years as head oAlthough this is presented as an oral history of NBC's "Must See TV" programming block, it's really Warren Littlefield's memoir of his years as head of programming at NBC interspersed with giant block-quotes from other figures involved with the network at the time. The roster of people who contributed to the book--Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Noah Wylie, Anthony Edwards, Jack Welch--is impressive, but they really belong in a book written by a dispassionate researcher. Unfortunately even with their contributions, the book still reads like a personal memoir and its focus is on showing how smart Littlefield was and how stupid NBC was to fire him. (view spoiler)[The one exception is the chapter on Will and Grace which features much greater insight from the cast than any other show covered (hide spoiler)] Other than a great deal of animosity directed towards Littlefield's boss, Don Ohlmeyer, there's nothing in the way of nitty-gritty details about corporate backstabbing such as you'll read in Stewart's Disneywar which deals with ABC in the same era.
I also think the decision to focus on the Must See TV block limits the book too much. A couple early chapters deal with Cheers and The Cosby Show as forerunners of the block, but the rest of Littlefield's work at NBC in the '80s is ignored, as is any part of NBC programming that didn't involve Thursdays -- Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Blossom and SeaQuest DSV get nary a mention. Cheers alone would be worthy of as much space as the entire MST lineup gets here....more
For Disney-haters like myself, this book is the Acapulco gold of schadenfreude. Yeah, you have to sit through Eisner's early successes in revitalizingFor Disney-haters like myself, this book is the Acapulco gold of schadenfreude. Yeah, you have to sit through Eisner's early successes in revitalizing the Disney animation studio, but once Katzenberg leaves the story becomes absolutely hilarious as Eisner and his underlings make one bad call after another -- EuroDisney, Disney America, not buying Pixar when they had a chance, selling off rights to The Sixth Sense, not letting Miramax produce Lord of the Rings, turning down Survivor and CSI, putting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on every single night, buying the Family Channel for about a bajillion dollars more than its worth based upon a misunderstanding of how syndication works. It's just a shame that the board finally stopped Eisner from driving the company into the ground where it belongs....more
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