Must Read?

I just read Top Of The Rock: Inside The Rise And Fall Of Must See TV by Warren Littlefield and T. R. Pearson.  It's an oral history by a collection of people who witnessed first-hand the dominance of NBC's Thursday night schedule in the 80s and 90s.  Littlefield, who was a vice president at NBC and later head of entertainment during these years, is the most prominent voice in it.  It's quite a story.  TV has had big nights before--CBS on Saturday in the early 70s, ABC on Tuesday in the mid to late 70s, but I can't think of a network night that was so big for so long.

It started with Cheers.  A flop at first, it was loved by critics and insiders so NBC, not doing well in general, was willing to renew it. (A fair number of the shows in this book weren't immediate hits but eventually picked up fans, especially in reruns--TV has changed since then and most shows get the axe pretty quickly if they don't generate numbers.) Then came The Cosby Show which blew the roof off.  It shot to #1 where it stayed for five years with mindboggling numbers--its ratings were double what American Idol got.  With Cosby in the lead at 8, Cheers was moved to Thursday at 9 where it became a ratings winner.

So the first decade of NBC dominance on Thursdays could be called the Cosby/Cheers era.  But nothing lasts forever.  Cosby's ratings dropped and it left the air.  Cheers was still popular but after 11 seasons decided to go out on top. NBC, and newly installed President Littlefield, had to find replacement hits.  What saved them was Seinfeld.  Already on the air, Littlefield recognized this was a special show and helped maneuver it into a #1 powerhouse.  It got on the air through odd enough means as it was--NBC liked Seinfeld himself but had no development money left so paid for the show through funds from the special events group.  Then they allowed Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld to run it their way, and since they were comedians but not seasoned showrunners, they broke all the rules, which somehow worked.

Then came Friends, which NBC put on at 8 and became a companion hit to Seinfeld.  So the second decade could be known as the Seinfeld/Friends era.  Also, after the two-hour comedy bloc, came ER, which for the next several years would trade off with Seinfeld for #1 bragging rights.  NBC came up with the slogan "Must See TV" and it stuck.  The Thursday night lineup dominated the 90s and NBC made billions, far more than the other networks.

Then Larry David left Seinfeld and Jerry ran it alone, but soon enough felt it was time to leave. (I think the show lost something when David left, though it was still enjoyable).  Seinfeld was still on top and Jerry was offered an amazingly lucrative deal to keep it going--the opening offer from the head of General Electric (which owned NBC at the time) was $110 million for another season.  But Seinfeld felt the show had gone as far as it could, and wanted to leave before the public got tired. (Of course, with what he'd already been paid, and his portion of the syndication profits, money wasn't an issue for him.)

A few years later Friends and ER left, and NBC's dominance was no more.  Also, Littlefield, who'd helped his company make so much money, was let go.  In fact, in 2004, the once proud Peacock dropped from first to last among the four networks--a feat never before achieved.  It's got some good shows still, and has kept up the Thursday night comedy lineup (not including the intrusion of The Apprentice), but the ratings have not been the same.

You probably know a lot of this story already, but I recommend the book for its backstage look at how these shows came together.  After the fact it's easy to claim you knew something would be a hit all along, but everything is a crapshoot, and most shows fail.  In fact, plenty of the stuff developed for Thursday nights (Caroline In The City, The Single Guy) was mediocre and is now forgotten. But all it takes is a few hits to turn a network around.

The book's chapters mostly center on particular hit shows: Cheers, The Cosby Show, Mad About You, Frasier, Friends, ER, 3rd Rock From The Sun, Will & Grace.  Plenty of stars tell their stories, along with the writers, the producers and the suits (like Littlefield).  Special attention is paid to James Burrows, far and away the top comedy director in the business.

Much of the stories deal with how great everyone was, though let's not forget these were hits, so people would be pleased.  Luckily, there are enough stories about how someone screwed up or was an ingrate or how some show stank so that it's not all sweetness and light.  It's also interesting how some actors were practically begging for roles--Lisa Kudrow, Sean Hayes, George Clooney--while others had to be coaxed back into TV--David Schwimmer, Helen Hunt, Debra Messing.

Common to all the hits, though, is how actors start out just hoping to catch a break but once the show is a hit are suddenly in the driver's seat, with executives doing whatever they can to keep them happy. (And some are screwups who need interventions, like Kelsey Grammer at certain points.)

The book also gives you an idea of what the suits do, though I'm still not entirely clear.  Certainly they make deals with the talent, create the schedule and decide whether to renew or cancel. But they also give notes and it's hard to say if this is a good idea.  Some of the notes make sense business-wise (such as adding a woman to the cast to increase audience appeal), but would the shows be better off without their interference?  Littlefield, following previous executives like Grant Tinker, believed in gathering the top talent and giving them their freedom, and it certainly paid off in some great, and successful, shows. In TV today, where the audience is more segmented and less patient, the networks have a much more hands-on approach.  Has this worked?  Certainly there are still plenty of decent network shows, but a lot of the most interesting stuff now happens on cable where the creators are given more leeway.

Littlefield, by the way, doesn't stint on attacking other suits.  In fact, if the book has a villain, it's Don Ohlmeyer.  Ohlmeyer was named President of NBC in 1993 and had a rocky relationship with Littlefield.  If Littlefield and others are to be believed, Ohlmeyer was a bully and a drunk who often didn't even understand the value of his hit shows.  Eventually there wasn't room enough for both of them, and Ohlmeyer (who did, after all, oversee highly remunerative years) saw to it that Littlefield was fired.  Eventually Ohlmeyer was gone as well and since then there've been a number of names running NBC, all into the ground.  In fact, the book is especially vituperative toward executive Jeff Zucker, whom several state didn't get, or even like, TV.  Steve Levitan, who created NBC's hit Just Shoot Me!, made sure to sell his next big show to ABC. It's Modern Family, and if NBC had it, they might still be calling Thursday night Must See TV.