NBC's Must See TV with Warren Littlefield, former NBC executive

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Jesse Thorn

Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2013

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dive into the empire that Cheers built. Whether it was The Cosby Show, Seinfeld, Frasier, or Friends, Warren Littlefield oversaw all of it. NBC was a Thursday night powerhouse in the 80s and 90s. But now? That's all pretty much crumbled. Hear an extended interview with a real-life television executive. His book is called Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV. Plus, Oliver Wang explains how a forgotten Al Green record helped create a new kind of soul music.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Ellen from Jacksonville, Florida.
0:02.3	Hey, I'm Cody from Emory, Alberta.
0:04.4	I'm Eric from Nashville.
0:06.0	Both I with Duffy Thorn has produced independently
0:08.4	and supported by listeners like you and me.
0:10.4	You should support the show like I did.
0:12.0	Just visit maximumfund.org slash donate.
0:16.0	I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:17.3	Have you heard of Cheers?
0:19.0	You know, the television show?
0:20.8	It changed sitcoms.
0:21.8	Heck, it changed television.
0:23.8	But it almost didn't.
0:25.0	Cheers was the lowest rated half-hour
0:27.6	and all of television at the end of its first season.
0:31.2	All of television.
0:32.2	There was no lower rated show.
0:34.8	That's Warren Littlefield.
0:36.0	He was an executive at NBC at the time.
0:38.0	He and his colleague loved the show.
0:40.6	But it's the lowest ranked show on all of television.
0:44.4	Can we bring it back?
	...

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