Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV
Warren Littlefield, T. R. Pearson
Language: English
Pages: 368
ISBN: 0307739767
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Top of the Rock is an absorbing insiders’ account of an incredible time and place in television history: the years when Must See TV—led by Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, ER, and Law & Order—made NBC an unstoppable success. Here the story is vividly told through the words of the actors, writers, producers, creators, and network executives who helped the Peacock rise to its greatest heights—and then saw it all fall apart.
Under the supervision of President of Entertainment Warren Littlefield, NBC went from being an also-ran, losing millions of dollars in failed shows, to the number one station, generating billions of dollars in profit. At its height, the Thursday night lineup alone brought in more revenue than the other six nights of programming combined. Top of the Rock dishes out behind-the-scenes stories from all the biggest shows, revealing the highly risky business decisions, creative passion, and blind leaps of faith that made Must See TV possible.
Jerry Seinfeld | Jason Alexander | Kelsey Grammer | Sean Hayes | Helen Hunt | Lisa Kudrow | Eriq La Salle | Matt LeBlanc | John Lithgow | Julianna Margulies | Eric McCormack | Debra Messing | Megan Mullally | David Hyde Pierce | Paul Reiser | Noah Wyle | and more
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and easy and say your last line, and then you bolt over here. “Hey, man, yeah, been there, done that, and loved it and still love it.” But again, it was that unit, that team, relying on each other. I knew where Noah was; I knew where George was. I knew we could do the no-look passes. They knew if they needed me over there, I’d be there, and they could do the alley-oop. Anthony Edwards: Very little went wrong. I think we dropped a tray or something, but that happened all the time anyway. Noah
brothers ended up adding a character called Mrs. Littlefield, a highly opinionated Boston Brahmin in a wheelchair, who was played by Elaine Stritch. I was honored that they used my last name. Sadly, while she was memorably funny, she was cut because the pilot was just too long. Many years later I got a copy of the rough cut with Elaine still in it and sent it to my mother for Mother’s Day—way better than flowers. Bob Broder: There was one other character in the show that never got any billing,
in Tarzana. No experience there at all. Eric McCormack: When the role of Will was mine to have, I got scared. I backed off. I think it went through Christmas and New Year’s. I phoned Max and David and said, “I think I have to back away from this.” Max said, “You’re making the biggest fucking mistake of your life!” Right after New Year’s, like a scene from a movie, I sat up in bed. I said to my wife, “I made a terrible mistake, didn’t I?” She said, “Yeah, I think you did.” I got on the phone
way she came out in that episode. But from then on, everything was about her being gay and the problems that that would cause. Jim Burrows: At the beginning of the second year, Max wanted the guys to look better. Eric always looked great, but we do the first scene, and Sean comes out in Prada pants, pointy Prada shoes, and a suit jacket. I say, “Cut, cut. I’ve got a technical problem.” I went over to Max and said, “No.” This was a man who claimed to have fucked most of the men in New York, and
red flag do you need to know something isn’t being managed correctly. Our show ran eight years, and we had five different presidents at NBC. Jack Welch: NBC was a great asset for GE. Employees loved it, were proud of it. They felt like it was part of the family. It’s been a tough run for NBC. You look in that top ten every week, and you never see a show. Warren: A few months after my transition, Bob Wright invited me to breakfast at the Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills. He said he had something