By January all the buzz was speculation as to what NBC was going to do when “Seinfeld” left the air in May. Warren, Don and I got together to discuss our options. We told Don of our preference, and he said that he was thinking the same thing. The comedy strategy appeared to be paying off. We agreed to move “Just Shoot Me,” a show that had originally been dismissed, into the 8:30 hammock slot on Thursday. We also agreed to keep any plans to ourselves. “Mad About You” and “Frasier” would be our Tuesday anchors, and “Just Shoot Me” and “Friends” would hold down the 8 and 9 o’clock slots on Thursday. Easy peasy. Yeah, right.
First, the time period commitments were starting to pile up. We already had the “Veronica’s Closet” commitment from Warner Bros. Suddenly another WB commitment from “Friends” creators Kauffman, Bright and Crane appeared. “Jesse” starred Christina Applegate as a single mom living in Buffalo. We committed to the 8:30 Thursday time slot. “VC” was already at 9:30.
Next, we found ourselves in a bidding war for a comedy from Paramount called “Encore! Encore!,” which featured Nathan Lane as a world-famous opera star whose vocal chords are ruined after he eats a bad clam and has a botched surgery. He returns to his family’s vineyard in Napa. Hijinks ensue. That was committed to either 8:30 or 9:30 on Tuesday. You can’t make this s**t up.
So even before we started our scheduling meetings, we were already handcuffed. But it didn’t stop there. We were summoned to New York City to meet with Jack Welch, the head of GE, parent company of NBC. That and more next time.
“Seinfeld” ending and what to do about it became the obsession within the company. Although Warren Littlefield, Don Ohlmeyer and I were in sync as to what to do (and trust me, that was not often the case), everyone had an opinion and advice for us.
As I wrote in the last chapter, our plan was to move “Friends” to the 9 p.m. “Seinfeld” slot and slide “Just Shoot Me” to 8; we had moved it between “Friends” and “Seinfeld” in February 1998. We felt this was the minimal disruption to the schedule. Back in 1998 scheduling still mattered — a lot.
One day in February or March, if my memory serves me, Warren called to tell me that we were going to New York. Jack Welch, the head of GE, wanted to see him and the development executives for an update. Don was also going. I said to Warren, “Well, he didn’t ask for me.”
“Too bad. You’re coming with us,” was his response.
Warren often took me along with him to meetings where big decisions were made. I went down to Florida with him when the Leno/Letterman decision was being made, but that’s a story for another day.
Warren, Don and I flew to New York along with our two top developers, Karey Burke and David Nevins. Jack Welch is an impressive individual. I always enjoyed his visits to Burbank. I also had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Rupert Murdoch when I segued over to FOX. What Rupert and Jack shared was common sense and no patience for bulls**t. I think those are the two most important characteristics of successful businesspeople.
The other thing about Jack Welch and Bob Wright (NBC’s president and CEO at the time) and the whole GE philosophy which I really appreciated was this notion that you hire the best and you give them all the rope they need to hang themselves. Cancelling the Monday movie at NBC was an example of how GE operated. If I were willing to do the work and convince my management that this was the right move, I would get all the rope I needed.
So, the five of us met with Jack in his office. Welch was the only person to whom Don Ohlmeyer would show deference. Don was a big, imposing guy who enjoyed making his staff uncomfortable, so being in a room with him and Jack was always a hoot for me. Warren, Karey and David walked Jack through the development for the 1998-99 season.
The highlight of the meeting was when Jack took out a little envelope filled with diamonds to show us the result of a process that GE scientists had developed to make authentic diamonds out of coal or something like that. He held tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars in diamonds in his palm and proceeded to sneeze, sending the jewels all over his shag carpet. We had to take time out from the meeting as six high-level executives crawled around Welch’s carpet looking for the diamonds. This is a true story.
After we found all, or at least most, of the diamonds, we got back to the meeting. Jack asked us what the scheduling plan was, and I walked him through it. He then looked at all of us with a very stern gaze and said, “Don’t do anything until you have told me.” That was chilling because neither Jack nor Bob Wright had ever asked to have the final word in our scheduling. Bob would always fly back to New York from Burbank the day before we finished our meetings, just wishing us good luck.
We headed back to LA knowing that this decision was not going to be as simple as we thought. It wasn’t.
Decision time had finally arrived in May 1998. “Seinfeld” was leaving the schedule. I thought we had a plan that made sense, but we entered the scheduling room with far too many cooks and at some point, the decision shifted from what made the most sense for the schedule to who would give us the better deal.
Since we didn’t own any of our big hit comedies, it was up to Paramount and Warner Bros. to determine whether “Frasier” or “Friends” would take over the coveted 9 p.m. Thursday time period. We had already given away three of the four satellite slots on Tuesday and Thursday, and now we were giving up control of the most valued half-hour on the schedule — the half-hour that defined the network.
One piece of good news was we had developed a comedy that was owned by the network, and it would be on the fall ’98 schedule. It was about a single woman and her gay male friend who shared an apartment in New York. The comedy “Will & Grace” was developed off cycle, i.e., it was shot and screened months before we would traditionally screen pilots for the next season. I think that gave Warren Littlefield and his developers a chance to focus their energies on a single show rather than spread themselves over 10-plus projects, which was generally the case by the time you got to April.
We all liked the “Will & Grace” pilot, but what was interesting was the real driver of the show, the relationship between Jack and Karen, does not exist in the pilot. They meet in the second episode. I happen to have been at that taping, and it was electric. I ran out of the studio and called Warren all excited at what had just taken place on the stage in Studio City.
“Will & Grace” premiered almost exactly 20 years ago, on Sept. 21, 1998. Things were different, and although it was by far our best piece of development, I suggested keeping it out of the spotlight and avoiding the pressure of going to either Tuesday or Thursday night. We parked it on Monday following “Caroline in the City. “W&G” turned out to be everything we could have hoped for, and over the course of its freshman season, it spent time first on Tuesday and then on Thursday before moving to the 9 p.m. Tuesday slot for the 1999-2000 season … my final one at the Peacock.
Now back to the Thursday at 9 decision. We put the timeslot up for bid. There were several of us who were concerned about “Frasier” coming back to Thursday. “Friends” was clearly the younger-skewing show of the two, and there was concern that “Frasier” would age up the night. We waited until the last minute with two alternative schedules. Finally, Paramount won the war, and “Frasier” was returning to Thursday with “Friends” staying put at 8. As part of the “Frasier” deal, we agreed to commit to two seasons of the show in the Thursday timeslot. Remember that. It would come back to bite us in the butt.
No comments:
Post a Comment