My talk with Warren Littlefield

Warren Littlefield was the NBC President of Entertainment during the '90s and was Brandon Tartikoff's key lieutenant in the '80s.  Under his watch NBC enjoyed unprecedented success.  He wrote a terrific book about his days there called TOP OF THE ROCK: INSIDE THE RISE AND FALL OF MUST SEE TV.  You can get it here on Amazon and here at Barnes & Noble. 

I worked with Warren for over twenty

For all you foodies -- here's a restaurant review!!

L.A. has no shortage of chic, trendy, super hip restaurants.  I mean, Justine Timberlake, Simon Cowell, and Ann Coulter have to eat.  These places are, as a rule, ridiculously expensive but the cuisine is unique and there's always the possibility you could perform the Heimlich Maneuver on Heidi Klum.   Recently my daughter Annie and her writing partner, Jon Emerson went with a group of friends

the Sunshine Boys

I posted this on Facebook and it got a bunch of "likes" so I'm posting it here.  My partner David Isaacs and I at my book signing.   Still talking to each other after all these years.  The last time we looked this happy was when we got a foreign residual for our TORTELLIS episode. 

The value of re-inventing yourself

I’m a BIG believer of re-inventing yourself. It keeps you young, you learn new things, and in this economy and marketplace it just provides you with more options.

The entertainment world, in particular, is changing every minute. This is partly because technology is changing every thirty seconds and the industry is desperately trying to keep up even though they have no idea what they’re

Friday Questions

Okay, here they are.  Today's Friday Questions. 

ScottUSF leads off:

What does it mean in Deadline|Hollywood when they mention a pilot/show has been sold "with Penalty"...penalty to who?

Penalty to the network. Usually in the form of a bonus payment to the writer/producer or studio. But generally the network rolls that over for a future commitment instead. Studios tend not to really

30 years ago today

Friday Questions follow later this morning, but first I wanted to take a few minutes to wish my son, Matt a happy 30th birthday.  He's still a great kid even if he's now at the age where he can longer be trusted.  Matt Levine has always been a good luck charm.  How much of a good luck charm? Matt was the first CHEERS baby born. The evening he came into the world I arrived home to find a

UP ALL NIGHT switches to multi-camera format

NBC announced this week that UP ALL NIGHT was changing formats and going from a single-camera show to a multi-camera show. Single-camera means it’s shot like a movie. Multi-camera means it’s shot like a play with four cameras in front of a studio audience. To give you some idea – MODERN FAMILY is shot single-camera; THE BIG BANG THEORY is shot multi-camera.



To flip from single to