Word: littlefields
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NETWORK EXECUTIVES ARE USED to being the butt of jokes, but few have endured the sort of abuse Warren Littlefield has. David Letterman loved to flash photos of the NBC programming chief on his show and make cruel remarks. In The Late Shift, HBO's recent movie about the late-night battle, Littlefield comes across as the arch network dunderhead, the guy who lost Letterman to CBS. In one scene, Littlefield (played as a smarmy nebbish by Bob Balaban) is so surprised by a phone call from Jay Leno that he races out of the toilet in his boxers, with...
Unfair? The real Littlefield is more earnest preppy than pantsless nebbish, a boyish executive with a neatly trimmed beard. One thing his 21 years in the TV business have taught him is that it doesn't pay to be a sourpuss. He claims he used to "crack up" at Letterman's on-air gibes, even when Letterman went so far as to smash a Tiffany candy dish Littlefield had given him as a gift. As for the Late Shift portrayal, Littlefield laughs it off, though he points out that "I don't wear boxer shorts. I wear briefs." He shrugs...
...matter of late night, it turns out that Littlefield wasn't so dumb after all. NBC may have had some last-minute qualms that Leno would be a big-chinned albatross, but his Tonight Show is now whipping Letterman soundly in the ratings. As for the rest of NBC's fortunes, Littlefield, 43, has confounded critics, who regarded him as something of an empty suit--a protege of NBC programming whiz Brandon Tartikoff who inherited Tartikoff's No. 1 schedule in 1990 and quickly let it slide to third place. Littlefield has not only kept his job for nearly...
...Tonight Show!"), leaves the viewer wondering why Leno was loyal to her for so long. Similarly, the NBC executives are too wimpy and stupid to be believed. In one scene, Leno eavesdrops on a speakerphone conversation between network executives discussing his fate. Later he phones program chief Warren Littlefield (Bob Balaban) to reveal what he knows. Littlefield, who takes the call on the toilet, jumps up in panic. Showing a network executive with his pants around his ankles may get a cheap laugh, but is this any way for a grownup movie...
...college is about learning to make decisions," Littlefield said...