Back to La-La Land
Scott D. Pierce
It's still kind of fun to look back at what the People Who Control Your Television told us here in July 2007. The strike changed a lot of things and made a lot of predictions meaningless. But — as is usually the case — the executives at the network having the least success are most haunted by their own words.
And NBC is still in fourth place.
• One of the most insane things critics have heard on press tour in the 19 years I've been going was when NBC executives insisted that, while Ben Silverman had been hired to fill Kevin Reilly's position as head of the programming department, Reilly hadn't been fired.
"He wasn't fired," NBC Entertainment co-chairman Marc Graboff said. "What happened was when Ben became available ... we jumped at the opportunity to bring Ben on board to the company.... Kevin, when that happened, realized or determined, frankly, that there was just no role for him at the company and decided to move on."
Uh-huh. And President Richard Nixon resigned voluntarily.
"You know, no one's really ever fired in Hollywood, are they?" he said. "And no show is ever really canceled. You can pick whatever trade euphemism you want, I segued. I thought about it over the holidays. I want to explore other opportunities. I want to spend more time with my family, which I did for three days.
"All I can say is, however I exited, it actually ended up being very equitable all the way around."
Well, not exactly. He's running the No. 1 network; Silverman is stuck at No. 4.
• Reilly danced around the question of whether he wanted the shows he'd programmed at NBC (before he left) to succeed. His boss, Peter Liguori, did not: "I will help Kevin with that. I want them to all (NBC) be bloody failures."
Ah, honesty.
• And Liguori got in another dig at NBC that had to sting because it's true. "Our sights are not set on the No. 4 network. Our sights are set on the No. 1 network and creating a distance between us and the No. 2 network."
Ouch!
• NBC's Silverman actually managed to say something even dumber. Asked why he signed fired "Grey's Anatomy" actor/homophobe Isaiah Washington for "Bionic Woman," Silverman replied, "When he told me he was available, I was like, 'You are? Wait. I don't understand. What do you mean? You're a huge star on a star television show.' I didn't quite understand what had gone on there."
Yeah. That's believable.
Recent comments
I hope it is Law & Order: Elevator Inspectors Unit, I much prefer...
Anonymous | July 9, 2008 at 5:26 p.m.
So now that the universe agrees that NBC is insane, are we going...
NBC | July 9, 2008 at 12:15 p.m.
