Well, big bro is getting the last word. In an interview conducted three months before his death, Tartikoff trashed the "Must See" lineup Littlefield had assembled for NBC prime time and compared his successor to...a cockroach. (Ouch.)
The remarks are due to be published in the November issue of Esquire--the magazine currently winning friends in Hollywood (not!) with its not-so-veiled attempt to "out" actor Kevin Spacey. The Tartikoff piece will likely burn more bridges with La-La land.
In it, Tartikoff offers this take on Littlefield: "You have to understand something about Warren. He's a cockroach. He's going to survive nuclear war."
A network spokesperson said there would be no comment on the Esquire article from NBC or Littlefield.
Bill Carter, longtime media reporter for the New York Times and a self-described friend of Tartikoff, blasted the Nikki Finke-authored piece. "What Brandon said to people on a personal basis was almost always for humor value," Carter said Tuesday. "He loved making puckish comments, and they were never, never meant for print."
Carter, who authored The Late Shift, an insider account of the Jay Leno-David Letterman talk-show wars, accused the article of helping sink journalism to a new low.
In the piece, Finke records Tartikoff's reaction to watching a preview tape of NBC's fall lineup for the 1997-98 season. "They've not been able to develop anything, despite many, many tries and spending millions upon millions doing shows starring Brooke Shields and Sharon Lawrence and Ta Leoni...," he said.
Particularly grating to Tartikoff, according to Finke's article, were so-called Friends clones. "There's a lampshade on the head of every fifth character in all these shows," Tartikoff said. "The promos just want to make me grab a Valium."
In 1981, Tartikoff, at age 31, became the youngest man ever to run a network entertainment division. He led NBC to a six-year hot streak as the top-rated network, powered by trademark 1980s sitcoms, Cheers and The Cosby Show, among others. Littlefield took the reigns in 1991, when Tartikoff left to head Paramount Pictures.