Warren Littlefield has now been a producer longer than he has been an executive. In his second career, Littlefield, who, as entertainment president and head of comedy at NBC developed and put on the air such series as The Golden Girls, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Seinfeld, ER, Friends, Frasier, Homicide and Law & Order, has produced shows like FX/Hulu’s Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, Dopesick, The Old Man and the upcoming Amanda Knox.
As his The Littlefield Company turns 25, Littlefield takes a look at the bumpy transition from executive to producer, the state of broadcast, and a potential return to network TV amid a push in comedy and unscripted. He also discusses whether the ongoing contraction is here to stay and if non-writing producer remains a viable profession. He also teases the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, gives a status update on potential sequel The Testaments and evaluates the prospects for more Fargo and The Old Man.
Early stumbles & shedding “the network guy” image
Littlefield became a producer following his 1998 exit from NBC after 19 years. Right off the bat, he got a slew of pilot orders, a number of which went to series: Do Over and Dan Fogelman’s first series, Like Family, on the CW, and Sienna Miller’s first show Keen Eddie on Fox. None lasted more than one season.
“Initially there was a burst of activity, and I was like, Okay, this is, this is not that difficult. But nothing stuck,” Littlefield said. “I had to take a deep breath and say, I’m banging my head against the network wall a lot. Because I was ‘the network guy’, but, as a viewer. I was watching cable and loving it.”
In 2010, his latest flop, My Generation, was an ABC series created by Noah Hawley based on a Swedish format. It was assigned the Thursday 8 p.m. time slot of death and lasted two episodes before being pulled.
As the two were “licking our wounds,” Littlefield pitched Hawley a TV series based on Coen brothers’ classic Fargo. When that project was set up at Fox and MGM Television, “that was the game changer, that took me out of being ‘the network guy’ trying to do network television,” Littlefield said. “Noah looked at me and said, ‘Don’t ever let me go back to network.’ I was like, you and me, both, baby. And that changed everything.”
Littlefield has worked in cable/streaming since, partnering with Elisabeth Moss and Bruce Miller for a series adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale next, followed by limited series Dopesick starring Michael Keaton, The Old Man headlined by Jeff Bridges, and the upcoming Amanda Knox — all at FX and Hulu, now part of Disney.
“Chilling” final season of ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ & status of sequel ‘The Testaments‘
Production on the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale started at the beginning of September, with star/executive producer Moss, who made her directorial debut on the show in Season 4, directing the opener. She is also directing the final block of episodes, which is now in prep. Here is what Littlefield teased about the Emmy-winning drama’s final chapter.
“A lot of people won’t make it to the end of Handmaid’s Tale. It’s pretty chilling, but also exciting,” he said. “I feel that Eric Tuchman & Yahlin Chang, who are the showrunners this year — Bruce, of course, remains an executive producer — they really, really thought a lot about what the audience wants and needs. And I think we will satisfy those who have been with us through six seasons, I think they’ll feel powerfully rewarded. Also, Lizzie has arrived as a directing force — that all happened over the course of Handmaid’s Tale — and it’s really appropriate that she is the director that takes us home.”
Handmaid’s Tale creator Miller stepped down as showrunner for the final season to focus on the TV adaptation of Atwood’s book sequel The Testaments. There has been chatter that the project is heating up for a series greenlight. Littlefield would not comment on a potential pickup but noted that The Testaments is “a priority project” that “we’re spending a lot of time on” and that “we’re full speed ahead; it’s a really important franchise.”
Protesters dressed as handmaids from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ during a march from Parliament Square to Iran’s embassy in London to highlight repression of women in that country
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
He also addressed the continuing relevance of The Handmaid’s Tale franchise, with the title heroines’ red-and-white costume becoming a global symbol of women’s rights, worn in protests around the world.
“While [Handmaid’s Tale] was developed in an Obama administration, when we were shooting, I think, Episode 4 of Season 1, Trump came to office and, while we thought and hoped and prayed that we would be less relevant a series, the longer we were on, the more relevant we became.,” Littlefield said. “Our thematics only got stronger, sadly, and today, as we think and discuss plans for Testaments. It feels like there’s a reason to keep this world alive.”
Potential new series with Elisabeth Moss & more development highlights
The Handmaid’s Tale finale will not be the end of Littlefield’s relationship with Moss. She is one of several major stars he is developing new series with.
“I don’t want to speak about the projects particularly, but there’s three high caliber talents that we are in development with: Lizzie Moss, Emmy Rossum and Constance Wu,” he said, declining to reveal further details. “We have projects with all of them, and I think that each are dramatic that just speaks to the kind of caliber of content that’s on our development slate.”
Doing more ‘Fargo,’ “the best hobby” Littlefield has ever had
A decade after Fargo won the Outstanding Miniseries Emmy in 2014, the anthology series remains strong, with the most recent fifth season starring Jon Hamm landing 15 Emmy nominations this year. There has been no talk of a sixth season as Hawley has been hard at work on his Alien series for FX but Littlefield is hopeful about another installment.
“Noah has a lot on his plate, they’re very excited about Alien,” Littlefield said. “So many people thought that Part 5 was as good as we’ve ever done, and our partners’ response to it was outstanding, so that’s the hope and expectation. It’s really about finding a window where Noah can slip it in.”
Littlefield highlighted the flexible timetable the series has been on.
“You know, Fargo is not quite a business; it’s the best hobby I’ve ever had in my life, [a new season] every couple of years,” he said. “That’s the beauty of our partnership with FX, there’s no pressure to turn it around and do it quickly, but they consider it part of who they are, their identity, and it’s certainly part of Noah and my identity. So yeah, I’m hopeful about that.”
‘The Old Man’
Kurt Iswarienko/FX
‘The Old Man’ Season 3 prospects
Littlefield spoke with Deadline a few days after the Critics Choice TV nominations came out, with FX’s Old Man earning three, including Best Drama Series, for its eight-episode second season. Over its two seasons, the series’ production was halted several times, due to Covid, star Bridges’ cancer treatment and the 2023 strikes. (The Old Man‘s seven-episode first season started filming in 2019; it premiered in 2022.)
“That’s outstanding,” Littlefield said of the nominations. “And we’ve made 15 episodes in five years. What a crazy journey it’s been; I love everyone involved with the show. We’ll see,” he added about doing another season.
Producing in the time of contraction: “There’s a lot easier ways to make money”
Littlefield is a so-called non-writing executive producer, a fallback career favored by former top TV executives. It’s not an easy transition, and few have done it successfully. Even for Littlefield, it took more than a decade to find his lane and land his first hit with Fargo. During that time, he was able to sustain himself with a steady stream of pilots and short-lived series across six broadcast networks. The broadcast volume has gone down, with four networks ordering fewer shows and just a handful of pilots.
The industry contraction is impacting all areas, with less buying and greenlighting, and, while Littlefield has been under a string of big overall deals at 20th Television/Disney, studio pacts for non-writing producers are rare, falling victim to belt-tightening.
The ongoing media layoffs have left more TV executives out of a job and pondering a transition to producing. But is that still a viable career path?
“I think it is tough. You spend a lot of time and a lot of money just on a speculative nature. When it comes to competing for material, we feel second to no one, but still, it’s heavily competitive, and you have to wait a long time for the rewards,” Littlefield said. “I think a lot of producers who are non-writing producers — as well as very talented writing producers — are going to still experience a frosty, tough environment to navigate through the next couple of years; there’s just far less content being made.”
Littlefield noted that his company has not been impacted and has production commitments for the next two years.
“That’s great, but it doesn’t have me with my head in the sand, not knowing what it’s like,” he said. “Having studio backing, I think, is critical to navigating the finances right now, because you could wait a long time to get anything beyond episodic fees. We’re very grateful for our partnership with Disney; it’s been rewarding for us, and I think very rewarding for them as well. But I think there’s a lot easier ways to make money than doing what we do.”
Extinction is a real possibility
Fellow former top broadcast TV executive Jeff Sagansky has been a vocal critic of the streaming-driven “cost plus” business model, proclaiming in 2022 that “We are in a golden age of content production and the dark age of creative profit sharing.” He called upon the Justice Department and Congress to “level the playing field” in a way the government did in 1970 with the passing of the fin-syn rules, with another former head of network-turned-producer recently sharing with Deadline that if the fin-syn rules are not reinstated, independent TV producers have no future.
“I hope, I hope it gets redefined, so that we don’t become extinct. I think unless a non-writing producer has a benefactor that provides deep pockets, I think there will be an extinction,” Littlefield said of the current state of his profession. “As you said, Nellie, when the repeal of fin-syn happened, independent producers vanished, and so, just because I’m in my company and we’re doing well, it doesn’t mean we’re not fully aware of the world that we’re living in and watching it shrink on a daily basis. Living in California is expensive, and being in the game to find material, hold onto material, option it, put things together to be as effective as you can be, you need a bank. So those who don’t have that, I am not sure how they make that work.”
Is Hollywood contraction permanent?
The TV industry has always been cyclical, but the current cycle, dominated by the ongoing contraction, feels different. Over his decades in the business, Littlefield has been through quite a few ups and downs, recalling the “getting down to fighting weight, thinning your ranks” marching orders at NBC under GE, a process that he says has been ongoing in Hollywood. Still, what the industry has faced the past four years has been pretty unprecedented.
“Let’s look at what our industry has faced: Covid, a massive disruption throughout the world to lives and certainly to the industry, then multiple strikes that also crippled us, and then Wall Street that said to all these massive media companies, you bet on streaming, show us that it makes sense,” he said. “So finally, streamers — let’s talk about my family, The Walt Disney Company — they’re now able to say this is a business that’s profitable.
“In my lifetime — through all the pressures of NBC and my 25 years as a producer — I’ve never experienced more financial pressure than what we’re under now today to make great content and do it for a price, and so that’s one of the reasons why we look for outlets all over the world to make that content. Keep the bar high and keep the price down, I don’t think that’s going away.”
One thing that has improved series’ financial standings is the phasing out of Covid-related costs. Littlefield recalled how The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4, filmed at the height of the pandemic, had to spend $1 million an episode on Covid protection to keep its cast and crew safe — on top of the regular budget.
“We’re recovering, still, our industry, from Covid, and we’re also recovering from the work stoppage due to the strikes. So I hope that, as we go through the course correction and we balance out, I hope that it gets better,” he said. “I hope that as profitability is shown, as numbers continue to go up in subscribers, that there’ll be more content that gets ordered. Will we feel the financial pressure that we’re feeling now? Yes, but hopefully there’ll be more people at work, and there’ll be more projects that get made. I think everyone expected to come out of the strikes and the faucet would just be turned on, and it ended up being a trickle.”
State of broadcast and potential return to network TV
Broadcast television has changed dramatically since Littlefield left NBC in 1998.
“That was a long time ago, networks were king back then, and so what a fabulous sandbox to be able to play in,” he said. “Today, networks still provide a platform that is part of the overall ecological life of a program; they’re just not a whole shebang; they’re piece of it.”
He pointed to a couple of recent broadcast hits that have also done well on streaming
“Look, Abbott Elementary, critical, I think, in its success with the network launch and then, my goodness, what an embrace in its life on the platform as well,” Littlefield said. “I think networks have a very different relationship to the world, but they’re still valuable, so if we find something that is embraced at a network, great. Look at what Tracker does for CBS, which is made by 20th, again, tremendous success story.”
Arischa Conner and Michael Keaton in ‘Dopesick’
Gene Page/Hulu
All of The Littlefield Company’s series to date have been for cable and streaming. That may change.
“We keep our hearts and minds open to something that could play on broadcast, and we’ll continue to develop. Maybe we’ll score there, maybe we won’t,” Littlefield said. “I think that we have a great deal of confidence in how to succeed with both FX and Hulu, and have past and present a lot of action going on with both of them. We’ll continue to see if we can deliver an asset that begins life at ABC and then migrates into Disney.”
That could be a sitcom, a genre Littlefield started his career as a producer in.
“I actually have five things in comedy that we’re wildly excited about, these are projects that we competed mightily in order to get and we’re putting together,” he said. “Some of them have landed, others I think will in the new year. We don’t want to lose premium adult drama as our brand, we’re going to continue to do that, but the expansion of that brand, finding comedy that we feel like there’s a reason for that show, that it’s not out there somewhere else, we’re excited about that.”
2025: Year of comedy and unscripted
Half-hour series is one of Littlefield’s two main priorities for next year.
“I think 2025 will be a comedy year for us, as well as unscripted,” he said. “We put our toe in the water in the unscripted world doing War Game, which was a documentary feature that premiered at Sundance this year, and that was an amazing experience. So we’re going to continue to play in the documentary feature space, but more importantly, I think we’re going to find more in the unscripted television, elements that celebrate the world and culture of Disney.”
Having done several series for Hulu, Littlefield teased a couple of projects in “priority development with Disney+.” “That’s another platform in the Disney universe that we want to be more present with.”
Courtesy photo
Boots-on-the-ground approach to producing and California holidays
When he landed a Handmaid’s Tale greenlight alongside a Season 2 renewal of Fargo, Littlefield, who lives in Los Angeles, insisted on being on set for both shows.
“I had an apartment in Calgary [where Fargo filmed] and an apartment in Toronto [where Handmaid’s is based], and I spent 10 of 12 months in Canada that year,” he said. “Many people in my life said, you need to stay in California and run your company. I really respect those voices that are in my life, but I said, I think there’ll be a company if I do exactly what I’m doing. If I focus on Fargo and now on Handmaid’s Tale. If I deliver them the care and attention that is boots on the ground, I think there’ll be a company to talk about in the future.”
A decade later, that outlook has not changed. Littlefield did the interview with Deadline on the one day last week he spent in L.A. after spending seven weeks in Italy, followed by one in Vancouver, working on Amanda Knox, about the former exchange student wrongfully convicted of murder. The following day, he was leaving to Budapest to continue production on the true crime limited series.
Littlefield will be home for the holidays though, and don’t expect him to jet to Cabo or Aspen, another popular Hollywood holiday destination.
“My family said, are we going anywhere for the holidays? And I said, not me. I’m going to enjoy a few weeks here in Southern California,” he said of his rare down time as he also is prepping the final batch of episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale and shepherding The Testaments development.
Going international
While most of his series film in Canada, Amanda Knox, which Littlefield says is much more than a true crime drama — “It’s about the anatomy of bias, and that feels very relevant today,” he says — is the company’s first truly international production, filming across Italy, Hungary and Canada.
“I think more and more properties that we are acquiring, projects that we are developing, are going to have much more of an international base,” he said. “I think for so long, the focus was about what the U.S. audience would find appealing. And I think today’s wisdom is an international imprint and appealing to audiences throughout the world. It feels to us that, more and more, the big upside in our industry Is international production, so we’re trying to do more and more of that.”
The next 25 years
Littlefield’s plan for the next stage of his company is pretty simple.
“Continue to do what we do now, because we’re proud of that, and the world we’re in embraces it, but expand, expand,” he said. “Chad Gervich is now working on our unscripted side, I’m happy for that expansion; I’m excited about comedy expansion.”
Littlefield acknowledged the rest of his team including Ann Johnson, who has been with him for more than a decade; former agent Lisa Harrison; his son, Graham Scott Littlefield; and Vivian Mao, who started at the company as an intern.
On a macro level, “with all the tremendous change in the world that we live in, here’s what continues to be a constant and hasn’t changed from when I first began working at NBC in December of 1979: good content wins, and so audiences still have an appetite for excellent material,” Littlefield said.
He recalled a piece of advice he got from his former boss at NBC.
“Grant Tinker taught me: respect the audience, good things will happen, so I carry that forward. And so for me and for the people who are part of this company, that’s how we operate: find people with vision and support them,” Littlefield said. “I think we’ll continue to do that.”
Personally, we may finally see Littlefield do a cameo on one of his shows after appearing on a string of comedy series while he was at NBC. One thing that is not in his plans — returning to the executive ranks he left a quarter century ago.
“I’m too old to be an executive,” he said, revealing that he was approached about running a platform a few years ago. “My response was, I don’t think this is a better job than what I have. I’m making outstanding content with really interesting people all over the world.”
Littlefield had some advice for his successors in the executive suites. “Be bold, take risk. That’s where the reward comes,” he said, adding, “I love that a new generation is doing that, and I’ll continue to do what I do.”
