Tag Archives: John Landgraf

How to Get Away with a Series Finale: ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Justified’ and ‘Parks and Rec’ Creators Tell All

Tonight, Parks and Recreation says farewell after seven glorious seasons on the air. And like many long-running shows that are ending their runs this season — including Justified, Mad Men and Sons of Anarchy — the creators are under pressure to come up with a finale that sticks the landing, and validates all that came before it. As I wrote at The Daily Beast,

It’s a problem that TV creators are increasingly grappling with, as more networks are allowing them to end their shows on their own terms and their own timetable. But that freedom has intensified pressure for that final episode to stick the landing and in some ways justify all that came before it. Seinfeld’s everyone-goes-to-jail finale angered and alienated many fans back in 1998, but it didn’t taint our memories of the entire series the way that How I Met Your Mother or Dexter’s recent ludicrous conclusions did. These days, in order to cement their status in the TV pantheon, shows not only have to be great, they also have to end that way.

I spoke with Parks co-creator Mike Schur, Justified creator Graham Yost and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan about the increased spotlight on series finales since The Sopranos, as well as the finales they’re hoping to emulate. (“Everything is about the endings now,” says Yost.) And FX chief John Landgraf also weighs in on the importance of allowing a show to end when the story dictates, not when the networks have squeezed every last drop of money from a show.

Plus, you’ll want to hear Graham Yost’s joke about what a Deadwood-themed Justified finale could be like.

Farewell, Parks and Rec!

How to Get Away with a Series Finale: ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Justified’ and ‘Parks and Rec’ Creators Tell All

FX Wants to be the ‘Best’ Channel on TV, Not the Highest-Rated One

Leave a reply

Lots of crazy things have been said over the years at TCA press tour — like when Kevin Reilly declared the death of pilot season last January — but on my last day at winter tour, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf said something I’d never heard uttered there before: he’d rather be the “best” channel instead of the top-rated one. As I wrote at Adweek,

“Obviously we want as many people as possible to watch our shows, we want them to be as highly rated as possible, but there’s quite a range [of ratings], and we can support that range,” said Landgraf, referring to some of FX’s critically acclaimed, but lower-rated, shows like Louie and The Americans. “We’re not really a channel that’s trying to be the highest-rated channel in television. We’re trying as hard as we possibly can to be the best channel in television, whatever that means. If we weren’t therefore supporting shows that would help us get there, just because [they weren’t among the highest-rated], we’d be idiots.”

While Landgraf is sticking by critically-acclaimed yet low-rated shows like Louie and The Americans, his patience does have its limits, as he explained to me last fall after he canceled The Bridge. He talked about the two-horse race to be the “best” network on TV (look out, HBO!), the glut of programming on television (more than 1,700 original seasons of TV last year!) and the need to break out of a format “dictated by the terms of business.”

FX Wants to be the ‘Best’ Channel on TV, Not the Highest-Rated One

My 10 Favorite Stories of 2014

Leave a reply

During TV & Not TV’s week-long look at the Best (and Worst) of 2014, I’ve discussed the best shows of the year, the top performances, the biggest disappointments and named the year’s TV VIPs. Today, we’re concluding the week with something a little different: my 10 favorite stories of 2014.

Let me explain: the reason I founded TV & Not TV in the first place was to finally compile all of my stories in one place, because it’s been easy for them to slip through the cracks, even for those who follow me on Twitter. So today, I’ve picked my 10 favorite stories I wrote this year — a mixture of profiles, reviews and analysis, for four different outlets. In case you missed any of them, here’s your chance to catch up!

Here we go, in chronological order:

Swimming with Sharks: The Moguls of ‘Shark Tank’ Tell All About Making Inventors’ Dreams Come True (Parade, March 15)

Shark Tank has been one of the quietest success stories on television, with ratings growing steadily each season, which is unprecedented, especially for a reality show. It’s also largely been overlooked by most outlets who write about TV, which is why I was so thrilled to write the definitive story on the show and its six Sharks — Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran — for Parade.

(While the link above will take you to the main story, you can find the whole thing, including sidebars on all the Sharks, here.)

How ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ Finally Found Its Way (The Daily Beast, May 14)

No series arrived this season with more hype, and more disappointment, than Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. But then, thanks to a huge assistant from the twist in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, SHIELD finally became the thrilling show it was always supposed to be. In this Daily Beast review of Season 1, I looked at show’s rocky first season, and its improbable comeback.

Why Most TV Shows Peak by Their Third Season (Quartz, July 19)

You just never know where I great story idea is going to come from. During a Brooklyn Nine-Nine set visit last summer, I spoke with executive producer Mike Schur, whose fascinating thoughts on why most shows peak by their second or third season became my favorite TCA summer press tour story (especially after I paired Schur’s take with that of Modern Family creator Steve Levitan).

How Amazon Built a Studio That’s Finally Challenging Netflix (Quartz, Aug. 12)

I had so many questions about Amazon Studios and the company’s strategy — How does it measure success? Why don’t it disclose ratings info? How does the public pilot process really work? Why didn’t Amazon pick up Community or Enlisted? — and director Roy Price answered them all for me in this Quartz story on the eve of Amazon’s third pilot season.

‘You’re the Worst’: TV’s Best Couple is Awful and Perfect For Each Other (The Daily Beast, Aug. 21)

Some shows are so fantastic that I feel as if I have no choice but to sing their praises to as many people as possible. That’s the main reason that I pushed so hard this summer to review You’re the Worst‚ which ended up as one of my Top 10 Shows of 2014. If you’re still on the fence, read my review, and then start watching!

Joan Rivers Pulled Off Hollywood’s Greatest Comeback (Quartz, Sept. 5)

As Hollywood mourned the death of Joan Rivers, I appreciated the opportunity to recount how she pulled off Hollywood’s greatest comeback, by clawing her way back into the spotlight after Johnny Carson had turned his back on her. While most of her obituaries focused on her work as a trailblazer for female comics, her dogged journey after being blackballed by Carson was equally spectacular.

‘Schoolhouse Rock’: A Trojan Horse of Knowledge and Power (The Daily Beast, Sept. 6)

As I started thinking about which stories would make up my list, this was the first one I wrote down. To celebrate ABC’s upcoming Schoolhouse Rock special, I reflected on the show’s lasting legacy — it was an essential part of my Saturday mornings as a kid — for The Daily Beast, and managed to get my two kids hooked on the show in the process. I’d call that a win-win. Even after all these years, knowledge is still power!

‘NCIS’s’ Mark Harmon is the World’s Biggest TV Star (The Daily Beast, Sept. 23)

Sometimes, the best stories fall into your lap when you least expect them. While I was at People, I spent years unsuccessfully trying to land an interview with Mark Harmon, who rarely grants interviews. But this summer, I was given some face time with Harmon, and turned that into a somewhat unconventional Daily Beast profile of the world’s biggest, yet most humble, TV star.

Why a Great Second Season is Often Too Late to Save a Struggling Show (Adweek, Nov. 11)

Since I began contributing to Adweek this fall, I’ve been tacking some TV issues that have been bugging me for months and years, like why shows that improve by their second season — like Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and FX’s The Bridge — aren’t able to win back viewers who bailed on them in year one. FX Networks CEO John Landraf had great insight (as always) about why this happens, and also shed more light on his agonizing decision to cancel The Bridge.

Why Kim Kardashian is the World’s Best Marketer (Quartz, Nov. 13)

Given that I’d gone on a Kim Kardashian detox after leaving a certain job last year, If you told me I’d be writing a story A) praising Kim Kardashian B) for Quartz C) calling her “brilliant” and admiring her “acumen,” I would have said you’d lost your mind. But I surrendered after her Paper magazine cover went viral — and then again 24 hours later. The result: the only Kardashian story I’ve ever written or edited (and there have been a lot over the years) that I actually enjoyed!

And that — phew! — concludes my look back at 2014. Here’s hoping that TV in 2015 is even better!

How ‘The Simpsons’ Saved FXX

Leave a reply

One year after FX Networks announced its landmark deal to secure exclusive cable, VOD and non-linear rights to The Simpsons for FXX, I talked with John Landgraf about how The Simpsons helped save his company’s fledgling network. As I wrote at Adweek,

Not even Landgraf had dared to dream that his near-billion-dollar investment would pay off so quickly. “There’s literally no entertainment channel in the history of cable television that’s done anything like it,” said Landgraf, noting that FXX is still only in 75 million U.S. homes, compared to the 95 million homes that FX, and many of its other competitors, occupy. Thanks to The Simpsons, “FXX is essentially outperforming…and it will be adding 15 of those 20 million over the next two to three years. So I still believe there’s a considerable amount of upside where The Simpsons will ultimately land.”

Landgraf also talked about his risky $750 million bet, the looong rollout of Simpsons World and why (D’oh!) FXX won’t be airing another “Every. Simpsons. Ever.” marathon again.

How The Simpsons Saved FXX

Why a Great Second Season is Often Too Late to Save a Struggling Show

Leave a reply

At Adweek, I got to write about an issue that’s been bugging me. Shows are improving themselves in their second season — like Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and FX’s The Bridge — but they aren’t winning back viewers who bailed on those shows in the first season.

I spoke with FX Networks CEO John Landgraf, who had great insight (as always) about why shows can’t win back their viewers, no matter how great they get. As he told me,

The problem, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf tells Adweek, is that viewers simply have too many other options to be patient. “There will be about 350 scripted original series this year aired on linear and nonlinear services in the U.S. That’s really an unprecedented volume,” said Landgraf, whose team compiles a list of every season of scripted and unscripted series that airs. Last year’s total: 1,400 original seasons of material, with 2014’s tally looking to be even higher. “And so I think that consumers just have too many options,” Landgraf said. “Why should you ever watch anything other than something that’s the equivalent of a four-star movie or a four-star television show?”

Landgraf also talked about his agonizing decision to cancel The Bridge, a show which soared creatively in Season 2.

Why a Great Second Season is Often Too Late to Save a Struggling Show

Six Ways TV is Changing Forever

Leave a reply

TCA winter tour is finally winding down, but I wanted to write one last story about the various developments and announcements that I hadn’t been able to address in standalone stories. So for my final Quartz story from TCA, I noted six ways that TV is changing forever, including my observation that pilot season isn’t dead — yet:

Last week, FOX announced the death of pilot season, with Reilly explaining that “it’s highly inefficient” and “built for a different era” when CBS, ABC and NBC were the only three networks in existence. Instead, Reilly has already picked up several projects “straight to series” for next season, bypassing the usual pilot process so as not to waste resources on projects that will never make it to air.

Yet the other networks were quick to declare that while the business is indeed changing, pilot season is still very useful for them. “It’s frustrating, but also exciting,” said CBS’s Tassler, who noted that pilot season’s “compression of time”—in which pilots are cast, shot and focus-tested in a matter of weeks—gives way to “this creative adrenaline” that has delivered their biggest hits, like The Big Bang Theory. NBC’s Greenblatt noted that his network’s new hit The Blacklist “probably would never have seen the air had we not made a pilot, because it came from a relatively young, inexperienced writer. We weren’t exactly sure immediately from that script that we should order a series.”

Farewell, Pasadena!

Six ways TV is changing forever

Soon You Can (Legally) Stream ‘The Simpsons’—but There’s a Catch

Leave a reply

Woo hoo! At TCA winter press tour, FX Networks announced that it will create a Simpsons app within its FXNOW streaming app that will finally allow fans to stream all 530 episodes of The Simpsons. FX Networks CEO John Landgraf shared more details with me for this Quartz article:

The Simpsons content will be curated in a separate app, which Landgraf said will be “integrated with and linked through” the FXNOW app. The Simpsons app will contain a multitude of Simpsons clips as well as full episodes (all 530 episodes will be available at all times, not cycled through at various intervals), all of which will “be infinitely cross-referenced and sortable and searchable in various different ways,” Landgraf said.

Landgraf also detailed the app’s big catch, which involves authenticated subscribers, and also talks about FXX’s continued search for its own identity apart from sibling FX.

Soon you can (legally) stream the Simpsons—but there’s a catch