You’ve likely heard the name Warren Littlefield before. Particularly if you’re a fan of NBC’s Must See TV back in the day.
At NBC under Brandon Tartikoff’s leadership, Littlefield helped bring to the small screen such tiny little indie shows as Cheers, Seinfeld, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls. When he elevated to President of NBC Entertainment, he ushered in the great NBC shows that dominated the 1990s including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Mad About You, Frasier, Friends, ER, Will & Grace, The West Wing, and so many more.
After NBC, Littlefield stayed in the TV world and executive produced Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale among other titles. He also boasts a long-term involvement with what would become FX’s Fargo in a partnership with writer / director Noah Hawley. Now in its fifth season (or Year 5), Fargo hit what I consider its masterpiece season. That’s not a word I toss around lightly. Starring Jon Hamm, Juno Temple, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Fargo Year 5 is a flawless season of television. Every moment, every word, and every performance is perfectly calibrated in a wildly entertaining exploration of debt, both the financial and spiritual kinds.
When working with Hawley to craft Year 5, Littlefield and team understood that they had something special, partially because it was a return to basics for the series.
“The moment Noah started to talk about it and, when he first revealed his very first pages, we knew this was classic, going-home Fargo,” Littlefield recalled. “To our core, to our roots, Noah was pretty damned giddy about it. He felt he was in a really good place. He enjoyed writing this season. We knew.”
Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Littlefield speaks briefly about his time at NBC, shaping the television series that my 16-year-old daughter still enjoys today, before shifting into dramatic work with such titles as Fargo. He describes his collaborative process with Noah Hawley and the excitement they all felt once the scripts started coming in. He also talks about including such heavy political themes running through Year 5.
Fargo streams in its entirety on Hulu.