Tuesday, September 25, 2012
In Which I Use Lots of Proper Nouns Not Recognized By Spellcheck
So I've been reading "Top of the Rock," the Warren Littlefield book about NBC in the '80s and '90s. I'm enjoying it a lot, despite the strangeness inherent in reading a book about television. It takes me back to a simpler time, when hammer pants were haute couture and a little band called Chumbawumba was tearing up the airwaves. It reminds me of watching A Different World secretly on mute in the basement because my parents thought it was dirty. It kind of makes me want to ask my stylist for "The Rachel."
Mainly it's interesting for the tidbits about weird casting that almost was, such as Nancy McKeon playing Monica on Friends and Teri Hatcher starring in Mad About You. There are also fun behind-the-scenes anecdotes about things like Wings being generally terrible and Kelsey Grammer being on a lot of drugs. And then there's lots of random bitchiness about how nobody "gets" how difficult it is to develop TV programs and how NBC is totally in the crapper now. I wouldn't call the latter part a surprise ending, exactly.
And the best part is I'm only about halfway through, so I still have a lot to look forward to. I'm really hoping for some behind-the-scenes dish on Suddenly Susan.
So I've been reading "Top of the Rock," the Warren Littlefield book about NBC in the '80s and '90s. I'm enjoying it a lot, despite the strangeness inherent in reading a book about television. It takes me back to a simpler time, when hammer pants were haute couture and a little band called Chumbawumba was tearing up the airwaves. It reminds me of watching A Different World secretly on mute in the basement because my parents thought it was dirty. It kind of makes me want to ask my stylist for "The Rachel."
Mainly it's interesting for the tidbits about weird casting that almost was, such as Nancy McKeon playing Monica on Friends and Teri Hatcher starring in Mad About You. There are also fun behind-the-scenes anecdotes about things like Wings being generally terrible and Kelsey Grammer being on a lot of drugs. And then there's lots of random bitchiness about how nobody "gets" how difficult it is to develop TV programs and how NBC is totally in the crapper now. I wouldn't call the latter part a surprise ending, exactly.
And the best part is I'm only about halfway through, so I still have a lot to look forward to. I'm really hoping for some behind-the-scenes dish on Suddenly Susan.
