When Ryan Murphy took his Netflix deal, he visited FX chief John Landgraf's office, where they cried together. 'Without question, he’s been our most prolific producer,' Landgraf says
chief was in Orlando in January for the Walt Disney Television sales conference when he got a call from Disney CEO Bob Iger, asking if he wanted to visit the new “Avatar”-themed attraction at Animal Kingdom.chief operating officer Chuck Saftler at their hotel and drove them to the front gate of the park, where they were greeted by a Disney World official and escorted inside.
Landgraf came aboard FX at a time when the cable business was booming. The biggest channels, like FX, USA and TNT, were starting to dive into original programming, advertising was growing and the cable bundle that is shaky now was the envy of the rest of the TV industry.
Iger has indicated that of all the Fox brands Disney has acquired, FX is one of the likeliest to benefit from increased resources. In turn, the network is expected to grow its volume of shows while maintaining quality. “Having worked closely with John for the past eight years, it’s hard to distill him down to one or two attributes that stand out because he has so many strengths,” says Walt Disney Television chairman Peter Rice. “There are not many executives who are exceptional at developing content and running a business, and John excels at both. He is smart, principled, analytical, strategic and always measured, so he has my complete trust.
“That was step one in a process without end,” Landgraf says of the directors’ initiative, adding that FX is “trying to bring genuine opportunity and genuine diversity to a business and to a brand, but also to an industry that really has put Band-Aids on [its inclusion problem] but has lacked a kind of substantive, permanent solution.”
The question the exec now faces is whether the process he created for doing his job at FX can work in the wonderful world of Disney. His first entertainment job was for producer David Manson’s Sarabande Prods., working in development and post-production. From there Landgraf went to NBC, where he served as a programming executive under Warren Littlefield in the Must See TV era . His last pre-FX post was heading Danny DeVito’s Jersey Television.
FX’s hallmark has been not just quality but consistency. The network has won more TCA Awards in the past five years than any of its competitors and has, by its own count, topped more critics’ annual best-of lists. But more impressive might be how seldom it whiffs. Since Landgraf’s arrival, FX has made only four drama pilots that were not ordered to series.
Joel Fields recalls that for Season 5, Episode 2, of “The Americans,” he and co-creator Joe Weisberg kept receiving script notes telling them that the narrative for Holly Taylor’s teen character Paige wasn’t landing. Finally, the showrunners found themselves on the phone with Landgraf, who asked them what their intent for her was. “We explained it to him, and he said, ‘I get what you’re saying cognitively, and it’s all there cognitively. I’m not experiencing it emotionally.
Murphy’s Netflix move — leaving behind his longtime deal at 20th Century Fox Television last year for a nine-figure offer from the streaming service — presents an obvious challenge. But how long Murphy’s FX shows continue will depend on his desire to keep working on them. And there are no new ones where those came from. Asked about the future of “Feud,” Murphy says, “Who knows? I can only do so much, and I have so many new shows happening at Netflix.”, who last year signed a deal with Netflix. Murphy says he intends to stay involved with the show.Murphy ankled just months after FX parted ways with another of its signature talents, Louis C.K.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'Broad City' Music Supervisor Matt FX on 2020 Campaign SongsCampaign songs can be powerful things: “Fight Song” has been seared into the part of my brain where bad 2016 memories are housed, my colleague Stassa Edwards says that Bill Clinton almost ruined Fleetwood Mac for an entire generation after using “Don’t Stop” to soundtrack his 1992 campaign. So what do the 2020 candidates have planned and what psychic wounds will they inflict on us in the years to come?
Read more »
Dr. John Finished New Album a Year Before Passing: 'He Understood This Was His Final Record'It turns out that the legendary pianist/singer knew his health was declining months in advance and planned ahead.
Read more »
John Prine Shares the Remarkable 'Cinderella Story' of How His Career Got StartedJohn Prine's ability to weave sublime musical stories around topics that would otherwise seem mundane is a gift that's propelled his decades-long career and delivered a volume of cherished choruses in the Americana songbook.
Read more »
'Shark Tank's' Daymond John and Robert Herjavec agree this skill is the most important for success'What's the most important skill for success? We sharks in our free time at lunch talk about this all the time,' says 'Shark Tank' star Robert Herjavec. Here's the answer.
Read more »
Samoa Bans Elton John 'Rocketman' Biopic Over Depictions of HomosexualityThe Pacific nation of Samoa has banned the Elton John biopic “Rocketman” because of its depictions of homosexuality.
Read more »