Warren Littlefield was an executive at NBC from 1979 to 1998, and currently produces prime-time programming for several networks through his production outfit, the Littlefield Company, which he co founded in 1999. Littlefield served as president of the entertainment division of NBC from 1991 to 1998, during which time he was responsible for the development of prime-time, late-night, and Saturday-morning entertainment programming. Under Littlefield's guidance, NBC rose from last place in almost every Nielsen rating category to become the top-ranked network for 11 of Littlefield's last 16 years at NBC, setting a record for consecutive years at number one. Littlefield contributed to the development of many of the series that defined "quality programming" in the 1980s and 1990s. NBC's entertainment programming received 168 Emmy Awards under his leadership.

Littlefield began his career in the mid- I970s as a gofer at a small media production company in New York City. By 1977 Littlefield was a vice president at Westfall Productions, where he developed and produced prime-time specials and movies, most notably the CBS movie The Last Giraffe, shot exclusively on location in Kenya. After a brief stint at Warner Brothers, Littlefield was hired by NBC's Brandon Tartikoff in December 1979 as manager of comedy development. He quickly worked his way up the executive ladder from vice president for comedy development in 1981 to senior vice president for prime time in 1987.

Throughout the 1980s, Littlefield oversaw the development of several critically acclaimed and financially successful situation comedies, including Cheers, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls. He is also credited with casting Will Smith in NBC's successful Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

In 1990 Littlefield was appointed president of NBC Entertainment, making him second only to Tartikoff among NBC's program executives. When Tartikoff left NBC for Paramount in 1991, Littlefield replaced him at the helm. During the 1990s, Littlefield developed the NBC dramas and situation comedies Seinfeld, ER, Friends, Frasier, Mad About You, Just Shoot Me, 3rd Rock from the Sun, NewsRadio, Law & Order, and Homicide: Life on the Street. Shortly before leaving NBC, he was also involved with the development of Will and Grace, Providence, and The West Wing (owned by NBC Studios). In addition to these comedic and dramatic series, Littlefield acquired the film classic It's a Wonderful Life and presented the initial network broadcast of Schindler's List without commercials (underwritten by Firestone) to over 60 million Americans. Littlefield is also widely regarded as the NBC executive who hired and supported Jay Leno over David Letterman as the host of The Tonight Show following Johnny Carson's retirement. Littlefield also oversaw the hiring of Conan O'Brien to replace David Letterman in NBC's 12:30 spot, when Letterman moved to CBS in 1993.

In interviews, Littlefield takes credit for branding NBC as the network that, in his words, offered "quality" programming to the "upscale" or "key" demographic of "college-educated, urban-based young adults earning over $75,000 a year." Delivering that audience to advertisers was largely responsible for NBC's renaissance, which, according to Littlefield, "distinguished [NBC from the other networks], and I made advertisers pay a tremendous premium for that." Indeed, Littlefield points out that during his last three years at NBC, upfront ad sales totaled $2 billion more than its nearest competitor.

As NBC's ratings began to fade in the late 1990s, Littlefield was replaced by Scott Sassa. Littlefield entered into a nonexclusive production venture with the network through his newly formed Littlefield Company. In 2001 Littlefield (and the Littlefield Company) entered into a multiyear agreement with the network television division of Paramount, and has since co-produced the sitcom Do Over for the WB network and the dramedy Keen Eddie for FOX. Although both programs received some critical praise and loyal followings when they debuted in 2003, including fan communities on the Web, both programs were canceled before finishing their first seasons. In 2003 the Bravo cable network, which is owned by NBC's parent company General Electric, purchased the rights to Keen Eddie and is scheduled to run all 13 episodes in 2004. With NBC's marketing and promotions behind it and the scheduled release of the series on DVD, Keen Eddie is expected to recoup its initial losses.

Littlefield's "multi-ethnic situation comedy" Like Family, which also premiered on the WB in 2003 fin­ished near the bottom of the Nielsen ratings but scored well enough in the key demographic categories of women aged 12-34, teens, and female teens to merit being picked up for an additional nine episodes for the 2004 season. Although the program does not explicitly address racism in the tradition of the politically charged All in the Family, it is a rare example of a racially diverse family situation comedy. (In the pilot, a white single mother and her 16-year-old son move in with a middle-class African-American family.) In January 2004, Littlefield was also producing the drama Repo Man for NBC with Keen Eddie writer Joel Wyman, and developing a new dramedy for ABC entitled Joe Green and Eugene with Keen Eddie star Mark Valley.

Littlefield's career is thus illustrative of the shifting landscape of television over the past 25 years from broadcasting to narrowcasting. Indeed, while one could argue that Littlefield has experienced a relative lack of success in recent years as a producer when compared with his years as an NBC executive, in an era of increased channels and fragmented audiences-­ combined with increased media conglomeration and product integration-Littlefield's projects have remained consistently profitable through niche marketing and cross-promotion.