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Warren Littlefield On “Chilling” ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Final Season, Expanding Into Comedy & Unscripted And Threat Of TV Producers Becoming Extinct

As his The Littlefield Company turns 25, Warren Littlefield takes a look at the bumpy transition from executive to producer and the state of broadcast.

In his second career, Littlefield, who, as entertainment president and head of comedy at NBC developed and put on the air such series as The Golden Girls, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Seinfeld, ER, Friends, Frasier, Homicide and Law & Order, has produced shows like FX/Hulu’s Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, Dopesick, The Old Man and the upcoming Amanda Knox. Fellow former top broadcast TV executive Jeff Sagansky has been a vocal critic of the streaming-driven “cost plus” business model, proclaiming in 2022 that “We are in a golden age of content production and the dark age of creative profit sharing.” He called upon the Justice Department and Congress to “level the playing field” in a way the government did in 1970 with the passing of the fin-syn rules, with another former head of network-turned-producer recently sharing with Deadline that if the fin-syn rules are not reinstated, independent TV producers have no future. Littlefield recalled how The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4, filmed at the height of the pandemic, had to spend $1 million an episode on Covid protection to keep its cast and crew safe — on top of the regular budget.

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