TELEVISION: STILL STANDING IN BURBANK

NBC'S WARREN LITTLEFIELD USED TO BE TV'S DUMBEST EXEC. NOW HE'S TV'S BIGGEST GENIUS. WHAT A DIFFERENCE SOME HITS MAKE

NETWORK EXECUTIVES ARE USED to being the butt of jokes, but few have endured the sort of abuse Warren Littlefield has. David Letterman loved to flash photos of the NBC programming chief on his show and make cruel remarks. In The Late Shift, HBO's recent movie about the late-night battle, Littlefield comes across as the arch network dunderhead, the guy who lost Letterman to CBS. In one scene, Littlefield (played as a smarmy nebbish by Bob Balaban) is so surprised by a phone call from Jay Leno that he races out of the toilet in his boxers, with his pants around...

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