Dick Wolf And Warren Littlefield Remember The Night The Crossover Event Was Born — Deadline Disruptors
deadline.comThe top scripted series on each of the Big 4 broadcast networks—Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), FBI (CBS), Chicago Fire (NBC) and 9-1-1 (Fox)—all have something in common: they are the motherships of drama franchises that stage frequent crossovers.
Building integrated universes consisting of multiple series, whose characters move seamlessly from one show to another, has become a broadcast staple and arguably the most successful storytelling formula on network television over the past decade that continues to draw viewers amid dwindling linear ratings.But while crossovers are standard event programming and quite ubiquitous nowadays, this was a revolutionary concept when it was first proposed almost three decades ago and was initially met with resistance.
Involved in its inception were two top TV showrunners, Law & Order creator and executive producer Dick Wolf and Oz creator and executive producer Tom Fontana, as well as former NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield, now a producer of series like The Handmaid’s Tale and Fargo.The first crossover included episodes of Wolf’s Law & Order and another NBC drama series, Homicide: Life on the Street, on which Fontana was executive producer and showrunner.Littlefield says the idea came about around 27 years ago, during NBC’s 1995 upfront party held at a hip downtown New York restaurant co-owned by Fontana.Wolf and Fontana sat at the same table.
The two had been good friends since Fontana was on St. Elsewhere and Wolf was on Hill Street Blues in the early ’80s. “We kept in touch as our career wended its way through various highways,” Wolf says. “Tom moved back to New York, I stayed in LA.”The two used the party to catch up. “Homicide was one of my favorite shows, he said Law & Order
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