{"id":508,"date":"2015-03-23T20:37:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T04:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/?p=508"},"modified":"2015-03-23T20:47:48","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T04:47:48","slug":"rip-john-litvack-the-wb-exec-behind-buffy-and-dawsons-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2015\/03\/rip-john-litvack-the-wb-exec-behind-buffy-and-dawsons-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP John Litvack: The WB Exec Behind ‘Buffy’ and ‘Dawson’s Creek’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"john-litvack-3000px\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It could be said that behind every great showrunner is a great executive \u2014 or at least that\u2019s how it should be.<\/p>\n

Every writer\/producer in Hollywood dreads \u201cnotes\u201d \u2014 those little missives\u00a0that come down from executive suites at studios and networks. Sometimes they\u2019re helpful; sometimes they\u2019re annoying; sometimes they\u2019re downright stupid.<\/p>\n

But if you get a good exec that knows what he or she is doing \u2014 especially you\u2019re running a TV show for the first time \u2014 those notes can be invaluable.<\/p>\n

They can even become a master class on how to spin out story successfully over many seasons.<\/p>\n

One of the good ones was John Litvack, of the late and (by me) fondly remembered The WB Network, who just passed away on March 21 at the age of 69 \u2014 far too young \u2014 after failing to recover since having triple-bypass surgery in January.<\/p>\n

From Variety<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

Litvack was considered an elder statesman during his 1997-2004 run as head of scheduling and current programming at the WB Network. Earlier in his career he\u2019d held exec posts at CBS, NBC and Disney TV. He spoke to creatives from experience thanks to the time he spent time behind the\u00a0camera<\/a>\u00a0as a director of soap operas in the 1970s and as a co-exec\u00a0producer<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cHill Street Blues\u201d in the NBC drama\u2019s final season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew story,\u201d said Jordan Levin, the former WB Network president who also worked with Litvack at Disney in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Litvack was highly regarded by showrunners and others for his skill at spotting problems with stories and generally helping to keep successful shows running smoothly. At the WB, he was a key coach for producers such as \u201cFelicity\u201d creator Abrams, \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u2019s\u201d Joss Whedon and \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d showrunner Greg Berlanti, who were then inexperienced in pacing themselves through the marathon that is series television.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Click here<\/a> to read the rest \u2014 and there\u2019s a lot more to tell, as Litvack was involved with some of the most popular and acclaimed shows of the last few decades.<\/p>\n

Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros.\/Variety<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It could be said that behind every great showrunner is a great executive \u2014 or at least that\u2019s how it should be. Every writer\/producer in Hollywood dreads \u201cnotes\u201d \u2014 those little missives\u00a0that come down from executive suites at studios and networks. Sometimes they\u2019re helpful; sometimes they\u2019re annoying; sometimes they\u2019re downright stupid. But if you get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2174,"featured_media":509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,4,11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-media","category-showbiz-101","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nRIP John Litvack: The WB Exec Behind 'Buffy' and 'Dawson's Creek'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It could be said that behind every great showrunner is a great executive -- or at least that's how it should be. 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No, I don't pick my NFL team by geography.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kateoharewrites","https:\/\/twitter.com\/KateOHareWrites"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/author\/kohare\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}