"Six Feet Under affected me in a hugely emotional way because my dad passed away the year the pilot episode was produced,"
Six Feet Under co-executive producer David Janollari has mixed feelings as September approaches and his landmark TV series winds to its series finale. As sad as David may be about the
end of Six Feet Under's successful run, he is much more enthusiastic about the first full slate of programs developed under his guidance at The WB, where he became programming chief in June 2004. "It's bittersweet," David told me when we met recently in Los Angeles. "It's the
end of a series I loved from the moment I read the original script. And I'm blown away by this season. It's a great show."
David's career path has been unique even by Hollywood standards. Since coming to Los Angeles from New York where he developed and produced TV movies for the Nederlander organization in
the 1980s, David has been a programming executive at Fox-TV, studio executive at Warner Bros. TV, executive producer of several TV series for his own Greenblatt Janollari Studio, and he is now programming head at The WB. "The business is like a dinner table," he laughs. "We may
sit at different chairs but we're all trying to do the same thing whether we are writers, producers or network executives. The end goal is to make good TV shows."
David's route to L.A. after graduating from NYU's Tisch School in 1984 and joining the Nederlanders as an intern was a circuitous one that first took him around the world on a year-long backpacking
trip. "I was a total cliché," he admits. "I read Kerouac, had long hair and a beard. It was the best year of my life." Traveling back to the U.S. from Asia his first stop was Los Angeles and he decided to stay. "I wasn't sure if I could get a job but I had four offers in three weeks, including one to be director of comedy development at Fox-TV working for Peter Chernin. He
jumped at the opportunity, was involved in the development of Babes, In Living Color and The Simpsons, and especially savors his efforts on Herman's Head.
"Fox was in its formative years and it was a difficult time. Just as we were getting rolling, Les Moonves (now Viacom co-Chairman) offered me the opportunity to run comedy at Lorimar Television," which
had several of the TGIF programs on ABC and morphed into Warner Bros. Television. At Warner, David was instrumental in developing the monster-hit series Friends. "Warner Bros. was a great success story," David says, and "Les has been a true mentor and friend. I was fortunate to be involved with Friends, Suddenly Susan, Veronica's Closet, Drew Carey and developed The Jamie Foxx Show and The Wayans
Brothers for The WB. I was involved with The WB at the beginning and ten years later I've come home and the network is bona fide. Back then the town was rolling its eyes over the idea of another network. Bob Daly, Jamie Kellner, Garth Ancier (now president of The WB) and Suzanne Daniels deserve great credit."
While at Fox, David worked closely with Bob Greenblatt, who rose to become the network's head of programming. Six years after they parted ways at Fox, they were chatting at a Fox Upfront party
and David wondered aloud if "there wasn't a better mousetrap that would give us both greater creative destiny over fewer shows rather than killing ourselves working on hundreds of scripts and dozens of series. It took them 18 months to put that mousetrap in place, but they eventually left their respective jobs to create The Greenblatt Janollari Studio and right
out of the box they created The Hughleys starring D.L. Hughley, which aired for two years on ABC and then moved to UPN for another two years.
The team also created Maggie Winters with Faith Ford for CBS, American Family for PBS, the Elvis mini-series for CBS, and three continuing UPN series: One on One, Eve
and Cuts. "It's ironic that the head of programming for The WB has three shows on UPN," David admits with a grin. Greenblatt-Janollari's greatest critical and popular success became Alan Ball's hit HBO series Six Feet Under, a darkly emotional look at members of a
dysfunctional family that runs a struggling funeral home. "Six Feet Under affected me in a hugely emotional way because my dad passed away the year the pilot episode was produced," says David. "It became very personal."
David remains hopeful the series will be recognized as Outstanding Drama Series by Emmy voters, although he
recognizes the competition is intense. "This show is the Susan Lucci of the primetime Emmy Awards. It has won every other major award including the Golden Globe and the Peabody Award, but never an Emmy for best drama." The awards will be presented in mid-September on NBC.
With all the success at Greenblatt-Janollari, why leave to join The WB? "We had a blast but everything gets a little stale. We'd both been approached a lot but we were so busy it never entered our
minds to leave. Then Bob left (he joined Showtime as head of programming) and it wasn't as much fun without him. The WB was very persuasive and offered me an opportunity to work with people I like and respect and to have a real influence on the network's future." (Look for David comments on his new WB series in a future story at www.mediavillage.com)
"I've done it before and I think I can do it again," David says of developing and building successful series for The WB. "I love making TV shows."
To contact David Janollari, send an e-mail to contact@mediavillage.com
Jay Baruchel ("Just Legal"), David Janollari (President, Entertainment, The WB) & Don Johnson ("Just Legal) attend the 2005 TCA Summer Press Tour Party. Photo: The WB/Paul Carpenter
