Christina Aguilera cradles her flag-encased infant son Max Liron Bratman while crooning "America the Beautiful" to him in a public service announcement promoting the kickoff of this year's Rock the Vote campaign. Calls immediately went out to presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama to begin wearing a similarly clad baby on his lapel during all campaign stops or risk being tagged as unpatriotic.And the Unsung Hero Behind the 'Sopranos' is...
...Kevin Reilly?
Believe it.
According to no less an authority than Showtime President Robert Greenblatt -- who ought to know, since he's among the geniuses who once cast it off in the mid-1990s while Executive VP of Primetime Programming at Fox Broadcasting -- "The Sopranos" might well never have left the station had the recently shunted-aside President of NBC Entertainment not championed the show when all others seemingly had buried it with the proverbial fishes.
This, from Greenblatt this week:
"Before 'The Sopranos' disappears...there is an unsung hero who gets no credit (whom I would like to mention). Forgetting the fact that I initially developed the show with ('Sopranos' creator/exec producer) David Chase and paid him a $300,000 penalty when we passed on it, the other guy who has been forgotten is Kevin Reilly -- he's the guy who was head of Brillstein-Grey (Entertainment) and he and I did this together.
"Kevin, in fact, carried the torch for two years until it finally landed at HBO. He was there every step of the way. Considering how NBC just shunted him aside (last week), I thought the timing was uncanny. And as 'Sopranos' ends, I thought it should be mentioned that without Reilly the show may never have seen the light of day."
This is not to say that Brad Grey, now Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, wasn't instrumental in "The Sopranos" becoming what it ultimately became. But it is nonetheless more than worthy of note that a guy who was just relegated to the dumpster like so much worthless debris appears to have been the missing supportive link in a series being hailed by some as The Greatest Drama In TV History surviving in development long enough to meet its glorious destiny. Or, you know, less flowery words to that effect.
And yeah, boy, good thing NBC sacked Reilly when it had the chance, you know? Dude clearly has no programming smarts.
Amazing story! If I could get to Kevin Reilly, I would give him a BIG BIG Hug! Thanks for passing this on Ray. What a business, huh? OY VEY!
Posted by: OldOldLady Of The Hills | June 07, 2007 at 03:48 PM
Kevin is in no way hurting.
The fact that he just signed a new contract for 3 years then got sacked...there's a HUGE severance in there somewhere.
What I want to know is how ZUCKER keeps dodging the "pink slip" bullet. Any moron who signs his guy for three years then fires him...well that shows you his true talents...indecisive, ignorant, and well let's let the current lacking line up at NBC finish my thought.
Could the shareholders please fire Jeff now.
Posted by: Sam | June 13, 2007 at 06:12 AM