Ted Sarandos Looking Back at Lilyhammer, Netflix’s First Original Series – The Hollywood Reporter
Ted Sarandos on Sunday published a blog post celebrating Netflix’s 10th anniversary and reminding viewers of the first original series to premiere on streamer: the Crime dramady Lilyhammer.
Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, writes: “A pivotal moment in Netflix history began in a recording studio by the North Sea. He recalls getting a call from the show’s star and executive producer Steven Van Zandt and watching the entire first season, a “classic story of a fish that passed out” featuring “great comedy.” great” in the intersection between the assassin Frank Tagliano and the community. around him.
Sarandos wrote: “I am not sure what will happen after the first phone call with Stevie. “I am a huge fan of his music and I love him in Sopranosso I’m happy to talk to him for a few minutes. “
Sarandos went on to remember that during their business meeting, Van Zandt was “a much better actor and musician than he was a salesman,” explaining that Van Zandt would “humbly describe About the show was ‘different, weird, weird, sometimes it’s in English and sometimes it’s subtitled… ‘it’s almost like he’s trying to talk to me.” However, Sarandos watched the shows. episodes and love the show. An agreement has been made.
Sarandos recalls: “The meeting went very well and Stevie loved every idea but one. “When I told him we weren’t going to show episodes one week at a time, we were going to distribute the whole season at once. That has prevented him from following his trail.”
He added that Van Zandt’s concern was that someone could see all of a year’s work in one night. “That sounds a bit odd,” he recalls Van Zandt saying. “Nothing strange,” I told him. It’s like working on an album. ‘ He laughed and agreed.”
Lilyhammer premiered on Netflix on February 6, 2012, after first airing on the Norwegian television channel. Sarandos recalls: “It was the first time we streamed a show across multiple countries and languages… and it worked.
He went on to call the series “an unorthodox pick” for Netflix’s first show. “But it worked because it was a profound local story that we were able to share with the world. The locally relevant jokes and references and the more universal themes of the shows were delivered perfectly. “
Sarandos has identified several other notable Netflix shows from other countries in the years since, from South Korea. Squid fishing game – the biggest show of streamers ever – of Denmark Chestnut man to France Lupine and more.
“Thank you Lilyhammer and Stevie Van Zandt for starting this incredible 10-year journey,” wrote Sarandos. He concludes that it is difficult to predict what will come in the next 10 years, but one thing is for sure, more great stories will come “from anywhere that can be loved anywhere”.
