FX chief says an exhaustive probe was conducted into Louis C.K.'s past behavior

Pasadena, Calif. • FX knew nothing of Louis C.K.‘s alleged sexual misconduct before a story about it broke in November and wouldn’t rule out restoring reruns of “Louie” to its on-demand services, its top executive said Friday.

“We had no awareness before the New York Times report,” FX chief John Landgraf told reporters, alluding to a piece in which multiple women accused C.K. of engaging in lewd acts in their presence, allegations the comedian subsequently confirmed.

Landgraf said that, though it had been in business with C.K. for a long time, it had heard nothing more than one Gawker-published rumor and did not have reason to take that seriously in all the years working with him. He said after the news broke the network then conducted an investigation into all of C.K.‘s shows, including the landmark “Louie,” and discovered no evidence of additional wrongdoing.

“We did not find any issues, complaint or instance of misconduct of any kind during the eight years we worked together,” Landgraf said, speaking at the semi-annual gathering organized by the Television Critics Association.

FX has been home to no fewer than five C.K. shows, not least of which is the current burgeoning hit “Better Things,” the dramedy he wrote and executive produced with the show’s creator, longtime collaborator Pamela Adlon.

Landgraf said Adlon would need to find a new way forward for the upcoming third season but said this wasn’t as difficult as some portrayals made it out to be.

“It’s Pamela’s show. This is her story; this is her life,” Landgraf said of the show, which is drawn from her own life as an actress and single mother. “She’s going to have to write them all herself or find another co-writer. But she’s the font.”

C.K.‘s shows also were removed from FX’s video on-demand platforms in the wake of the scandal. Asked whether they could ever be restored, Landgraf demurred but didn’t shut the door.

“The simple answer is I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know what Louie’s going to do, what further things he has to say. [So] we’re kind of in a wait-and-see mode.”

Hollywood has gone about excising not just offenders from its ranks but much of their work, pulling past shows and movies from digital libraries. At issue is how much work already done should be viewed through a more enlightened historical lens. Landgraf said he was grappling with the question for “Louie.”

“Personally, I still think it’s a great show,” he said of the off-kilter slice-of-life comedy. “You may look at it through a different prism. But if you thought it was art, it’s still art. [Just] maybe art of a different kind.”

Landgraf’s comments come amid Hollywood’s #MeToo movement and its #TimesUp initiative that seeks to cast light on and stop sexual harassment. Both ask whether the industry has done enough to reverse years of gender inequity.

Landgraf said the industry hadn’t and pledged his own network would do more, though was somewhat vague on specifics. “We’ve been really vigorous about encouraging reporting,” he told reporters. “It’s not an easy process because it essentially turns us into an investigative service but it’s necessary.”

He continued: ”[As an industry] we haven’t done a good job of protecting employees and we have to get better at it.”

Landgraf also addressed the planned Disney merger that will affect his parent company. There have been questions about where FX’s edgy content would fit in the new Disney structure. That incompatibility was a strength and a weakness, Landgraf said, though he emphasized the strength.

“In some ways it’s a clean thing,” the executive noted, adding that it was “more complicated with individuals and organizations that have counterparts. What FX does and what FX is doesn’t exist in their organization,” he added.

Landgraf, who has made headlines at this event in the past with candid comments about the glut of television, said that continued this past year, with a total of 487 scripted shows on the air, up nearly 10 percent from 2016. He said that in addition to issues of an overwhelming amount of entertainment content, it also competed with other aspects of the culture, particularly politically.

“As incredible as television has become, it sometimes feels like a sideshow to a daily three-ring media circus,” he said.

According to an FX study of most mentions on critics’ year-end lists, Netflix was the best network or streaming service of the year, showing up in 24 percent of mentions. HBO was right behind with 21 percent, and FX somewhat further behind, in third place, at 10 percent.

Landgraf also said a planned “American Crime Story” about the Monica Lewinsky-Linda Tripp scandal, designed as a dramatization similar to the network’s 2016 show about O.J. Simpson and upcoming series on Gianni Versace, was still early in development. Getting it to a shootable stage could take time — even years.

“We want not just to get the events right and make something salacious, but make something that aspires to be literary,” he said.

from The Salt Lake Tribune http://ift.tt/2EeiIfE