CSI producer dissects hit crime show in return to South Orange synagogue

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

In a classic example of local boy making good, Jonathan Littman, president of Jerry Bruckheimer Television and executive producer of the groundbreaking CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television franchise, came home to Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel to discuss the “anatomy” of the successful show with friends old and new.

Littman made his return engagement to the temple Nov. 13 as part of its Conversations… series, which marks its 10th anniversary this year.

Littman has a long association with the South Orange synagogue. His parents, Annette and Harold Littman, have been members for more than 50 years, and Annette Littman served as congregation president. The future producer attended religious school and became a bar mitzva there in 1976 and has fond memories of his involvement in temple activities as a youngster.

A man who usually shuns the limelight, Littman noted that the last time he “spoke solo in public like this was at my bar mitzva 29 years ago,” he told NJ Jewish News in an interview prior to the program. “But I couldn’t resist when they asked [me] to come back. Every formative part of my life has a connection to Sharey Tefilo.”

A graduate of West Orange High School and Vassar College, where he majored in drama, Littman set out on a career in the theater in the mid-’80s, a time when the industy was in decline, he said. A friend challenged him, “You spend so much time watching TV, why do you want to be in the theater?” Chastened, Littman began working at ABC as a secretary and moved up the ladder in various capacities for FOX, NBC, and CBS. At Fox he helped develop and manage Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and The X-Files.

Littman moved to California in 1989, where he met his wife, Nancy, at a Jewish federation dinner. “The moral of the story: When your mother tells you to go to a federation dinner to meet a nice Jewish girl, believe her,” he said. Ironically, the couple had attended high school together, a year apart, but didn’t know each other at the time. They have three daughters, ranging in age from 11 months to six years old, whom they prefer to keep out of the spotlight.

The Littmans belong to Valley Beth Shalom, a Conservative synagogue of 2,000 families in Encino. “My wife…looks like she’s on her way to picking up my mother’s mantle as being very involved,” said Littman. As much as he loves his new Jewish home, “I’m very fond of and I romanticize a great deal about my upbringing in West Orange and in suburbia.”

Anatomy of a hit

In 1997, Littman left Fox and joined up with film producer Jerry Bruckheimer on his television ventures. Two years later, Littman encouraged Anthony Zuiker to pitch his idea for a crime show to Bruckheimer. CSI debuted in 2000, and its mix of crime drama and not-for-the-squeamish forensics proved a surprising and enormous hit for CBS. The franchise now includes CSI: Miami and CSI: NY.

“I love all my children,” Littman joked when asked about his proudest professional accomplishments. “CSI is the first, and no matter what, you love your first a little bit more than you love the rest. You never get to relive that first morning when you call in for the ratings [or] the experience of all of a sudden having a show that people love.

“It changed television forever,” he said. “It changed the look of TV, it changed what you can represent on TV, how you can do crime, tell a mystery. It broke every rule of conventional wisdom, that mysteries were only skewed toward old people and that young people wouldn’t watch them.

“You’re lucky to have one hit, let alone as many as we’ve had,” he said.

Bruckheimer Television produces not only CSI but Cold Case, Without a Trace, Close to Home, E-Ring, and the Emmy Award-winning reality series The Amazing Race. According to Nielsen Media Research, four Bruckheimer programs were among the top 10 broadcast shows for the week of Oct. 31 to Nov. 6.

Despite CSI’s popularity, there are still those who find fault. The Parents Television Council recently included CSI and Cold Case on its list of the 10 worst shows because of language, violence, and sexual themes.

Groups like PTC, said Littman, “serve a function, and I don’t begrudge them their opinion. Fortunately for us, 28 million people a week disagree.

“I happen to be a believer that television is the single most democratic thing we have in our country: You can turn it off, and you can choose not to watch.”

Addressing the crowd of 150 at Sharey Tefilo-Israel, Littman said, “I see a lot of faces from my past. The temple is your family, and you never leave your family.”

Littman offered a detailed analysis of CSI’s arduous journey from concept to pitch to production and its success in an industry where 85 percent of proposed projects fail. “There might be 30-40 scripts considered each year,” Littman explained, “out of which five to six might be made into a pilot, out of which two or three might make it to the schedule, out of which one might develop into a hit,” he said.

The youngest of five children, Littman took a moment to publicly acknowledge his parents for “not telling me to turn off the TV.”

Following the program, Linda Kirsch, chair of the adult education committee that oversees the Conversations… series, thanked Littman “for coming home to be with us. You truly are a member of our temple family,” she said, presenting him with a gift of a sculpture titled, aptly enough, Family.

Ron Kaplan can be reached at rkaplan@njjewishnews.com.

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