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Since then, we’ve seen so many great local stories resonate with people in other countries and from other cultures: shows and films set anywhere and told in any language. The jokes and references worked locally and the more universal themes of the shows traveled perfectly. But it worked because it was a deeply local story that we could share with the world. Looking back, “Lilyhammer” was perhaps an unorthodox choice for our first show. This was the first time we streamed a show across multiple countries and languages… and it worked. 6, 2012, offering all eight episodes to our members in the US, Canada and Latin America (followed by the UK, Ireland, and the Nordics later that year). 25, 2012, we debuted “Lilyhammer” on Netflix Feb.

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“It’s just like working on an album.” He laughed and agreed.Īfter first airing on Norwegian broadcast TV NRK on Jan. “You labor and suffer and someone can watch a year of your work in one night? That sounds a little weird,” he said. When I told him that we would not be showing the episodes one per week, we would deliver the entire season all at once. The meeting was great and Stevie loved every idea, except one.

We agreed to buy it and commission a second season, not knowing that Norwegian TV shows mostly only ran for one season and usually took long hiatuses between seasons if they did return. What he didn’t know was that we had already watched the episodes and were in love with the show. I remember that Stevie was a much better actor and musician than he was a salesman he would humbly describe the show as “different, odd, quirky, sometimes it’s in English and sometimes it has subtitles…” almost like he was trying to talk me out of it. In his new book “Unrequited Infatuations,” Stevie said that the call led to the best business meeting of his life – which was when we got together in person. I was (am) a huge fan of his music and I loved him in “The Sopranos,” so I was happy just to get to talk to him for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure what would come from that first phone call with Stevie. It was a character that was so familiar in a culture that few audiences had seen. I thought it was a classic fish-out-of-water story, with Stevie playing a role loved by audiences, and the interplay between his no-nonsense hitman Frank Tagliano and the gentle community around him made for some great comedy. I asked if we could read the scripts and Stevie said “Scripts? I can send you the whole season.” We watched it and we loved it. A few months later, having heard that Netflix was looking for original content, I got a call directly from Stevie, who wanted to send us the series. Bergen is where Norwegian creators Eilif Skodvin and Anne Bjørnstad approached Stevie Van Zandt about a show they wrote for him set in a small Norwegian town called Lillehammer.

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Our actual first original series was “Lilyhammer” and today, February 6, marks the 10th anniversary of its historic Netflix premiere.Ī seminal moment in Netflix history began in a recording studio by the North Sea. When you think about Netflix’s first original series, what do you think of? The White House? The Litchfield Correctional Institute… Nope, not those.

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Read Sarandos’ full essay and watch a video conversation between him and Van Zandt below: Netflix acquired distribution rights to “Lilyhammer” and released the series ahead of the first season of “House of Cards,” effectively introducing the “binge” model of television releases to the world and marking the first occasion of the streamer offering exclusive content. The Norwegian crime series had already finished filming an entire season at the time and was set for a premiere in its home country. Although Netflix’s premiere Hollywood shake-up came with “House of Cards,” which the streamer ordered as a series before picking up “Lilyhammer,” the announcement of the political thriller series spurned a meeting between “Lilyhammer” star and executive producer Stevie Van Zandt and Sarandos.