Director/Producer Dwight Hemion has Died -- Archive Interview Online

We've just learned that legendary director/producer Dwight Hemion passed away on Monday, January 28th. In his prolific career, he garnered 47 Emmy nominations in his career and won 18. He is best-known for producing specials with such legends as Julie Andrews, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand.

Click here to access Dwight Hemion's 5-part oral history interview.

Interview description:
In his 5-part oral history interview conducted in July of 2001, director Dwight Hemion talks about his early television career at ABC in the late 1940’s. He discusses in detail the beginnings of the ABC network and his early directing work on the television series Rootie Kazootie and The Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Hemion later discusses his collaboration with Gary Smith on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall and their subsequent company collaborations in producing and directing television musical variety specials including Baryshnikov on Broadway. Hemion finishes the interview discussing the stars of his many specials, particularly Barbra Streisand. The Archive also recorded a joint session with Hemion and Gary Smith, where they discussed their longtime working collaboration.

Shirley Jones joins "Days of Our Lives" -- Archive Interview is Now Online

Iconic actress Shirley Jones has joined the cast of daytime soap Days of our Lives. She's playing Colleen Brady (complete with Irish brogue), the "supposedly dead" great-aunt of Sami Brady. According to published reports, she'll be on the the show throughout February.

Ms. Jones was interviewed by the Archive of American Television on December 7, 2005. Click here to access Ms. Jones' 5-part interview.


Shirley Jones Interview Description:
Actress Shirley Jones speaks about her early career, her discovery by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and her television debut on Playhouse 90, which lead to her casting in her Academy Award-winning role in "Elmer Gantry". She discusses working on the film "The Music Man" and other features. She talks in depth about her first series role as Shirley Partridge on The Partridge Family and discusses working with her stepson and co-star, David Cassidy. She then talks about the many made-for-television movies she has made including: The Children of An Lac, There Were Times Dear and Hidden Places. She also discusses her work on The Drew Carey Show, where she played Drew’s love-interest for three episodes.

In honor of her return to series television (this is her first soap role), we're including the entire 25-minute pilot episode of The Partridge Family, which premiered in September of 1970. As far as pilots go, it's one of the best!

It's a known fact that Lincoln loved mayonnaise! -- "The Odd Couple" Season 3 is on DVD

Season Three of The Odd Couple is now available on DVD and includes a number of the series' most well-remembered episodes including "Let's Make A Deal," "The Odd Monks" (Felix and Oscar go to a retreat at an upstate Mission), and, possibly the most famous (but you knew that from this post's title quotation): "Password." The Archive of American Television interviewed several of the cast and crew behind the series; Tony Randall discusses the genesis of the "Password" episode in part four of his interview.



Click here to access Tony Randall's entire four-part Archive interview.

Tony Randall Interview Description:
Randall explained that it was his role on television's Mr. Peepers that launched his career. He recalled his early years in live television and his association with comedian Wally Cox and producer Fred Coe. He talked extensively about working on The Odd Couple and his enduring friendship with Jack Klugman. He also talked about his favorite, but short lived series, Love, Sidney, as well as The Tony Randall Show. The interview was conducted by Matt Roush on April 30, 1998.

Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls -- "Laugh-In" is forty!

A "verrry eenteresting" TV anniversary....

40 years ago, on January 22nd, 1968, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In premiered on NBC.

The colorful show, hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (and featuring Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, announcer Gary Owens and Jo Anne Worley), was lauded for its fast-paced, sometimes-irreverent vignette comedy sketches and quick gags -- edited in a seemingly random format. The show, produced by Ed Friendly and George Schlatter, quickly shot to number one in the ratings for both the 1968–69 and 1969–70 television seasons.


To celebrate, we've posted a segment of co-host (and co-producer) Dick Martin's Archive interview. Click on the play arrow to watch.




Archive interview with Dick Martin continues here:




Click here to see a great Wikipedia article, filled with lots of facts and trivia about the show.

Actress Suzanne Pleshette has died - Archive Interview Online

We're sad to report that Archive interviewee Suzanne Pleshette, the actress best known for her role as Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show, died last night (Saturday, January 19th) at the age of 70. She was interviewed in February, 2006 and the interview is now available online.


Click here for her full San Jose Mercury News obituary.

Click here to view a special TV Land Online video featuring Archive interviews with Suzanne Pleshette & Bob Newhart talking about The Bob Newhart Show.

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences online Suzanne Pleshette obituary.

Click here to access Suzanne Pleshette's Archive interview.

Interview description:
In her 5-part oral history interview, actress Suzanne Pleshette talks about her early years as an actress in film (The Geisha Boy), television (Playhouse 90, One Step Beyond), and Broadway (“The Miracle Worker”). She discusses her friendship with Alfred Hitchcock that began on the feature film The Birds. She spoke candidly and in detail about her television work, including The Bob Newhart Show, in which she played Newhart’s wife “Emily Hartley,” including her surprise re-appearance in the series finale of Newhart. She talks about several of her other appearances on television including Columbo, Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean (in which she played the title role), and 8 Simple Rules and recounted, with honesty, the personalities of many of the people she worked with throughout her career.

55 years ago: "Little Ricky" was born to Lucy & Ricky Ricardo

55 years ago, on January 19, 1953, the I Love Lucy episode "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" first aired. In this classic episode, Lucy gives birth to "Little Ricky." The airdate was chosen to coincide with Lucille Ball's real-life scheduled Caesarean delivery of her own child, Desi Arnaz, Jr. Not surprisingly, the episode was viewed by more people than any other television program up to that date -- 68% (some sources say it was as high as 75%) of all American TV sets were tuned to CBS. A few months later, with the noteworthiness of the birth still in full-swing, Desi Arnaz, Jr. was featured on the very first cover of TV Guide (pictured at right).

From I Love Lucy editor Dann Cahn's Archive interview:

Lucy went to the hospital for a [scheduled] Caesarean birth on a Monday morning and that night she gave birth to a little boy on the show. The child being a boy had been decided weeks earlier, remember, there was no ultrasound testing -- they didn’t know if it’s twins, whether it’s a boy or a girl, or two boys or whatever. They didn’t have that in the fifties. So we went ahead and producer Jess {Oppenheimer] and writers Bob [Carroll] and Madeline [Pugh Davis] wrote that they’d have a little boy, and Lucy and Desi agreed. Sure enough, Lucy went to the hospital and in the morning she had a little boy [Desi Arnaz, Jr.], and on the television tube, little Ricky was born. That was a very big event.

Dann Cahn's Full Interview Description:
Mr. Cahn talked about starting out as an assistant editor on motion pictures. His first job in television came in 1949, on Lucky Strike Showtime. Mr. Cahn also discussed working at Desilu on I Love Lucy, Our Miss Brooks, Where’s Raymond, The Untouchables, and The Loretta Young Show. He also discussed editing other television shows including Leave it to Beaver, The Beverly Hillbillies, Police Woman, and Remington Steele. He also talked about working at Glenn Larson Productions as head of Post Production, where he worked on The Fall Guy, Cover Up, and The Automan.

The Original "American Idol"— "The Original Amateur Hour" Debuted 60 Years Ago on Television

Following WWII, as American television began to take off, many of the popular shows on radio began to be adapted to the new medium. Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour was one of radios old stalwarts, having debuted in 1934, and it was one of the first shows to make the leap. The American Idol of its day in terms of its allure to the fame-seeking hopeful, amateur acts (musical and otherwise) traveled from all over the country to be on the radio show. The show ended in 1945, when it had run its course and the ratings had slipped; Bowes died in June of 1946.

Emcee Ted Mack (in photo, left), who was an associate of Major Bowes during the radio days, brought the show back in 1948 to both television (it premiered on January 18th) and radio (in September). The show had the same format and used the same booking staff. Viewers voted for favorite acts although they were not "gonged" off as on radio (that element would return more famously on an amateur talent show in the 1970s!). All over again, the show was a major success— lasting 22 years on television (in evening and daytime versions).

Additionally, the show was the most popular program of the fledgling Du Mont television network. It was one of the only shows that could compete with the more established CBS and NBC. The show ran through September 1949 on Du Mont, until NBC lured it away.

The Archive of American Television interviewed Ted Bergmann who began at Du Mont on the time sales staff (it was he who made the sale for The Original Amateur Hour which he sold to P. Lorillard, maker of Old Gold cigarettes). Bergmann eventually moved up to the executive suites and became the Managing Director of the Broadcast division of the Du Mont Television Network.

Bergmann talks about The Original Amateur Hour and such other popular Du Mont shows as The Small Fry Club, Magic Cottage, and the well-remembered Captain Video and His Video Rangers in Part 2 of his 10-part interview.

Legacy of the Watts Writers Workshop Continues

Archive interviewee Marla Gibbs (co-star of The Jeffersons and star of 227) will be one of the honorees at the Watts Writers Workshop Gala Banquet on February 9th. Other honorees include actor Ted Lange (co-star of The Love Boat), actor Roger E. Mosley (co-star of Magnum, P.I.), and Professor Johnnie Scott, the Emmy award winning writer of the acclaimed NBC documentary, The Angry Voices of Watts. Selections of a recent interview with Budd Schulberg will also be screened.



In September of 1965, television and film writer Budd Schulberg started the Watts Writers’ Workshop in response to the devastation of the infamous riots, which had taken place in the primarily African-American South Los Angeles neighborhood a month earlier. “In a small way, I wanted to help,” says the Academy Award-winner. “The only thing I knew was writing, so I decided to start a writers’ workshop.”

The Watts Writers’ Workshop applied for and received a $25,000 grant from the fledgling National Endowment for the Arts -- which enabled the group to establish Douglass House. The Workshop’s new home served as a meeting space for its writing programs as well as housing for some of the Workshop’s members, many of whom were homeless.

“The NEA provided tremendous assistance, no question about it,” says Schulberg. “It was like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, and it helped us gain additional private support and also obtain help from the film industry.”

The Workshop quickly attracted national and international media attention; in 1966 it was the subject of an hour-long NBC TV documentary. Writing from the Workshop was also collected in the 1967 anthology From the Ashes: Voices of Watts.

“The Watts Writers’ Workshop allowed us to voice what urban, black America was thinking, feeling, and seeing and to get that out to he rest of the country,” observes honoree Johnnie Scott. “Before that, we had no voice; no one was listening.”

Though the Watts Writers’ Workshop lasted less than a decade, its legacy endures. In 1971, Schulberg and screenwriter Fred Hudson, founded the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in Harlem, New York. The center’s programs include writing classes in several genres as well as an after school program in creative writing and computer literacy for elementary and middle school students. The Center also produces the annual Black Roots Festival of Poetry, Prose, Drama, and Music, which has showcased leading African American writers and artists such as Lucille Clifton, Gordon Parks, Toni Morrison, and Ishmael Reed.

For information or tickets call 619-531-0902 or visit www.climbsd.org

Producer David Wolper Turns 80 Today

Legendary producer (and Archive of American Television co-founder) David L. Wolper is 80 years old today. Wolper's name is most associated with documentaries, such as Race for Space and The Making of a President as well as miniseries such as Roots. He also produced such feature films as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; sitcoms Welcome Back, Kotter and Chico and the Man; and special events such as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. Wolper was interviewed by the Archive about his life and career in 1998.

Soundbites from the interview.

On his philosophy of filmmaking:

I [devised] my philosophy of filmmaking, making the Race For Space and I never changed it from that first show. I want to entertain and inform, not just inform and not just entertain. I want to do both in the same piece. Because I remember, I saw a film in school once. And I came home and told my father. You know I saw this film in school, it was terrific. And my father said well you probably didn't learn anything. I said no dad, I learned more today because it was terrific. I enjoyed it, I did learn a lot. He said how can you learn a lot just watching film? That sort of reminded me. And when I did the Race For Space I wanted to get that entertainment.

On Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:

Roald Dahl had a book. Mel Stewart, who has worked for my company, said his son read a book and really liked it called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I thought it was terrific. About that time, Quaker Oats was sponsoring one of my shows. And Quaker Oats was coming out with a candy and they said maybe it's a good idea if we do a television thing on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And I said well why don't you do a feature film, why don't you do a theatrical picture and get it out all over the theaters and the time you release the candy is the same time the movie comes out. So they put up the money to make the movie. They changed it to Willy Wonka because the name of the candy was going to be Willy Wonka. They changed it to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We made the movie. It's a big hit. And the candy melts on the counter, they had the wrong formula and all the candy, they had to recall back all the candy.

On selling Welcome Back, Kotter:

We're going to New York and it's the selling season. Everybody goes to New York to sell the shows as a program. Everybody is trying to see the heads of the network, you know, this and this and this. So I [thought] I wonder when Fred Pierce is flying back to New York, the head of ABC, one of the top people. So I knew his secretary because I had done a lot of business with ABC. I said when is Freddy flying back. She said well he's flying back Wednesday. What flight is it? You know the seat number? Yes. Thank you. I called up the airline and I said I have to have this seat, this flight. Well somebody's there. Move him to another seat, I want seat 6 on flight 225. Just think, I'm going to be all the way to New York with Freddy Pierce sitting next to me and I'm going to sell him Welcome Back Kotter. And we get on the plane and I say oh Freddy, isn't that a coincidence. So I sit down. I talk about Welcome Back, Kotter subtly, you know. ...And "Welcome Back, Kotter," blah, blah, blah. By the time we got to New York I knew in my heart that they were going to buy Welcome Back, Kotter. And everybody is hustling, how do we get that guy? I need two minutes of your time Freddy. And I had four hours of him on the way to New York.

On meeting Roots author Alex Haley:

I negotiated the deal and bought the property from Alex Haley. The book had not been written. I hadn't met Alex Haley. So Alex Haley comes out to California. We have a little luncheon. Myself and some of the people in my company and in about ten minutes we're the table was won over. This man mesmerized us in a ten to twenty minute conversation, we were [mouth agape]. I went home from the lunch and said my god, this man is unbelievable.


On his favorite shows:

Well my favorite shows, they all have something to do with turning points in my life [A] favorite [documentary] was The Making of the President in 1960. I was once called "Mr. Documentary." Then I was in the miniseries and my favorite obviously is Roots. So now all of sudden I’m "Mr. Miniseries." Then I do the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games that... it was even worldwide. So everybody thinks I’m [Mr.] outdoor spectaculars, you know. But really, you know, my real love is the documentary.

The entire 11-part interview can be accessed here.

Interview description:
David Wolper was interviewed for nearly five-and-a-half hours in Los Angeles, CA. Wolper talked about forming his first company, Flamingo Films, with father and son friends Joe and Jim Harris. He discussed many of his documentaries, including the Race For Space, Hollywood: The Golden Years, and The Making of a President, among others. Wolper fondly recalled working with his long time friend Mike Wallace, as well meeting and working with oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau. He talked about two classic sitcoms, Chico and the Man and Welcome Back, Kotter, as well as the many television movies and specials he produced. Wolper also discussed in great detail his three highly acclaimed ABC mini-series, Roots, The Thorn Birds, and North and South. The interview was conducted by Morrie Gelman on May 12, 1998.

Call for Entries: 29th College Television Awards

To all future Archive interviewee wannabes:

The College Television Awards competition, sponsored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, rewards excellence in college student video, digital and film productions. Students currently enrolled in a community college, college or university may apply, and for the first time, can submit their video entries online. The entry deadline is January 15, 2008.

CTA Categories
* Animation (all forms)
* Children’s
* Comedy
* Comedy Series
* Commercial
* Documentary
* Drama
* Drama Series
* Magazine
* Music (best composition)
* Music (best use of music)
* Newscast

Click here for official rules and guidelines.