Fred Silverman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fred Silverman
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg)
Silverman in 1979
|
|
| Born | September 13, 1937 New York City, U.S.
|
| Died | January 30, 2020 (aged 82) |
| Resting place | Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Education | |
| Occupation |
|
| Spouse(s) |
Catherine Ann Kihn
(m. 1971) |
| Children | 2 |
Fred Silverman (born September 13, 1937 – died January 30, 2020) was an American television leader and producer. He was a top boss at all three major TV networks in the U.S.: CBS, ABC, and NBC. He helped bring many famous shows to television. These include Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, All in the Family, The Waltons, and Charlie's Angels. He also helped create popular mini-series like Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots. Because of his amazing success in picking hit shows, Time magazine called him "The Man with the Golden Gut" in 1977. This meant he had a special talent for knowing what would be popular.
Contents
Fred Silverman's Life and Career
Early Life and Education
Fred Silverman was born in New York City. His mom, Mildred, was a homemaker, and his dad, William, fixed radios and TVs. He grew up in Rego Park, Queens, and went to Forest Hills High School.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University. Later, he got a master's degree from Ohio State University. His master's paper looked at ten years of shows on the ABC network. This helped him get his first TV job at WGN-TV in Chicago. After that, he worked at WPIX in New York before joining CBS. His first job at CBS was to manage the daytime TV shows. Fred married his assistant, Cathy Kihn, and they had two children, Melissa and William.
Working at CBS
In 1970, Fred Silverman became the Vice President of Programs at CBS. This meant he was in charge of all the shows on the network. CBS wanted him to bring new ideas. He made a big change called the "rural purge" in 1971. This meant removing many popular shows that were about country life, like Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies.
In their place, he brought in new, modern shows. These shows were aimed at younger viewers and became huge hits. Some of these classics include All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, M*A*S*H, and The Waltons.
Silverman was very good at spotting new hit shows. He was especially good at creating "spin-offs." A spin-off is a new TV show that uses characters from an already popular show. For example, he created Maude and The Jeffersons from All in the Family. He also created Rhoda from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
He also brought back game shows to CBS's daytime schedule in 1972. One of the most famous was an updated version of The Price Is Right. This show is still on TV today! He also brought back Match Game.
For Saturday mornings, Silverman asked Hanna-Barbera to create Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. The character Fred Jones in Scooby-Doo is even named after him! Scooby-Doo's success led to many other Hanna-Barbera cartoons on CBS.
Moving to ABC
In 1975, Silverman became the president of ABC Entertainment. He helped save the show Happy Days, which was almost canceled. He made Happy Days a top-rated show and created a hit spin-off from it, Laverne & Shirley.
At ABC, Silverman also approved many other popular shows. These include The Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels, Three's Company, The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island. He also helped create the important miniseries Roots. These choices helped ABC go from being in third place to first place in TV ratings. Some people criticized him for making shows that were just for fun and entertainment, sometimes featuring attractive characters.
He also improved ABC's daytime shows. He hired Gloria Monty to produce General Hospital, which was struggling. He gave her a short time to make it better, or it would be canceled. He also made General Hospital and other soap operas like All My Children and One Life to Live longer, making them an hour each. For game shows, he brought Family Feud to ABC.
On Saturday mornings, Silverman changed ABC's cartoon lineup. He brought in more shows from Hanna-Barbera, including more Scooby-Doo. He also helped start Ruby-Spears Productions, hiring two writers from Hanna-Barbera to create new cartoons.
Challenges at NBC
Even though he was very successful at ABC, Silverman left to become the president and CEO of NBC in 1978. His three years at NBC were much harder. Many of the new shows he launched did not do well. Some examples include Supertrain, which was very expensive and almost caused NBC to go broke, and the comedy show Hello, Larry.
However, he also had some big successes at NBC. He launched the highly praised drama Hill Street Blues (1981) and the epic miniseries Shōgun. He also started The David Letterman Show in the daytime, which led to David Letterman's very successful late-night show later on.
Silverman also helped create popular comedies like Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. He also supported the creation of shows like Cheers and St. Elsewhere. He was a pioneer in "reality programming" by launching Real People in 1979, which showed real people doing interesting things.
He also brought new game shows to NBC, like Card Sharks and Password Plus. On Saturday mornings, he helped create an animated series based on The Smurfs. The Smurfs cartoon ran for many years, becoming one of his longest-lasting contributions to NBC.
Silverman also improved NBC's news division, making Today and NBC Nightly News more competitive. He also brought back the famous peacock as NBC's company logo in 1979.
Starting His Own Company
In 1981, Fred Silverman left NBC and started his own company, The Fred Silverman Company. His goal was to produce shows to sell to TV networks. His company created several hit shows that are still popular today in reruns. These include the Perry Mason TV movie series (1985–1994), Matlock (1986–1995), and Diagnosis: Murder (1993–2001).
In 1995, he received the Lucy Award from Women in Film. This award recognized his excellent work that improved how women were shown on TV. In 1999, Fred Silverman was honored by being added to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
Death
Fred Silverman passed away from cancer on January 30, 2020, at his home in Pacific Palisades, California. He was 82 years old.
Images for kids
-
Silverman in 1979
