Fred Silverman

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Fred Silverman bigraphy, stories - American television executive

Fred Silverman : biography

September 13, 1937 –

Fred Silverman (born September 13, 1937 in New York City) is an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at the CBS, ABC and NBC networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as the series Scooby-Doo (1969–present), All in the Family (1971–1979), The Waltons (1972–1981), and Charlie’s Angels (1976–1981), as well as the miniseries Roots (1977) and Shōgun (1980).

Biography

Early life and career

Silverman graduated from Syracuse University, where he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, and then earned a Master’s degree from the Ohio State University. He went to work for WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, overseeing program development and children’s programming, as well as at WPIX in New York City. His masters thesis analyzed ten years of ABC programming and was so good it got him hired as an executive at CBS at the age of 25 in 1963. There, he took over responsibility for all daytime network programming and later, took charge of all of entertainment programming, day and night. Silverman married his assistant, Cathy Kihn, and they had a daughter, Melissa, and son, William.

CBS

Green Acres Mayberry R.F.D. Hee Haw The Beverly Hillbillies All in the Family Mary Tyler Moore M*A*S*H The Waltons Cannon Barnaby Jones Kojak The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour

Silverman had an uncanny ability to spot burgeoning hit material, especially in the form of spin-offs, new TV series developed with characters that appeared on an existing series. For example, he spun off Maude and The Jeffersons from All in the Family, and Rhoda from Mary Tyler Moore (as well as The Bob Newhart Show from MTM’s writers). In early 1974, Silverman ordered a Maude spin-off titled Good Times; that show’s success led Silverman to schedule it against ABC’s new hit, Happy Days, the following fall.

In other dayparts, Silverman also reintroduced game shows to the network’s daytime lineups in 1972 after a four-year absence; among the shows Silverman introduced was an updated version of the 1950s game show The Price Is Right, which remains on the air nearly four decades later.

After the success of The Price Is Right, Silverman would establish a working relationship with Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in which most of their game shows would appear on CBS, including a revival of Match Game.

Under Silverman’s tenure, CBS also ended the practice of wiping and saved as much of their recorded content as possible, while other networks recycled tapes constantly to save money.

On Saturday mornings, Silverman commissioned Hanna-Barbera to produce the series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, and the character Fred Jones is named after Silverman. The success of Scooby-Doo led to several other Hanna-Barbera series airing on CBS in the early 1970s.

Move to ABC

Ironically, he was named president of ABC Entertainment in 1975, putting him in the awkward position of saving Happy Days, the very show that Good Times had brought to the brink of cancellation. Silverman succeeded in bringing Happy Days to the top of the ratings and generating a hit spin-off from that show, Laverne & Shirley.

At ABC, Silverman also greenlit other popular shows such as The Bionic Woman (a Six Million Dollar Man spin-off), Family, Charlie’s Angels, Donny & Marie, Three’s Company, Eight Is Enough, The Love Boat, Soap, Fantasy Island, Good Morning America, and the award-winning mini-series, Roots. These moves brought ABC’s long-dormant ratings from third place to first place. However, Silverman was criticized during this period for relying heavily on escapist fare (it was Silverman who conceived the infamous Brady Bunch Hour with Sid and Marty Krofft in late 1976) and for bringing T&A or "jiggle TV" to the small screen with numerous ABC shows featuring buxom, attractive, and often scantily-clad young women (such as the popular Battle of the Network Stars).