Steve Allen describes the birth of “Tonight.” Isabel Sanford talks about her path from theater to “The Jeffersons.” Writer-producer James L. Brooks pulls back the curtain on the creation of “The Simpsons” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” while leading lady Moore offers her own perspective.
And Walter Cronkite is on the record about his sole on-air product endorsement — for cigarettes.
Their interviews are part of an online gold mine of TV history, EmmyTVLegends.org, created by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.
Some 600 interviews have been taped for more than a decade by volunteers, including scholars and industry members. So far, about 200 have been posted at the site that launched this week, just before Sunday’s Emmy Awards, airing at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.
“We really want television fans, and people who have great memories of television they watched growing up, to have fun, to dive in and discover things about the people they grew up with,” Terri Clark, foundation executive director, said.
Every profession and craft is included in the ongoing project, including performers, directors, writers, cinematographers and executives. The lengthy, detailed interviews follow an oral-history template and cover both the personal and professional.
The Web site is intended to serve those seeking a career in entertainment as well as the public, said archive director Karen L. Herman.
“There’s so much information about how you shoot something or you direct or you write. These things don’t change. The technology may change, but not the process,” Herman said.
The site is graphically appealing and easy to navigate. TV buffs will relish the opportunity to hear more than a sound bite from their favorites, including those who are now gone, such as Allen and Cronkite. More than 2,000 hours have been recorded with prominent industry figures, although not all Emmy winners, selected by a committee.
The ad-supported site is funded through the foundation, the educational and charitable arm of the TV academy that organizes the Emmys, and by donations. The foundation declined to provide the cost of the project to date.
New interviews are being added daily, and Herman and her staff are gradually indexing each two- to six-hour video to allow visitors to quickly find specific topics and cross-references.
On Tuesday alone, indexed interviews with Sanford, “Law & Order” creator-producer Dick Wolf and George Takei of “Star Trek” were added to the roughly 50 already available, Herman said.
Nearly everyone agrees to talk, but she has yet to persuade a short list topped by Bill Cosby, Mel Brooks and Jerry Seinfeld.
Jeff Abraham, a publicist and comedy aficionado, has conducted more than a half-dozen interviews for the project. He considers it a privilege to “sit at the feet” of TV’s best and brightest.
What results is a revealing interview but not a self-absorbed one. The talk with comedian-writer Bill Dana, for example, yields his assessment of the brilliance of “Tonight” host Allen, Abraham said.
“Both the interviewer and the interviewee know the importance of this: It’s for the ages,” he said.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More