On April 2, 1978, CBS premiered its primetime soap opera Dallas, which would go on to run for fourteen seasons at the network. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, which appeared as part of a TeleVisions column, is below:
Passing In Review: Melodrama emerges full blown with Dallas, a new CBS limited run series which debuted over the weekend, and with it TV has a new Peyton Place. As the title suggests, the series takes place in Texas — yes, Dallas, Texas — and revolves around the more sordid adventures, schemes and romances of the Ewing clan.
That’s short for Texas oil. The ads for the hour-drama read “A family ruthless in its quest for power and passion. Ready to destroy two people who dared their own blood for the right to love.” The two people, as it turns out, are Patrick Duffy of Man From Atlantis fame and Victoria Principal.
Duffy’s...
Passing In Review: Melodrama emerges full blown with Dallas, a new CBS limited run series which debuted over the weekend, and with it TV has a new Peyton Place. As the title suggests, the series takes place in Texas — yes, Dallas, Texas — and revolves around the more sordid adventures, schemes and romances of the Ewing clan.
That’s short for Texas oil. The ads for the hour-drama read “A family ruthless in its quest for power and passion. Ready to destroy two people who dared their own blood for the right to love.” The two people, as it turns out, are Patrick Duffy of Man From Atlantis fame and Victoria Principal.
Duffy’s...
- 4/2/2023
- by Richard Hack
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Merv Adelson, legendary television executive and founder of Lorimar died on Wednesday, according to media reports. He was 85. The entertainment executive’s 60-year career spanned everything from real estate development to co-founding TV production company Lorimar Television with developer Irwin Molasky and producer Lee Rich. He was chairman-ceo of the company, which produced series including “The Waltons,” “Dallas,” “Knots Landing” and “Full House.” Lorimar was acquired by Warner Communications in 1989, after which Adelson served on the board of Time Warner and was also its vice chairman before leaving the company in 1991. Also read: Lee Rich, Producer of 'The Waltons' and 'Dallas,...
- 9/10/2015
- by Reid Nakamura
- The Wrap
Merv Adelson, an industry titan who shepherded some of the most well-known TV properties to the screen, has died, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. He was 85. The entertainment executive founded Lorimar in 1969 with developer Irwin Molasky and producer Lee Rich. The company's first major hit was The Waltons, which premiered in 1972. Lorimar produced several other successful TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including Dallas, Knots Landing and Love Connection, but had accumulated significant losses from its lack of success with movies. Hollywood's top executives mourned Adelson on Wednesday in statements to THR. CBS CEO Leslie
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- 9/9/2015
- by Cheryl Cheng
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Marlene Forte, the actress who plays Carmen Ramos, the Ewing family's longtime Mary Poppins-like superintendent and mother of Elena (Jordana Brewster) on TNT's “Dallas” and I spoke today about the “uncorking” of the second half of Season 3 on Monday, August 18 on TNT. The story line for the rest of the season clearly is going to be all about the Ramos family.
For those of you who, like me, do not really keep up with television, our conversation was not only hugely entertaining but educational as well. Marlene is a well educated, articulate woman who raised her daughter before finally stepping into the business of acting.
She was one year old when her father moved her and her mother to New York from Cuba. They lived on MacDougal Street with her uncle and her father blames that for her and her younger sister choosing to become “artists”. Her sister is one of the hosts of Hsn Today; the Home Shopping Network and lives in Tampa Fla where her parents have joined her. Only her middle sister is the steady moneymaker of the three sisters. She is the Senior VP of Risk Management for Skanska USA a world leading project development and construction group. On the other hand, her father named all three of his daughters after movie stars: Marlene as in Dietrich, Yvette as in Yvette Mimeux and Leslie as in Leslie Ann Warren. And he made sure Marlene took piano lessons and her sister took dancing…That was to keep them off the street, her father claimed later.
They soon moved to Union City NJ where she grew up. And she grew up on TV. Her family watched lots of TV. When her father got home at 6, he would turn on "Welcome Back Kotter” and "McCloud”. They were not like Cubans in Miami, always feeling exiled. When he left Cuba, he wanted to get as far away as he could and he never wanted to go back. He loved America…Frank Sinatra, TV…(though he did like those romantic slow boleros and still does), but at home, everything was American.
Marlene wanted to be an actress all her life but she married her first boyfriend from high school and had a child. She went to college and studied English; Shakespeare seemed a good route toward acting. Life however had a way of taking the lead. She opened a video store in North Bergen, NJ which she ran for six years, thinking she would be financially independent with her daughter. Her parents lived nearby to care for her daughter, and she had no time to become an actress. She did watch movies however (like Tarantino) and everything she learned about film was in that store. She saw as much as possible and learned a lot about the business.
This was during the early days when video stores were ma and pa affairs, but when Blockbuster moved down the block, she saw the writing on the wall. By that time, her daughter was ten and understood her mother’s passion, so they sold the store, took what little money they had and she moved across the river to New York determined to follow her dream…her father cried to think she would not become a doctor or lawyer.
Coincidentally at that time I also entered the video business and as an acquisitions executive we visited these ma and pa businesses, many of whom were making duplicate cassettes in the back of their stores. I was soon acquiring films for Lorimar, the producers of “Dallas” itself. When Lee Rich and Merv Adelson would call company-wide meetings, Lee would always begin asking for a show of hands of who had watched TV the past week. Very few of us had…and I never did. I might have seen “Dallas” once; certainly I knew who Jr was and around the office there was always good gossip. And the gorgeous Victoria Principal was loved by all.
When Marlene turned 30, she decided to become an actress. That's a late start for most occupations; in Hollywood it's nearly unheard of. But for this born girl named for one of Tinseltown's brightest stars (Marlene Dietrich) perhaps the journey was predestined. So Marlene got into a theater group called The Lab. It was very Latino and actress based. She worked with people like Judy Reyes,Vanessa Aspillaga, Forencia Lozano (39 episodes of "One Life To Live") Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell. Today it is called the Labyrinth Theater Company and works out of the Bank Street Theater David Zayas (Dexter) and she were newbies and “old” - they already had children. It was a good time and the timing was good. And so 20 years passed, like a blink of an eye. She was on the cusp. Latino had not yet become Ok; they told her she had to use a different name from that of her daughter’s father, Rodriguez. It was not too long after the days of Raquel Welch — remember what a surprise it was to discover she was Mexican? And how about Rita Hayworth? Her name was Ana Marlene Forte Machado. She decided to take the name of her mother and so became Marlene Forte. While today the Latino community still has no Tyler Perry or Oprah, still now is the time to be Latino and living in L.A. where she can stand on the corner of Olympic and El Camino; life is good.
So "Dallas" is back for its third season. “Dallas” without Larry Hagman, "one of the nicest people she ever worked with in the business”. He was a role model for her. He knew he was ill with cancer. In the course of the two seasons, he lost 20 pounds. But he died with his family around him, doing what he loved doing most, acting halfway through the second season.
Comparing “Dallas” back in the day (1978 – 1991) when I was working at Lorimar (1985 +) and today: Back then there was only Angela, the Ewing Maid (Carol Sanchez) There was no “Ramos family”. So how did the Ramos family come into being?
“Dallas” has fans around the world. The new version is younger. Elena (Jordana Brewster)’s mother (whom Marlene plays) is already a business woman. The family has been working with the Ewing family since her daughter was nine and she was widowed when an oil rig accident killed her husband.
It has already been revealed that Rj actually stole the land from the Ramos land grant at the end of Season 2. Jordan is now bent on revenge. Her mother Carmen (Marlene Forte) had a bit of a chip on her shoulder; she always said that no one in her family every lied, but now…they too are lying, lying all the time. Lots will be revealed about them now; their dark side is coming to light in the third season.
“Dallas”, this version has very well rounded characters and the storylines are interesting. The first season dealt with real issues, like oil vs. methane gas…Jr wants to drill, drill, drill but the Ewing children want to go with ethane gas.
The women are very strong in “Dallas” too. This is due in part to Cynthia Cidre the creator and showrunner, who is also Cuban. Michael M. Robin the director and producer is a TV Giant ("The Closer", "Nip/Tuck", "L.A. Law”) and the two have found a good balance.
Wow! I want to watch this, if I can ever figure out how to turn on which remote control to watch TV in my home! TV is changing…we all know that much. But Marlene’s description of the changes explains much more. She says, "The procedural folks are tired. Soaps are coming back. No longer is procedural — a dead body, we find out what happened — enough. Now it’s revenge, scandal, characters…in ‘ allas', Cynthia and Michael go into that vibe, it is current and it’s history too.
There are two trends in TV now. One is the procedural switch to characters. The other comes off of reality TV…there are still reality shows; there will always be housewives everywhere, but the second trend is going back to Spanish TV, with shows like “America’s Got Talent”, “Dancing with the Stars”. This is entertainment like the old Spanish TV shows, "Sábado gigante” where for four hours, seven days a week Don Francisco would show "The Chew" and "The View" and "Americas Got Talent" all rolled into one show — four hours! — with ads by Ivory between the segments.
Marlene Forte is Totally TV. She loves it; she knows its craft. She says that TV, Film, and Theater are all different media.
She tells young talent, "If you know the media, you can conquer it…you can figure out the rhythm…" Forte is one of those familiar faces to which you’d have trouble putting the name. Yet you’ve seen her everywhere simply because she’s played them all. In fact, her work reads like the ultimate directory of television - from "Crossing Jordan", “The George Lopez Show”, "The Mentalist", "Law & Order", "Bones", "Daybreak", “The West Wing”, “ER”, “Lost”, "Castle" to "House of Payne", “24”, “ Community”, and “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager”, among many others.
Now with an acting career spanning over three decades, Forte is enjoying a hell of ride carrying an acting dossier that may very well rival some of the most prominent Latinas in the industry.
On the movie side, she played the transporter chief in the 2009 Jj Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot; Mrs. Glass in "Real Women Have Curves"; and the unforgettable Pilar Brown in "Our Song" opposite Kerry Washington ("Scandal"). She appeared recently in the Marlon Wayans’ parnormal’esque parody “A Haunted House”, and Tyler Perry’s “A Single Mom’s Club” (her second time working with the award-winning director). She will next be seen in the indie movie “Assassination of a Citizen” playing a female Walter White in gang-central East La.
She continues to do shorts and live theater, to work on web projects (notably the Imagen Award winner “Ysle” with Ruth Livier), to tackle indie films and big budget movies, and pop in some of TV’s high-profiled series and sitcoms, The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (Hola) - the nation’s longest running active arts advocacy organization for Latino actors - honored her with a Hola Award for "Excellence in Television". Most recently she received a “Pioneer Award” at the 2014 Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival and an “Artist Award” from her home town, Union City.
And as she is keeping that acting bug rolling and the roles coming, she most definitely provides a shinning example of how women can “make it” in Hollywood on their own terms.
“Dallas” itself has been nominated and awarded many prizes since it recommenced in 2012:
Alma Awards, 2012
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Julie Gonzalo
Imagen Foundation Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Primetime Television Program
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Julie Gonzalo
Key Art Awards
2013
•
2nd place , Key Art Award
Best Trailer - Audio/Visual
(Turner Network Television (TNT)).
• For the online "Dallas Theme Song Video MashUp".
Namic Vision Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Vision Award
Best Performance - Drama
Jordana Brewster
So tune in Monday, August 18 on TNT!!!
For those of you who, like me, do not really keep up with television, our conversation was not only hugely entertaining but educational as well. Marlene is a well educated, articulate woman who raised her daughter before finally stepping into the business of acting.
She was one year old when her father moved her and her mother to New York from Cuba. They lived on MacDougal Street with her uncle and her father blames that for her and her younger sister choosing to become “artists”. Her sister is one of the hosts of Hsn Today; the Home Shopping Network and lives in Tampa Fla where her parents have joined her. Only her middle sister is the steady moneymaker of the three sisters. She is the Senior VP of Risk Management for Skanska USA a world leading project development and construction group. On the other hand, her father named all three of his daughters after movie stars: Marlene as in Dietrich, Yvette as in Yvette Mimeux and Leslie as in Leslie Ann Warren. And he made sure Marlene took piano lessons and her sister took dancing…That was to keep them off the street, her father claimed later.
They soon moved to Union City NJ where she grew up. And she grew up on TV. Her family watched lots of TV. When her father got home at 6, he would turn on "Welcome Back Kotter” and "McCloud”. They were not like Cubans in Miami, always feeling exiled. When he left Cuba, he wanted to get as far away as he could and he never wanted to go back. He loved America…Frank Sinatra, TV…(though he did like those romantic slow boleros and still does), but at home, everything was American.
Marlene wanted to be an actress all her life but she married her first boyfriend from high school and had a child. She went to college and studied English; Shakespeare seemed a good route toward acting. Life however had a way of taking the lead. She opened a video store in North Bergen, NJ which she ran for six years, thinking she would be financially independent with her daughter. Her parents lived nearby to care for her daughter, and she had no time to become an actress. She did watch movies however (like Tarantino) and everything she learned about film was in that store. She saw as much as possible and learned a lot about the business.
This was during the early days when video stores were ma and pa affairs, but when Blockbuster moved down the block, she saw the writing on the wall. By that time, her daughter was ten and understood her mother’s passion, so they sold the store, took what little money they had and she moved across the river to New York determined to follow her dream…her father cried to think she would not become a doctor or lawyer.
Coincidentally at that time I also entered the video business and as an acquisitions executive we visited these ma and pa businesses, many of whom were making duplicate cassettes in the back of their stores. I was soon acquiring films for Lorimar, the producers of “Dallas” itself. When Lee Rich and Merv Adelson would call company-wide meetings, Lee would always begin asking for a show of hands of who had watched TV the past week. Very few of us had…and I never did. I might have seen “Dallas” once; certainly I knew who Jr was and around the office there was always good gossip. And the gorgeous Victoria Principal was loved by all.
When Marlene turned 30, she decided to become an actress. That's a late start for most occupations; in Hollywood it's nearly unheard of. But for this born girl named for one of Tinseltown's brightest stars (Marlene Dietrich) perhaps the journey was predestined. So Marlene got into a theater group called The Lab. It was very Latino and actress based. She worked with people like Judy Reyes,Vanessa Aspillaga, Forencia Lozano (39 episodes of "One Life To Live") Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell. Today it is called the Labyrinth Theater Company and works out of the Bank Street Theater David Zayas (Dexter) and she were newbies and “old” - they already had children. It was a good time and the timing was good. And so 20 years passed, like a blink of an eye. She was on the cusp. Latino had not yet become Ok; they told her she had to use a different name from that of her daughter’s father, Rodriguez. It was not too long after the days of Raquel Welch — remember what a surprise it was to discover she was Mexican? And how about Rita Hayworth? Her name was Ana Marlene Forte Machado. She decided to take the name of her mother and so became Marlene Forte. While today the Latino community still has no Tyler Perry or Oprah, still now is the time to be Latino and living in L.A. where she can stand on the corner of Olympic and El Camino; life is good.
So "Dallas" is back for its third season. “Dallas” without Larry Hagman, "one of the nicest people she ever worked with in the business”. He was a role model for her. He knew he was ill with cancer. In the course of the two seasons, he lost 20 pounds. But he died with his family around him, doing what he loved doing most, acting halfway through the second season.
Comparing “Dallas” back in the day (1978 – 1991) when I was working at Lorimar (1985 +) and today: Back then there was only Angela, the Ewing Maid (Carol Sanchez) There was no “Ramos family”. So how did the Ramos family come into being?
“Dallas” has fans around the world. The new version is younger. Elena (Jordana Brewster)’s mother (whom Marlene plays) is already a business woman. The family has been working with the Ewing family since her daughter was nine and she was widowed when an oil rig accident killed her husband.
It has already been revealed that Rj actually stole the land from the Ramos land grant at the end of Season 2. Jordan is now bent on revenge. Her mother Carmen (Marlene Forte) had a bit of a chip on her shoulder; she always said that no one in her family every lied, but now…they too are lying, lying all the time. Lots will be revealed about them now; their dark side is coming to light in the third season.
“Dallas”, this version has very well rounded characters and the storylines are interesting. The first season dealt with real issues, like oil vs. methane gas…Jr wants to drill, drill, drill but the Ewing children want to go with ethane gas.
The women are very strong in “Dallas” too. This is due in part to Cynthia Cidre the creator and showrunner, who is also Cuban. Michael M. Robin the director and producer is a TV Giant ("The Closer", "Nip/Tuck", "L.A. Law”) and the two have found a good balance.
Wow! I want to watch this, if I can ever figure out how to turn on which remote control to watch TV in my home! TV is changing…we all know that much. But Marlene’s description of the changes explains much more. She says, "The procedural folks are tired. Soaps are coming back. No longer is procedural — a dead body, we find out what happened — enough. Now it’s revenge, scandal, characters…in ‘ allas', Cynthia and Michael go into that vibe, it is current and it’s history too.
There are two trends in TV now. One is the procedural switch to characters. The other comes off of reality TV…there are still reality shows; there will always be housewives everywhere, but the second trend is going back to Spanish TV, with shows like “America’s Got Talent”, “Dancing with the Stars”. This is entertainment like the old Spanish TV shows, "Sábado gigante” where for four hours, seven days a week Don Francisco would show "The Chew" and "The View" and "Americas Got Talent" all rolled into one show — four hours! — with ads by Ivory between the segments.
Marlene Forte is Totally TV. She loves it; she knows its craft. She says that TV, Film, and Theater are all different media.
She tells young talent, "If you know the media, you can conquer it…you can figure out the rhythm…" Forte is one of those familiar faces to which you’d have trouble putting the name. Yet you’ve seen her everywhere simply because she’s played them all. In fact, her work reads like the ultimate directory of television - from "Crossing Jordan", “The George Lopez Show”, "The Mentalist", "Law & Order", "Bones", "Daybreak", “The West Wing”, “ER”, “Lost”, "Castle" to "House of Payne", “24”, “ Community”, and “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager”, among many others.
Now with an acting career spanning over three decades, Forte is enjoying a hell of ride carrying an acting dossier that may very well rival some of the most prominent Latinas in the industry.
On the movie side, she played the transporter chief in the 2009 Jj Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot; Mrs. Glass in "Real Women Have Curves"; and the unforgettable Pilar Brown in "Our Song" opposite Kerry Washington ("Scandal"). She appeared recently in the Marlon Wayans’ parnormal’esque parody “A Haunted House”, and Tyler Perry’s “A Single Mom’s Club” (her second time working with the award-winning director). She will next be seen in the indie movie “Assassination of a Citizen” playing a female Walter White in gang-central East La.
She continues to do shorts and live theater, to work on web projects (notably the Imagen Award winner “Ysle” with Ruth Livier), to tackle indie films and big budget movies, and pop in some of TV’s high-profiled series and sitcoms, The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (Hola) - the nation’s longest running active arts advocacy organization for Latino actors - honored her with a Hola Award for "Excellence in Television". Most recently she received a “Pioneer Award” at the 2014 Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival and an “Artist Award” from her home town, Union City.
And as she is keeping that acting bug rolling and the roles coming, she most definitely provides a shinning example of how women can “make it” in Hollywood on their own terms.
“Dallas” itself has been nominated and awarded many prizes since it recommenced in 2012:
Alma Awards, 2012
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Julie Gonzalo
Imagen Foundation Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Primetime Television Program
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Julie Gonzalo
Key Art Awards
2013
•
2nd place , Key Art Award
Best Trailer - Audio/Visual
(Turner Network Television (TNT)).
• For the online "Dallas Theme Song Video MashUp".
Namic Vision Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Vision Award
Best Performance - Drama
Jordana Brewster
So tune in Monday, August 18 on TNT!!!
- 7/2/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
How Lorimar, the Company Behind 'Dallas' and 'Falcon Crest,' Bred Hollywood's Ruling Executive Class
This story first appeared in the Jan. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Lorimar Productions occupies a singular place in Hollywood history. The company, co-founded by Lee Rich and Merv Adelson in 1969, quickly emerged as the crown jewel of the television business. In an era when independent producers proliferated, it could lay claim to four of TV's biggest hits -- The Waltons, Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest -- to say nothing of a new format (the modern primetime soap) and a strong reputation for its creative-friendly culture. Lorimar's hot streak continued through the 1980s with the addition
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- 1/7/2014
- by Lacey Rose, Andy Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The TV mogul behind legendary series Dallas and The Waltons has died at the age of 93.
Lee Rich, the co-founder of the Lorimar production company, passed away on Thursday.
He achieved great success in TV and was the man behind other hit shows including Family Matters, Full House, Perfect Strangers and Eight Is Enough.
He earned five Emmy Award nominations for his work and won Best Drama Series for The Waltons in 1973.
Rich produced films such as Peter Sellers' Being There in 1979 and Richard Gere's An Officer and a Gentleman in 1982, and continued to score hits with A Fish Called Wanda and Rain Man in 1988, when he served as chairman and CEO of MGM and United Artists studios.
Lee Rich, the co-founder of the Lorimar production company, passed away on Thursday.
He achieved great success in TV and was the man behind other hit shows including Family Matters, Full House, Perfect Strangers and Eight Is Enough.
He earned five Emmy Award nominations for his work and won Best Drama Series for The Waltons in 1973.
Rich produced films such as Peter Sellers' Being There in 1979 and Richard Gere's An Officer and a Gentleman in 1982, and continued to score hits with A Fish Called Wanda and Rain Man in 1988, when he served as chairman and CEO of MGM and United Artists studios.
- 5/25/2012
- WENN
Lee Rich, the Emmy-winning TV and film executive who produced such shows as "The Waltons," "Eight Is Enough" and "Dallas," has died. He was 93. Rich, who was also the former chairman and chief executive of MGM/UA Communications, said he considered his greatest accomplishment to be co-founding Lorimar, which produced the shows. It went on to produce "Family Matters," "Full House" and "Perfect Strangers," among other series. Rich started in television at the advertising agency Benton & Bowles, where he helped package and sell both "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The...
- 5/25/2012
- by Tim Molloy
- The Wrap
Producer Lee Rich, the co-founder of the legendary Lorimar production company -- the home of classic TV dramas The Waltons and Dallas and films including An Officer and a Gentleman -- died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles after a battle with lung cancer. He was 93. In a entertainment career that spanned more than 30 years, Rich worked as an advertising executive, TV programmer, motion picture and TV producer and, for a stint in the '80s, as chairman of the board at MGM/UA. Partnered in Lorimar from 1969-86 with Merv Adelson, Rich served as executive producer of more
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- 5/25/2012
- by Duane Byrge , Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lee Rich, the mogul behind some of TV's most popular programming like "The Waltons," "Dallas" and "Eight Is Enough," has died, Deadline reports.
He was 85 at the time of his death.
According to People magazine, Rich attended Ohio University and then started out at the Benton & Bowles advertising agency, where he sold sitcoms like "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Danny Thomas Show." Benton & Bowles and the rest of the New York ad agencies on Madison Avenue controlled much of TV at the time, so Rich largely served as an additional producer on shows. He left the agency as senior vice president in 1965 to form his own production company, Mirisch-Rich Productions.
Rich eventually formed Lorimar Productions and served as executive producer of the company's successful series like "The Waltons," "Eight Is Enough," "Dallas" and its spinoff "Knots Landing." In 1980, he told People magazine, "I know exactly what 'Dallas' is.
He was 85 at the time of his death.
According to People magazine, Rich attended Ohio University and then started out at the Benton & Bowles advertising agency, where he sold sitcoms like "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Danny Thomas Show." Benton & Bowles and the rest of the New York ad agencies on Madison Avenue controlled much of TV at the time, so Rich largely served as an additional producer on shows. He left the agency as senior vice president in 1965 to form his own production company, Mirisch-Rich Productions.
Rich eventually formed Lorimar Productions and served as executive producer of the company's successful series like "The Waltons," "Eight Is Enough," "Dallas" and its spinoff "Knots Landing." In 1980, he told People magazine, "I know exactly what 'Dallas' is.
- 5/25/2012
- by Jaimie Etkin
- Huffington Post
Lee Rich, the mogul behind some of TV's most popular programming like "The Waltons," "Dallas" and "Eight Is Enough," has died, Deadline reports.
He was 85 at the time of his death.
According to People magazine, Rich attended Ohio University and then started out at the Benton & Bowles advertising agency, where he sold sitcoms like "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Danny Thomas Show." Benton & Bowles and the rest of the New York ad agencies on Madison Avenue controlled much of TV at the time, so Rich largely served as an additional producer on shows. He left the agency as senior vice president in 1965 to form his own production company, Mirisch-Rich Productions.
Rich eventually formed Lorimar Productions and served as executive producer of the company's successful series like "The Waltons," "Eight Is Enough," "Dallas" and its spinoff "Knots Landing." In 1980, he told People magazine, "I know exactly what 'Dallas' is.
He was 85 at the time of his death.
According to People magazine, Rich attended Ohio University and then started out at the Benton & Bowles advertising agency, where he sold sitcoms like "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Danny Thomas Show." Benton & Bowles and the rest of the New York ad agencies on Madison Avenue controlled much of TV at the time, so Rich largely served as an additional producer on shows. He left the agency as senior vice president in 1965 to form his own production company, Mirisch-Rich Productions.
Rich eventually formed Lorimar Productions and served as executive producer of the company's successful series like "The Waltons," "Eight Is Enough," "Dallas" and its spinoff "Knots Landing." In 1980, he told People magazine, "I know exactly what 'Dallas' is.
- 5/25/2012
- by Jaimie Etkin
- Aol TV.
2Nd Update: Lee Rich, the powerful TV mogul responsible for some of the medium’s most popular programming like The Waltons, Dallas, and Eight Is Enough, died on Thursday. He was 93, according to Warner Bros. (Even though the birthdate on his official biography would make him only 85). Recognized inside and outside the television industry for his extrardinarily successful career spanning six decades, he helped found and became chairman of Lorimar in its heyday (where he was nominated for 5 Emmys and won Best Drama Series for The Waltons) and later took over MGM-ua. His death comes just as Warner Bros Television next month unveils its next generation Dallasdrama series on TNT. “Lee’s passion for television, his business acumen, and his love of the creative process made him an extraordinary mentor for all of us who had the good fortune to work for him,” said Bruce Rosenblum, President Warner Bros. Television Group and Chairman & CEO,...
- 5/25/2012
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline TV
Exclusive: Sometimes, the hottest projects in town aren’t the newest. Warner Bros is in early talks with Ben Affleck to come aboard to direct and possibly star in Replay, a Jason Smilovic-scripted adaptation of a Ken Grimwood novel. The protagonist is a 43-year old radio journalist who dies, wakes up in his 18-year old body, and gets to relive his life over and over. With his original memory intact, he takes the opportunity to travel down roads he passed up the first time around. The book was published in 1989, and Lee Rich first set it up as a movie back then. It languished, and then Smilovic turned out a script that has top leading men circling. The question will be: does Affleck play the lead role himself? He’s age appropriate and co-wrote and directed The Town primarily to give himself the killer lead role of the thief...
- 10/19/2010
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Following my graduation in 1960, I was hired by Columbia-owned Screen Gems International as a very junior administration and sales executive.
It was during the mid-'60s that a friend suggested to someone at CBS that they offer me a job and, as I understood it, their reply was, "Why would we want to hire a film peddler like Norman?"
Eventually, I managed and sold billions of dollars of content for Columbia (twice), CBS, PolyGram and MGM/UA, but I always have remained a film peddler. My education in this business has lasted 50 years, and though it is not brain surgery, it is not as simple as my bosses often thought it to be.
Every company I ever worked for -- with the exception of CBS, where the broadcast business was a license to print money -- believed it was just one theatrical hit away from solvency. (Even the Eye got enamored of the film biz,...
It was during the mid-'60s that a friend suggested to someone at CBS that they offer me a job and, as I understood it, their reply was, "Why would we want to hire a film peddler like Norman?"
Eventually, I managed and sold billions of dollars of content for Columbia (twice), CBS, PolyGram and MGM/UA, but I always have remained a film peddler. My education in this business has lasted 50 years, and though it is not brain surgery, it is not as simple as my bosses often thought it to be.
Every company I ever worked for -- with the exception of CBS, where the broadcast business was a license to print money -- believed it was just one theatrical hit away from solvency. (Even the Eye got enamored of the film biz,...
- 5/3/2010
- by By Norman Horowitz
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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