Zoneboy
08-11-2010, 05:01 PM
David L. Wolper, the prolific producer who spearheaded such landmark TV and film productions as "Roots," "The Making of the President 1960" and Jacques Cousteau's early specials, has died. He was 82.
Wolper died Tuesday evening of congestive heart disease at his Beverly Hills home, according to spokesman Dale Olson.
The enormity of Wolper's contributions to the evolution of television could fill volumes. He did not invent the documentary, but through such efforts as "The Race for Space," and "The Making of the President 1960," and "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" specials, he redefined it, broadened and matured the form. Nor did he create the miniseries. But the titles "Roots" and "The Thorn Birds" came to represent the format at its best and most popular. He was not the first man to stage an Olympic opening or closing ceremony. But his handling of those ceremonies for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games stand as an achievement against which future games will forever be compared.
Among his many accolades over a career that spanned more than 60 years were two Oscars, out of 11 noms, 50 Emmys, out of 176 nominations, and five Peabody Awards. His long list of TV credits also including the enduring sitcoms "Chico and the Man" and "Welcome Back, Kotter."
Wolper came to television in its infancy, but it took him almost a decade to get on track as a producer of demanding documentaries.
Born David Lloyd Wolper in New York in 1928, he grew up on 52nd Street between Second and Third avenues and attended Columbia Grammar School, where he met and befriended
his first producing partner Jim Harris, and future Warner Bros. topper Steve Ross.
After trying his hand at Broadway, he retreated to college, first to Drake U. and then he moved across the country to the U. of Southern California, where he majored in film. At USC, he and classmate Art Buchwald took over the school humor magazine Wampus and turned it into a profitable operation. Less successful was his and Harris' ambition
to be foreign film distributors. Their first effort, "The Miracle at Monte Cassino," was a flop.
It was this setback in film that prompted Wolper and Harris to turn to television. Their production company, Flamingo Films, which among other things, was responsible for the first television late show on New York's CBS operated station, also sold feature films to television, serials, short subjects and cartoons. Flamingo soon merged with two other small companies to form Motion Pictures for Television.
In 1957, Wolper took a detour to become executive vice president of Continental Industrial Bank, but he was bored and returned him to television a year later, when he formed Wolper Prods. His first production, "The Race for Space," touched a contemporary nerve. With footage of the Russian space program and help from NASA, the docu narrated by future "60 Minutes" stalwart Mike Wallace detailed America's budding efforts to build a space exploration program. It was the first TV program nominated for an Oscar and spawned a sequel, "Project: Man in Space."
But "Race for Space" was a tough sell to the Big Three networks. Wolper got around that problem by syndicating the docu himself, buying air time on individual stations across the country.
Next, he enlisted the major studios and the MPAA to create a documentary about Hollywood and with the assistance of Jack Haley Jr. created "Hollywood:The Golden Years," which was broadcast by NBC and sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. It led to two other specials and 32 half-hours called "Hollywood and the Stars," also shown on NBC.
Besides history and film, Wolper loved sports and his next docus were "The Rafer Johnson Story" and "Biography of a Rookie." Different and daring in form, they led to a series called
"The Story of..." which profiled great figures in recent history such as President Franklin Roosevelt and George Bernard Shaw.
As Wolper's company grew, so did its output, most historically with an adaptation of Theodore White's "The Making of the President 1960." Broadcast on ABC, it was later shown in 40 countries around the world and won four Emmys including Program of the Year.
With the acquisition of Paramount News' "The Eyes and Ears of the World" and contractual commitments from newsreel libraries around the world, he produced 12 historical television specials, depicting significant 20th century events including the creation of the atom bomb, the Nuremberg trials and America in World War I. It was followed by the equally intriguing syndicated series "Men in Crisis," 32 programs dealing with historic conflicts such as that between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan.
Over the years, Wolper inadvertently became a chronicler of the Kennedy/Johnson years through the "Making Of" specials that aired in 1960 and
1965, as well as "A Thousand Days" and "Four Days in November," which detailed John Kennedy's first 1,000 days in office and his assassination. He later filmed "The Unfinished Journey of Robert Kennedy," after the senator's murder in 1968.
In 1965, Wolper sold his company to John Kluge's Metromedia, only to buy it back three years later. He pacted with Time-Life to bring "The March of Time" series to television and with National Geographic Society to bring the magazine to TV life.
Though he made sporadic forays into feature films such as "The Devil's Brigade" and "King, Queen Knave," his lasting contribution was the evolution of the documentary form.
After Wolper Prods. produced the TV special "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House," starring Jack Paar, Bob Newhart and Judy Garland in 1966, Wolper hit on an idea to combine documentary and entertainment footage, which featured personalities ranging from Princess Grace of Monaco to Nancy Sinatra.
He met Cousteau while doing a National Geographic special and in 1966, they combined to create "The Undersea World of
Jacques Cousteau," a groundbreaking series of color specials.
In 1967, he presented a three part TV version of William L. Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." Though he never set out to court controversy, such documentaries as 1971's "Say Goodbye," a plea for the plight of endangered species, caused a firestorm of opposition from gun lobbyists and hunters.
Not long after, he created another hybrid-documentary form, the docu-drama, restaging famous events, combining actors and historical materials. The first of these was "They've Killed
President Lincoln." It led to "Appointment With Destiny" specials that spanned events such as the attempted assassination of Hitler to the race for the North Pole.
In addition, a series of specials placing reporter George Plimpton as a participant in a range of different events such as flying on a trapeze, became another entertainment variant
on documentary reportage.
After nine nominations, Wolper's documentary about the fascinating world of insects, "The Hellstrom Chronicle," brought him his first Oscar. With producer Stan Margulies he brought together directors from around the world, including Milos Forman and Arthur Penn to record "Visions of Eight," about the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
By 1972, however, ratings battles made it harder and harder for TV documentaries to be funded and produced. Wolper turned to fiction, with TV movies and miniseries. He also produced two successful comedies, "Chico and the Man" and "Welcome Back, Kotter." He still created documentaries, such as an American Heritage series of specials commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the U.S. in 1976, the feature concert docu "Wattstax" and "Imagine: John Lennon."
Wolper's scripted TV efforts reached a pinnacle, of course, with "Roots," co-produced with Margulies. The ABC mega mini that ran over eight nights in January 1977 broke every record imaginable for a TV show. The final installment brought in 98,226,000 viewers -- roughly half the U.S. population at the time. A year later he and Margulies created "Roots: The Next Generation."
Wolper's many other miniseries productions included "Moviola," "The Mystic Warrior," and "Hanta Yo," were a warmup for another ABC ratings blockbuster "The Thorn Birds" in 1983. It was followed by the Civil War multi-parter "North and South," which ran in 1985 and 1986. His later made-fors included "Murder in Mississippi" (1990), "Dillinger" (1991), "Queen" (1993), also based on an Alex Haley novel, "Murder in the First" (1995) and "The Mists of Avalon" (2001), the latter produced with his son, Mark Wolper. Mark Wolper was named prexy of Wolper Prods. in 1993.
Ever out to top himself, Wolper was drafted to produce the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, which required the coordination of 20,000 people, including 9,000 athletes. In 1985, Wolper executive produced the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty.
In recognition for these accomplishments, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave him its highest honor, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. His outside activities included being a trustee of the American Film Institute and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as well as the Los Angeles Heart Institute and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Survivors include his wife, Gloria, and three children from a previous marriage: sons Mark and Michael, and daughter Leslie.
Private services will be held at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, with a public memorial to be arranged. The family requests that donations be made to global health organization P.A.T.H. and to Angels Flight West.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118022835.html?categoryId=25&cs=1#ixzz0wKiRX1Bb
Wolper died Tuesday evening of congestive heart disease at his Beverly Hills home, according to spokesman Dale Olson.
The enormity of Wolper's contributions to the evolution of television could fill volumes. He did not invent the documentary, but through such efforts as "The Race for Space," and "The Making of the President 1960," and "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" specials, he redefined it, broadened and matured the form. Nor did he create the miniseries. But the titles "Roots" and "The Thorn Birds" came to represent the format at its best and most popular. He was not the first man to stage an Olympic opening or closing ceremony. But his handling of those ceremonies for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games stand as an achievement against which future games will forever be compared.
Among his many accolades over a career that spanned more than 60 years were two Oscars, out of 11 noms, 50 Emmys, out of 176 nominations, and five Peabody Awards. His long list of TV credits also including the enduring sitcoms "Chico and the Man" and "Welcome Back, Kotter."
Wolper came to television in its infancy, but it took him almost a decade to get on track as a producer of demanding documentaries.
Born David Lloyd Wolper in New York in 1928, he grew up on 52nd Street between Second and Third avenues and attended Columbia Grammar School, where he met and befriended
his first producing partner Jim Harris, and future Warner Bros. topper Steve Ross.
After trying his hand at Broadway, he retreated to college, first to Drake U. and then he moved across the country to the U. of Southern California, where he majored in film. At USC, he and classmate Art Buchwald took over the school humor magazine Wampus and turned it into a profitable operation. Less successful was his and Harris' ambition
to be foreign film distributors. Their first effort, "The Miracle at Monte Cassino," was a flop.
It was this setback in film that prompted Wolper and Harris to turn to television. Their production company, Flamingo Films, which among other things, was responsible for the first television late show on New York's CBS operated station, also sold feature films to television, serials, short subjects and cartoons. Flamingo soon merged with two other small companies to form Motion Pictures for Television.
In 1957, Wolper took a detour to become executive vice president of Continental Industrial Bank, but he was bored and returned him to television a year later, when he formed Wolper Prods. His first production, "The Race for Space," touched a contemporary nerve. With footage of the Russian space program and help from NASA, the docu narrated by future "60 Minutes" stalwart Mike Wallace detailed America's budding efforts to build a space exploration program. It was the first TV program nominated for an Oscar and spawned a sequel, "Project: Man in Space."
But "Race for Space" was a tough sell to the Big Three networks. Wolper got around that problem by syndicating the docu himself, buying air time on individual stations across the country.
Next, he enlisted the major studios and the MPAA to create a documentary about Hollywood and with the assistance of Jack Haley Jr. created "Hollywood:The Golden Years," which was broadcast by NBC and sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. It led to two other specials and 32 half-hours called "Hollywood and the Stars," also shown on NBC.
Besides history and film, Wolper loved sports and his next docus were "The Rafer Johnson Story" and "Biography of a Rookie." Different and daring in form, they led to a series called
"The Story of..." which profiled great figures in recent history such as President Franklin Roosevelt and George Bernard Shaw.
As Wolper's company grew, so did its output, most historically with an adaptation of Theodore White's "The Making of the President 1960." Broadcast on ABC, it was later shown in 40 countries around the world and won four Emmys including Program of the Year.
With the acquisition of Paramount News' "The Eyes and Ears of the World" and contractual commitments from newsreel libraries around the world, he produced 12 historical television specials, depicting significant 20th century events including the creation of the atom bomb, the Nuremberg trials and America in World War I. It was followed by the equally intriguing syndicated series "Men in Crisis," 32 programs dealing with historic conflicts such as that between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan.
Over the years, Wolper inadvertently became a chronicler of the Kennedy/Johnson years through the "Making Of" specials that aired in 1960 and
1965, as well as "A Thousand Days" and "Four Days in November," which detailed John Kennedy's first 1,000 days in office and his assassination. He later filmed "The Unfinished Journey of Robert Kennedy," after the senator's murder in 1968.
In 1965, Wolper sold his company to John Kluge's Metromedia, only to buy it back three years later. He pacted with Time-Life to bring "The March of Time" series to television and with National Geographic Society to bring the magazine to TV life.
Though he made sporadic forays into feature films such as "The Devil's Brigade" and "King, Queen Knave," his lasting contribution was the evolution of the documentary form.
After Wolper Prods. produced the TV special "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House," starring Jack Paar, Bob Newhart and Judy Garland in 1966, Wolper hit on an idea to combine documentary and entertainment footage, which featured personalities ranging from Princess Grace of Monaco to Nancy Sinatra.
He met Cousteau while doing a National Geographic special and in 1966, they combined to create "The Undersea World of
Jacques Cousteau," a groundbreaking series of color specials.
In 1967, he presented a three part TV version of William L. Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." Though he never set out to court controversy, such documentaries as 1971's "Say Goodbye," a plea for the plight of endangered species, caused a firestorm of opposition from gun lobbyists and hunters.
Not long after, he created another hybrid-documentary form, the docu-drama, restaging famous events, combining actors and historical materials. The first of these was "They've Killed
President Lincoln." It led to "Appointment With Destiny" specials that spanned events such as the attempted assassination of Hitler to the race for the North Pole.
In addition, a series of specials placing reporter George Plimpton as a participant in a range of different events such as flying on a trapeze, became another entertainment variant
on documentary reportage.
After nine nominations, Wolper's documentary about the fascinating world of insects, "The Hellstrom Chronicle," brought him his first Oscar. With producer Stan Margulies he brought together directors from around the world, including Milos Forman and Arthur Penn to record "Visions of Eight," about the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
By 1972, however, ratings battles made it harder and harder for TV documentaries to be funded and produced. Wolper turned to fiction, with TV movies and miniseries. He also produced two successful comedies, "Chico and the Man" and "Welcome Back, Kotter." He still created documentaries, such as an American Heritage series of specials commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the U.S. in 1976, the feature concert docu "Wattstax" and "Imagine: John Lennon."
Wolper's scripted TV efforts reached a pinnacle, of course, with "Roots," co-produced with Margulies. The ABC mega mini that ran over eight nights in January 1977 broke every record imaginable for a TV show. The final installment brought in 98,226,000 viewers -- roughly half the U.S. population at the time. A year later he and Margulies created "Roots: The Next Generation."
Wolper's many other miniseries productions included "Moviola," "The Mystic Warrior," and "Hanta Yo," were a warmup for another ABC ratings blockbuster "The Thorn Birds" in 1983. It was followed by the Civil War multi-parter "North and South," which ran in 1985 and 1986. His later made-fors included "Murder in Mississippi" (1990), "Dillinger" (1991), "Queen" (1993), also based on an Alex Haley novel, "Murder in the First" (1995) and "The Mists of Avalon" (2001), the latter produced with his son, Mark Wolper. Mark Wolper was named prexy of Wolper Prods. in 1993.
Ever out to top himself, Wolper was drafted to produce the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, which required the coordination of 20,000 people, including 9,000 athletes. In 1985, Wolper executive produced the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty.
In recognition for these accomplishments, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave him its highest honor, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. His outside activities included being a trustee of the American Film Institute and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as well as the Los Angeles Heart Institute and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Survivors include his wife, Gloria, and three children from a previous marriage: sons Mark and Michael, and daughter Leslie.
Private services will be held at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, with a public memorial to be arranged. The family requests that donations be made to global health organization P.A.T.H. and to Angels Flight West.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118022835.html?categoryId=25&cs=1#ixzz0wKiRX1Bb