Fred Silverman
| Fred Silverman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 13, 1937 New York, New York |
| Occupation | Network Television executive, TV show producer |
| Spouse(s) | Catherine Ann Kihn (m. 1971; 2 children) |
Fred Silverman (born September 13, 1937) is an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television 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 Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), Roots (1977) and Shōgun (1980). For his success in programing wildly popular shows, Time magazine declared him "the man with the Golden gut" in 1977.
Silverman was born in New York City. He 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.
In 1970, Silverman was promoted from vice-president of program planning and development to Vice President, Programs - heading the entire program department at CBS. Silverman was brought in to bring a change in perspective for the network, as it had just forced out the previous man in that position, Michael Dann; Dann's philosophy was to draw as many viewers as possible without regard to key demographics, which the network found to be unacceptable, as advertisers were becoming more specific about what kind of audience they were looking for. To boost viewership in demographics that were believed to be more willing to respond to commercials, Silverman orchestrated the "rural purge" of 1971, which eventually eliminated many popular country-oriented shows, such as Green Acres, Mayberry R.F.D., Hee Haw and The Beverly Hillbillies from the CBS schedule. In their place, however, came a new wave of classics aimed at the upscale baby boomer generation, such as All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H, The Waltons, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Kojak and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.
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