Aaron Spelling

Recognized by "The Guinness Book of World Records" as the most prolific television producer of all time, Aaron Spelling has helped shape the medium since the 1960s and, though primarily known for escapist entertainment, has always mixed the occasional serious drama in amidst the comedies, actioners and glamour-girl shows that brought him his greatest success. He began his career as a war correspondent for Stars and Stripes during World War II but switched from journalism to drama after leaving the service, directing productions before scripting his first play, "Thorns in the Road". The first playwright since Eugene O'Neill to twice receive the prestigious Harvard Award for the best original one-act play, Spelling made his initial foray into Hollywood as an actor, working in modest action and mystery pictures (e.g., "Black Widow" 1954, "Wyoming Renegades" 1954, "Target Zero" 1955) before becoming a producer at Four Star Television, where he worked with Dick Powell producing episodes of "Zane Grey Theatre" (CBS) and "The Dick Powell Show" (NBC).

Spelling received screenplay credit for two 1960 features, "Guns of the Timberland" (which he also produced) and "One Foot in Hell", but by then he had already created his first TV series, the Western "Johnny Ringo" (CBS, 1959-60) and was concentrating primarily on the small screen. Though his early efforts were generally modest and only moderately successful (i.e., "The Lloyd Bridges Show" CBS, 1962-63; "Burke's Law" ABC, 1963-66), he began by the mid-60s to parlay his genuine gift for responding to the television tastes of America into several highly successful programs, one of the earliest, "Daniel Boone" (NBC, 1964-70), coming before he embarked on his long exclusive association with ABC. A stint as one of the directors of the first, less controversial "The Smothers Brothers Show" (CBS, 1965-66) and later producer duties on "The Mod Squad" (ABC, 1968-73) revealed Spelling's canny interest in programming for younger audiences, who had become an important part of the television market.

An incredibly energetic and prolific producer, Spelling also shepherded a large number of the then-new "made for TV" movies ABC aired. In 1970 alone he produced such lightweight fare as "The Love War", "The House That Would Not Die", "But I Don't Want to Get Married", "The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again" and "Wild Women", not to mention co-writing (as well as producing) the more substantial "Carter's Army", about a redneck Army captain commanding an all-black rear-echelon service company during the Civil War. Key working relationships with Danny Thomas and later Leonard Goldberg and Douglas S Cramer only increased Spelling's output and widened the sphere of his influence. Despite the variety of the programming he created, however, his most popular work during the 70s was in crime drama: "The Rookies" (1972-76), "Starsky and Hutch" (1975-79), "S.W.A.T." (1975-77) and "Vegas" (1978-81). The most notable exception was his warm, low-key drama series, "Family" (1976-80), which earned him three Emmy nominations.

The durability and success of such late 70s series as the tongue-in-cheek sleuther, "Hart to Hart" (1979-1984), the live-your-dreams anthology, "Fantasy Island" (1978-84), the cruise-with-famous guest stars perennial, "Love Boat" (1977-1986) and the detective-diva display hour, "Charlie's Angels" (1976-81) seemed to signal a switch for Spelling from the car chase to the drawing room. This was more than confirmed by "Hotel" (1983-88) and especially by the long-running "Dynasty" (1981-89). His penchant for fluff also permeated such Spelling-produced TV-movies as "The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch" (1982) and "The Making of a Male Model" (1983). Critics of the period who began reading Spelling's shows as emblematic of the Reagan years were actually missing the fact that his many hit programs had reflected (and also refracted) American social mores all along. Yet despite his many triumphs, the cancellation of "Dynasty" left him dangerously close to being passe.

Hoisting the banner of the new Fox network, Spelling roared back into the winner's circle with the teen trauma series "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990-2000), featuring his daughter Tori, which was followed with another Fox hit, "Melrose Place" (1992-99). At the same time, he was winning Emmy Awards for such prestige efforts as "Day One" (CBS, 1989), a three-hour movie about the building of the atomic bomb, and HBO's "And the Band Played On" (1993), based on Randy Shilts' best-selling expose on how the medical, political and social establishments dealt with the AIDS crisis. To his credit, the socially-responsible impulse had been in his work all along, evidenced by such TV-movies as the based-on-fact "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (1976) and the drama examining eating disorders among female teenagers, "The Best Little Girl in the World" (1981), and would surface in a series for another fledgling network (The WB) "7th Heaven" (1996- ), a show about a functional family, which Spelling ranks as one of the most satisfying projects he has ever produced. Despite his fair share of misfires, Spelling has had a remarkable track record of popular success, offering entertainment to a wide variety of watchers for nearly four decades.