Television Executive Fred Silverman Dies at 82
By DIANE HAITHMAN Staff Reporter
Fred Silverman, who oversaw entertainment television at ABC, CBS and NBC and was known for championing the often controversial 1971-79 Norman Lear series “All in the Family” at CBS, died Thursday at his Pacific Palisades home according to news reports. He was 82.
“There would be no ALL IN THE FAMILY or MAUDE without Fred Silverman,” Lear said in a tweet Thursday. “Bless his every memory.”
Silverman is the only executive to have served at all of the so-called Big Three commercial television networks in a creative capacity. Along with “All in the Family,” he was instrumental in bringing to TV notable series including “Scooby-Doo” (1969-present), “The Waltons” (1972-81), “Charlie’s Angels” (1976-81) and the miniseries “Roots” (1977). Fred Jones, a character in “Scooby-Doo,” was named for Silverman.
Because of his instinct for predicting popular hits, Time magazine dubbed him “the man with the golden gut” in 1977.
Silverman was born in New York City in 1937 and received his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University and his master’s from Ohio State. He began his career in the mailroom of ABC-TV in the late 1950s and became director of program development at WGN-TV in Chicago in the early 1960s. According to various biographies, Silverman abandoned his car in during a snowstorm in Chicago to fly to New York, where he became head of Daytime Programming at CBS-TV. In 1970, he moved up to a position overseeing entertainment programming, where he launched such hits as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “M*ASH,” “Kojak” and the “All in the Family” spin-off “The Jeffersons.”
In 1975, Silverman moved to ABC and was the force behind another string of hits including “Laverne & Shirley,” “Love Boat,” “Soap” and “Donny and Marie.” In 1978, he joined NBC as president and chief executive, where he orchestrated more hits including “Diff-rent Strokes” and “Hill Street Blues.”
Silverman also is noted for promoting the late Brandon Tartikoff to NBC President of Entertainment. Tartikoff’s creative energy is often credited with leading NBC out of the ratings doldrums in the 1980s.
However, Tartikoff soldiered on through the ‘80s without Silverman, who left NBC as a result of management changes at parent company RCA. Silverman went on to become an independent producer, forming his own production entity “The Fred Silverman Company,” which produced “Matlock,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “Diagnosis Murder, “ among others.
Silverman is survived by his wife Cathy and two children.
