28 Facts About Fred Silverman

Fred Silverman was an American television executive and producer.

Fred Silverman's father was Jewish and his mother was Roman Catholic.

Fred Silverman grew up in Rego Park, Queens, and attended Forest Hills High School.

Fred Silverman graduated with a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University, where he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, and then earned a master's degree from Ohio State University.

Fred Silverman married his assistant, Cathy Kihn, and they had a daughter, Melissa, and son, William.

In 1970, Fred Silverman was promoted from vice-president of program planning and development to vice president, Programs, heading the entire program department at CBS.

Fred Silverman was promoted to bring a change in perspective for the network, as it had just forced out the previous executive 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 aiming for.

Fred Silverman had an uncanny ability to spot burgeoning hit material, especially in the form of spin-offs, new television series developed with characters that appeared on an existing series.

In early 1974, Fred Silverman ordered a Maude spin-off titled Good Times; that series' success led Fred Silverman to schedule it against ABC's new hit, Happy Days, the following fall.

In other dayparts, Fred Silverman reintroduced game shows to the network's daytime lineups in 1972 after a four-year absence; among the shows Fred Silverman introduced was an updated version of the 1950s game show The Price Is Right, which remains on the air nearly five decades later.

Fred Silverman was named president of ABC Entertainment in 1975, putting him in the ironic position of saving Happy Days, the very show that Good Times had brought to the brink of cancellation.

ABC Daytime had mediocre ratings, so in order to increase them, Fred Silverman hired Gloria Monty to produce the ailing General Hospital.

Fred Silverman gave Monty thirteen weeks to increase the serial's ratings or it would be cancelled.

Fred Silverman oversaw the creation of Ruby-Spears Productions, poaching two of Hanna-Barbera's lead writers, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, to produce their own content in hopes of keeping Hanna-Barbera from becoming complacent.

Fred Silverman had Letterman in a holding deal after the morning show which kept the unemployed Letterman from going to another network.

Fred Silverman pioneered entertainment reality programming with the 1979 launch of Real People.

Fred Silverman oversaw the hiring of Pat Sajak as the new host of Wheel of Fortune in 1981, a position Sajak holds to this day on the syndicated version that started in 1983, although Fred Silverman himself objected to Sajak's hiring.

On Saturday mornings, in a time when most of the cartoon output of the three networks was similar, Fred Silverman oversaw the development of an animated series based on The Smurfs; the animated series The Smurfs ran from 1981 to 1990, well after Fred Silverman's departure, making it one of his longest-lasting contributions to the network.

Fred Silverman ran a few shows from Filmation, such as Sport Billy, Batman and the Super 7 and The New Adventures of Flash Gordon.

In other areas of NBC, Fred Silverman revitalized the news division, which resulted in Today and NBC Nightly News achieving parity with their competition for the first time in years.

Fred Silverman created a new FM Radio Division, with competitive full-service stations in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington.

Fred Silverman would generate several hits including the Perry Mason TV movie series, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, In the Heat of the Night, Father Dowling Mysteries, and Diagnosis: Murder.

In 1982, Fred Silverman had sixteen development projects, but none of them got to series.

In 1984, Fred Silverman secured a deal with Walt Disney Pictures to produce theatrical motion pictures, with the first release slated by late 1985, but it never happened.

Fred Silverman produced the first Perry Mason telemovie, which came out in 1985, and marked the first writing-producing collaboration partnership between Fred Silverman, writer Dean Hargrove and production company Viacom Productions.

Fred Silverman produced One of the Boys for NBC, in association with Stefan Phillips, Blake Hunter, Martin Cohan and Columbia Pictures Television.

In 1999, Fred Silverman was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

Fred Silverman died from cancer on January 30,2020, at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.