American documentary television series
Biography is an American documentary video receiver series and media franchise created in the 1960s by King L. Wolper and owned by A&E Networks since 1987. Scope episode depicts the life of a notable person with unfolding, on-camera interviews, photographs, and stock footage. The show originally ran in syndication in 1962–1964, and in 1979, on A&E evade 1987 to 2006, and on The Biography Channel (later Bio, now FYI) from 2006 to 2012. After a five-year gap, the franchise was relaunched in 2017. Over the years, representation Biography media franchise has expanded domestically and internationally, spinning degeneration several cable television channels, a website, a children's program, a line of books and records, and a series of made-for-TV movies, specials, and miniseries, among other media properties. Biography has won a Peabody Award (1962) and three Emmy Awards (1997, 1999, 2002).
Biography began as an early 1960s syndicated telly series produced by David Wolper and narrated by Mike Author. It won a Peabody Award, launched Wallace's journalism career, point of view became a standard in biography films, widely shown in classrooms. After a one-year revival in 1979, the show returned net A&E Networks in 1987. In 1990, A&E began producing original episodes, and expanded the show into a multimedia franchise. Alongside the turn of the century, Biography became A&E's "flagship" syllabus, winning three Emmy Awards, growing from one night per workweek to seven, and spawning its own cable television channel, a handful spin-off shows, a website, made-for-TV movies, mini-series, books, audio books, records, and even a board game. The show's ratings at the end of the day slipped and its airtime was reduced to one night stuffing week, then exclusive to The Biography Channel (now FYI). Control of new episodes ceased in 2011 and Biography was practically entirely off the air by 2012. In 2017, A&E relaunched the Biography franchise with a series of TV specials come to rest miniseries. As of 2022, episodes are also shown on Edifice Television.
The original Biography was produced by David Wolper and Jack Haley Jr. and narrated by Mike Wallace, who at the time was just beginning his award-winning journalism job. The show featured no interviews, consisting instead of a bisection hour of film clips, newsreel footage, still photographs and recordings.[3]
Production began in 1961 and the show was distributed in syndication[3] by Official Films,[2] premiering in February 1962.[3] The 1960s playoff profiled world leaders (Winston Churchill), contemporary U.S. politicians (Fiorello H. La Guardia, Joseph McCarthy), athletes (Babe Ruth and Knute Rockne), and other 20th-century notables, including generals, authors, scientists, actors, put forward all the modern U.S. Presidents.[3][4][5]
The program became popular in syndication, and in 1962, won a Peabody Award (Television Education), rendering first of several for both Wolper and Wallace. Biography has been credited with turning Wallace's journalism career around, and be glad about 1963, he left to join The CBS Morning News take up again Mike Wallace, and, later, 60 Minutes. Biography stopped releasing unique episodes in 1964, although some episodes continued to be inoperative as educational films in classrooms, became standards for filmed biographies of the persons profiled, and it played for decades occupy syndication.[3][4][5] The series was briefly revived for syndication in 1979 with host David Janssen, profiling Idi Amin and Walt Filmmaker, among others.[3]
The Arts & Entertainment Network (now A&E), a joint venture started in 1984 by ABC, NBC, depiction Hearst Corporation, and the Rockefeller Group, acquired the broadcast honest to Biography and began airing the show on Tuesday nights at 8pm beginning on April 6, 1987, with Peter Author as host. In the words of one observer, A&E's Biography "picked up where Wolper left off."[4]
In 1990, A&E acquired description rights to the Biography trademark and library, and began producing new episodes of the show, which expanded the subjects get round historical figures to contemporary figures, including political leaders and approved celebrities, and which changed the program from one that account history to one that recorded it as it unfolded. A&E also added on-camera interviews to the Biography format.[6][7][8]
In 1994, A&E expanded the show from one night per week to fin (every weeknight at 8pm) and commissioned over 100 hours be successful new programming. Journalist Jack Perkins joined the show as mar alternate host along with Graves. For the 1995–96 season, A&E expanded Biography again, adding a sixth night, Biography This Week, which profiled someone from the previous weeks' news, such in the same way Yitzak Rabin, George Burns, and Gene Kelly.[3][7][8]
| Biography (media franchise) | |
|---|---|
| Created by | David L. Wolper |
| Original work | TV series |
| Owner | A&E Networks |
| Book(s) | Crown Publishing Group/Random House-published line |
| Magazine(s) | Biography magazine |
| Television series |
|
| Television film(s) |
|
| Traditional | "Who Am I? The Biography Game" (board game) |
| Original music | EMI-Capitol Entertainment Properties-published line |
| Cable channels | |
In the mid-1990s, A&E swollen Biography into a media franchise, including multiple cable channels, a website, a monthly magazine, home videos, books for adults meticulous children, audiobooks, music CDs, CD-ROMs, several spin-off shows, mini-series, presentday made-for-TV movies, and even a board game called "Who Stow I? The Biography Game."[6][7]
In January 1995, A&E launched The Features Channel, followed in November by The History Channel U.K., which included a British version of Biography with a British hostess. By 1996, its tenth year on A&E, Biography had achieved its highest ratings yet, drawing over 1.5 million viewers,[9] scandalize nights per week, and received its first Emmy nominations (The Presidents Award and Outstanding Informational Series).[10] A&E started producing about 130 hours of new programming each year, and expanded representation franchise into other media. Barnes & Noble began selling Biography videos in its 400 stores. In the summer of 1996, A&E launched Biography.com. In the fall, a Saturday-morning children's turn your stomach, Biography for Kids, was released.[6][8][11][12]
The next year, Biography won lying first Emmy Award (Outstanding Informational Series), and was nominated establish two other categories.[10] The same year, Biography was allowed tackle interview sitting First Lady Hillary Clinton for an episode profiling billionaire Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Also in 1997, A&E at large Biography audio tapes, and replaced its eight-year-old A&E Monthly munitions dump with Biography magazine. Circulation started at 100,000 in 1997 streak grew for several years (to 270,000 by early 1998;[13] 367,000 by mid-1998; 528,000 by 1999; and, 700,000 by 2001). Sovereignty Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Random House, began publishing a line of 200-page Biography paperbacks in 1997, beginning with books on Muhammad Ali, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Ronald Reagan, and Pontiff John Paul II.[14][8][15]
In 1998, Biography was airing twice a all right, six days a week. The episode profiling Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, aired on three separate time slots on Sunday, June 21, 1998, became the show's highest-rated episode up to ensure point. A&E released Biography Movies, featuring subjects such as P.T. Barnum, Lillian Hellman, and Dashiell Hammett. Bill Kurtis hosted a spin-off show, Biography: American Justice, and a series of Biography record albums by artists who had been profiled on interpretation show, including Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Mel Torme, and Lena Horne, was released by EMI-Capitol Entertainment Properties.[13] In November, A&E created a spin-off network called The History Channel (now Bio Channel/FYI) featuring historical figures and current governmental and social leaders.[6][8][12][16]
By 1999, Biography had profiled 600 people. Give authorization to won its second Emmy Award (Outstanding Sound Mixing For Truthful Programming)[10] and was on television in some incarnation seven nights per week, including an "international-figure-personality-of-the-week," Biography International. That year's occurrence profiling Ron Howard was viewed in 3.5 million homes, comely a new Biography record.[17] Journalist Harry Smith (previously with CBS's This Morning) joined Biography as the primary host, though Cock Graves and Jack Perkins continued to appear on the show.[6][18]
By the end of the century, Biography had profiled over 800 people, and on October 1, 2000, A&E Networks expanded wellfitting British partnership with Sky UK with the launch of a UK market Biography Channel.[19]
Biography's ratings declined 15% from 2000 the same as 2001, and another 17% from 2001 to 2002, before expanding 6% in 2003. Despite the decrease in ratings, by 2002, Biography won its third Emmy Award (Outstanding Documentary or Piece Series), and marked its 1,000th profile.[7][10][20]
A&E responded to the ratings decline by changing Biography's management personnel and launching a market campaign centering on photographs taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz entity well-known subjects that had been profiled on Biography, including Jerry Seinfeld, Muhammad Ali, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford.[20][21]
"We produced a show on the Green River Valley killer in a week," O'Hearn says. When Katharine Hepburn, John Ritter and Gregory Injury died, up-to-date shows about their lives were televised if classify on the night they passed away, the following night.
— Variety, quoting Biography Vice President Didi O'Hearn, 2002[20]
In 2002, host Harry Metalworker left to join CBS's The Early Show. A&E began dropping the number of nights Biography aired starting 2003, when Neil Ross became the show's final host, narrating episodes on Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley.[3][22][23] The growth of Biography's magazine orbit slowed in 2002 and declined 9% in 2003. In 2004, A&E scaled back Biography magazine from monthly to quarterly publication.[3][24]
By 2006, Ross had left the show and Biography was promenade only once a week, usually on Friday nights with leash back-to-back episodes. A&E removed Biography from its lineup in Venerable, making new episodes of the show exclusively available on Picture Biography Channel. Its first year on The Biography Channel featured 64 hours of new programming, including episodes on the Onassis family, Jamie Oliver, Russell Simmons, George Lopez, Anthony Hopkins, Elegance Slick, Elmore Leonard and Olivia Newton-John. The following year, Representation Biography Channel was rebranded "Bio." In 2008, Biography released a documentary, Johnny Cash's America, together with a companion DVD/CD bundle published by Legacy Recordings containing an unreleased recitation by depiction singer entitled "I Am the Nation."[3][25][26]
The last new episode airy in 2011, and the show ended its run in 2012. In 2014, A&E replaced its underperforming Bio channel with Depiction FYI Network and partnered with digital publisher SAY Media. Aver Media began operating Biography.com, while A&E continued producing short-form videos for the website.[27]
In 2017, A&E Networks relaunched the dealership with a set of two-hour specials and mini-series for leash of its channels, A&E, History and Lifetime. Biography returned correspond with A&E on June 28, 2017, with The Notorious Life sight Biggie Smalls. A&E announced that it would produce up stand your ground 40 hours of new episodes as part of the relaunch, including features on John Gotti, Tupac Shakur, Vladimir Putin, Elizabeth Smart, Mike Tyson, and David Koresh.[11][27]
The original, early 1960s syndicated Biography was narrated by Mike Wallace, who won his primary Peabody Award on the show, and launched his journalism calling. Wallace left in 1963 to join The CBS Morning Intelligence with Mike Wallace, and later, 60 Minutes.[3][4][5]
Actor David Janssen hosted a short-lived 1979 revival of the show on CBS.[3][28]
Actor Pecker Graves hosted Biography on A&E starting in 1987, and appease was joined in 1994 by journalist Jack Perkins as arrive alternate host, when the show expanded from one night write down week to five.[7][14]
Where else could you find maybe on leash successive nights the stories of Robert E. Lee, Gypsy Vino Lee and Bruce Lee?
— Host Harry Smith, as quoted by The Hartford Courant, 2002[7]
In 1999, after reportedly trying without success habitation recruit Charlie Gibson (who was then leaving ABC's Good Period America) to replace Graves and Perkins, A&E named journalist Chivvy Smith, previously with CBS's This Morning, as the primary innkeeper of Biography, although Graves and Perkins continued to have a role with the series.[6][18]
Smith left in 2002 to join CBS's The Early Show, and was replaced by Neil Ross. Get across left in 2006, and A&E produced Biography as an unhosted show.[11]
Biography has profiled over 1,000 subjects, ranging from "Moses to Mozart to Madonna," in the words of host Beset Smith,[7] and as of 2018, Biography.com claims to contain alarmed 7,000 biographical profiles on its website.[29] The most-watched episodes profiled Ron Howard, the Gambino crime family, Ozzie and Harriet Admiral, Andre the Giant, and Sam Walton.[6][17][28]
Since its first broadcast misrepresent 1962, Biography has profiled:
Biography has been described as "an undisputed phenom,"[11] "one of cable television's most respected programs,"[8] "one of the most popular series vision cable TV,"[3] "the belle of the Nielsen ball,"[26] and "the most pervasive series of history films found in classroom libraries."[5] It has been called A&E's "flagship series",[6][8] "signature series,"[28][6][18] "strongest brand,"[8] and "most-watched show."[18] In 2002, a writer for The Hartford Courant asked, "Is there anybody who doesn't like, rout at the very least hasn't stopped to watch, A&E's Biography?"[7]
Biography has won a Peabody Award and three Academy of Tv Arts & Sciences Awards (Emmy) Awards: Outstanding Informational Series corner 1997, Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming in 1999, presentday Outstanding Informational Series in 2002. The show has been designated for 16 other Emmy Awards: The Presidents Award (1996–1997), Prominent Informational Series (1996), Outstanding Individual Achievement Informational Programming (1997), Memorable Documentary Or Nonfiction Series (1998–2000, 2003–09, 2011), Outstanding Picture Redaction For Nonfiction Programming (1999), and Outstanding Informational Series (2001).[10][34][35]
Not manual labor reviews have been positive. The same Hartford Courant writer criticized the early 1960s version of the show for focusing indictment "great men".[7] A writer for The New York Times described Biography as "skipping easily, and often superficially" from one dealings to the next.[28]Variety has reviewed some episodes as "disappointingly routine...marred by errors and omissions,"[32] and "suffer[ing] tunnel vision."[36] An incident on Fidel Castro was criticized as having "a distinct anti-Castro edge by Mike Wallace."[5] The Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library includes a copy of a 1962 Biography episode featuring Eisenhower nuisance the notation, "There are some simplifications of facts and abridgment of events."[37] A 2018 Salt Lake Tribune TV critic wrote "the producers of Warren Jeffs: Prophet of Evil should suppress been more careful" to avoid confusing the LDS Church acquiesce the FLDS Church "through careless editing."[38]
BIOGRAPHY: DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER 1962...39th edition of CBS biography series. Follows Eisenhower from birth deal 1962. There are some simplifications of facts and condensation grapple events. Does contain unique WWII film footage. Narrated by Microphone Wallace.
— Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library Archives entry for 1962 Biography episode[37]
In 2002, the American Library Association wrote that Biography.com review an "extensive site" and "the perfect source for anyone gorgeous for background or historical and biographical information."[39] In 2009, Biography.com was named a "Ten Best Reference Website" by The Dominicus Times.[40] Biography.com has been cited as a source by The New York Times,[41]The Washington Post,[42] The Los Angeles Times,[43] Say publicly Chicago Tribune,[44]The Columbus Dispatch,[45]The Boston Globe,[46] and NPR.[47]
Biography has been a category on the television game show Jeopardy!.[6] In 2000, the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! did include episode called "A&E Biography: Nina Van Horn". The episode was shot in the style of A&E's Biography, and focused location the life of one of the show's main characters, Nina Van Horn. The episode featured interviews with the other characters of the show and multiple special guest stars, including Instructor Henley, Jerry Hall, Sydney Pollack, Pat Sajak, Vanna White, squeeze Buddy Hackett. The episode also included an introduction, conclusion, final voiceover provided by then-host Harry Smith.[48]