Lee Rich
Executive / Producer
About This Interview
In his Archive interview, television executive and producer Lee Rich talks about starting out in television at the advertising agency Benton & Bowles, where he worked to package and sell The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Danny Thomas Show. Largely serving as an additional producer on the shows during those early days of television, when advertising agencies enjoyed almost total control over programming, Mr. Rich recounts how he left the agency in 1965 to form his own production company, Mirisch-Rich Productions. The company produced such television programs as The Rat Patrol and one of the first Garry Marshall/Jerry Belson shows, Hey, Landlord . Mr. Rich discusses in detail the formation of the hugely successful production company Lorimar in 1969, which generated television hits The Waltons, Dallas, Eight is Enough, Knots Landing, and numerous television movies including Sybil and Helter Skelter. The interview was conducted by Jeffrey Glaser on April 12, 1999 in Los Angeles, CA.
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Highlights
On working in the brand new medium of television (00m 29s)
On the control that advertising agencies had over programming in the early days and how the Quiz Show Scandals changed things (00m 43s)
On how his production company Lorimar got its name (01m 00s)
On feeling that a night time serial like Dallas could work (00m 18s)- On the "House Divided" episode of Dallas which generated the question, "Who Shot J.R.?" (01m 50s)
On his career highlight - starting Lorimar (00m 43s)
Chapters
- Chapter 1
- On his childhood and early influences
- On his first jobs after college; on his time in the Navy; on getting into the advertising business
- On his impressions of television; on heading the media department of advertising agency, Benton & Bowles
- On the involvement of advertising agencies in early television programming and shows that he packaged
- Chapter 2
- On working with Grant Tinker at Benton & Bowles
- On his involvement with The Dick Van Dyke Show
- On leaving Benton & Bowles to create production company, Mirisch-Rich Productions; on the Hollywood Blacklist
- On joining the Leo Burnett agency; on his involvement with the shows The Rat Patrol and Hogan's Heroes
- Chapter 3
- On his involvement with the shows The Rat Patrol, Hey Landlord, and Sheriff Who?; On returning to the advertising world for one year
- On forming the production company Lorimar and on early Lorimar productions
- On movies of the week; on movie of the week, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which inspired the series The Waltons
- Chapter 4
- On The Waltons and the series' subsequent TV movies
- On Lorimar's television movies and miniseries ( The Blue Knight, Sybil, Helter Skelter) and on films
- On being an executive producer at Lorimar; on working with the networks
- Chapter 5
- On departments and procedures at Lorimar; on Eight is Enough
- On Lorimar's hit show Dallas
- On the Lorimar show Knot's Landing and its comparisons to Dallas
- Chapter 6
- On Lorimar getting into first run syndication and partnering with Telepictures; on leaving Lorimar for MGM-UA
- On selling Lorimar to Warner Brothers; on his time at MGM-UA
- On forming his own company, Lee Rich Productions; on movies he's produced
- On some of his television favorites; on his respect for writers
- Chapter 7
- On the impact of cable television; on how audiences have changed
- On his regrets and his legacy; on people he's worked with
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Mr. Rich is wrong, the first three t.v movies that were done in 1982 were
done for NBC.
I always thought Lee Rich, Merv Adelson and Irwin Molasky gave their last initials to the "mar" part of the Lorimar name - until I watched this.
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