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Archive of American Television
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Archive of American Television is a project by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation that films interviews with notable people from the television industry.
The archive's subjects include actors Alan Alda, Ossie Davis, Michael J. Fox, and Mary Tyler Moore, William Shatner; producers Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, Steven Bochco, and Dick Wolf; newscasters Walter Cronkite, Ed Bradley, and David Brinkley; and executives Fred Silverman, Sumner Redstone, and Ted Turner.
The first 75 of the 284 films can be watched free on Google Video.
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Motivated by Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Foundation, which has videotaped testimonies of Holocaust survivors, Dean Valentine (former Disney Television and UPN president) was inspired to create a similar project for television. Valentine developed and presented a proposal to the TV Academy, under then-president Richard H. Frank and Academy Foundation Chairman Thomas W. Sarnoff.
Beginning in early 1996, the Archive of American Television completed its first six interviews as part of its pilot stage. The initial six interviews were with Leonard Goldenson, founder of ABC, Dick Smith, television’s first make-up artist, Elma Farnsworth, widow and lab assistant to television inventor Philo Farnsworth, Ethel Winant, casting executive, Sheldon Leonard, show creator and director, and Milton Berle, television’s first star.
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation, a non-profit organization, launched the Archive of American Television in 1997.
Under the guidance of NBC executive Grant Tinker, Award-winning producer David L. Wolper, and the Archive’s Executive Producer Michael Rosen, the Archive of American Television has become the largest repository of its kind.
Thousands of hours of historic interviews have been completed with over 400 TV legends.
Full-length video interviews include actors Alan Alda, Richard Crenna, Barbara Eden, Jonathan Winters, Ossie Davis, Michael J. Fox, Dick Van Dyke, Dick Clark, Mary Tyler Moore, Florence Henderson, Andy Griffith, Bob Newhart, Julia Child, William Shatner, Carl Reiner, writer and producers Norman Lear, Sherwood Schwartz, Steven Bochco, Sidney Sheldon, and Dick Wolf, news legends Walter Cronkite, Ed Bradley, Robert MacNeil, Jim McKay, Mike Wallace, and David Brinkley, and Executives Fred Silverman, Sumner Redstone, and Ted Turner.
Sony Pictures Television President, Steve Mosko, TV Foundation Executive Director Terri Clark, and Archive Executive Producer Michael Rosen continue to guide the day to day operations of the Archive. Nationally regarded professors, scholars and journalists from around the country volunteer their time to conduct these interviews. The Foundation employs a small staff who prepare all of the research and questions in advance. Local video crews photograph each interview.
The Archive of American Television will soon post all videotape interviews online and make them available to the public.
It is their ultimate goal to be the world’s largest and most advanced interactive encyclopedia on the history of television.