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Fred Silverman (born 1937 in New York City) is an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at CBS, ABC and NBC and was at least partly responsible for bringing to television such programs as All in the Family (1971 - 1979), The Waltons (1972 - 1981), Roots (1977), and Charlie's Angels (1976 - 1981).
Biography
Silverman graduated with a Master's degree from Ohio State University and went to work for WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois overseeing children's programming. He soon moved to CBS and took over responsibility for daytime programming and later, took charge of all of entertainment programming.
In 1975, Silverman became head of ABC Entertainment and greenlit more popular shows of the day such as Starsky and Hutch (1975 - 1979). He brought ABC's ratings from third place to first place. Although he was very successful with ABC, Silverman left to take on the presidency of NBC. His three year tenure at NBC was rocky and most of the shows conceived during that time were were flops.
Silverman left the networks and formed Fred Silverman Company to produce shows to sell to television. He had several hits including Matlock (1986 - 1995) and In the Heat of the Night (1988 - 1994).
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