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Oct 15, 2020 · Bob Shanks, a television producer and executive who helped define the talk show and newsmagazine formats, working with Jack Paar and Merv Griffin and bringing “Good Morning America,” “20/20” and...
Jul 23, 2014 · Today marks 25 years since American television executive Bob Shanks tried to turn around what was then an ailing network. Shanks arrived at TEN in April 1989, installed as managing director. Former owners Westfield had sold the network to a consortium led by Charles Curran and former television journalist Steve Cosser.
Oct 18, 2020 · Bob Shanks, the author of “The Cool Fire: How to Make it in Television,” died last week in Lenox. In 2005, Shanks joined Adam Schwartz, a host with Indiana Public Media, to discuss his life in television.
- 'GMA' Born of The Ruins of 'A.m. America'
- Enter David Hartman: The Actor Turned Host
- 'GMA' Was Entertainment, 'Today' Was News
- After 4 Years, 'GMA' Catches Up with 'Today'
When a new president of ABC, Fred Silverman, took over the network in the summer of 1975, he put Shanks and another ABC vice president, Ed Vane, in charge of coming up with a true challenger to "Today." The two men combed through lists of names of possible hosts -- 150 or 200 by Vane's recollection. One name was David Hartman. Shanks called Hartman...
Hartman himself was an alternative: He was a famous actor, not a reporter like the co-host of "Today" at the time, Jim Hartz. Hartman played a ranch hand on the Western series "The Virginian," then a doctor on "The Bold Ones: The New Doctors" and an English teacher on "Lucas Tanner," all on NBC. In the early 1970s, an executive at NBC "asked if I'd...
There was another important difference between "GMA" and "Today." "GMA" was a product of ABC's entertainment division, not ABC News. It was, as TV critics were quick to point out, "softer" than the "Today" show. While Hartman might dispute the s-word, he said it "had a different look and feel from a traditional news program," including a more conve...
By the end of the decade, four years after "GMA" had launched, the two morning shows were effectively tied -- a position that neither show particularly liked. "GMA" had the momentum, but "Today" was still No. 1. Brokaw vented in a November 1979 conversation with The Associated Press: "I've been reading for two years now that ABC and 'Good Morning A...
Bob Shanks was born on 8 October 1932 in Sullivan, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for The Avant-Garde in Russia: 1910 to 1930 - New Perspectives (1981), American Lifestyle (1972) and A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape (1984).
- Producer, Writer, Director
- October 8, 1932
- Bob Shanks
- October 12, 2020
Bob Shanks BS'54. Died Oct. 12, 2020, at age 88. Shanks graduated from IU in 1954 with a degree in radio and television. He was awarded The Media School’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016. He spent two years in the U.S. Army, where he produced training films and a weekly TV show.
Shanks has been honored with numerous top prizes from the television and film industries, and is the author of an outstanding television textbook adopted by most university communications schools.
