ABC TV producer Aaron Spelling dead at 83

Posted:
Jun 24, 2006

TV producer Aaron Spelling, whose many hit primetime shows for ABC caused the network to be nicknamed "Aaron's Broadcasting Company," died Friday at 83.

His publicist, Kevin Sasaki, said that Spelling died at about 6:25 p.m. at his Los Angeles home. He had been hospitalized briefly after suffering a stroke the previous weekend.

His hugely successful series included Beverly Hills 90210, Dynasty, Fantasy Island, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, Charlie's Angels and Love Boat. Arriving in Hollywood just about penniless in the early 1950s, he amassed a fortune worth (according to Forbes magazine) an estimated $300 million by the 1980s.

Fairly early in his TV producing career, Spelling was the executive producer (with Danny Thomas) of the 1967 Rankin-Bass animated special The Cricket on the Hearth, which aired on NBC. It featured the voices of Roddy McDowell, Danny Thomas and Danny's daughter Marlo.

Also in 1967, he was the executive producer of "Hell Cats," an episode of the MGM Television series Off To See The Wizard. Produced by Abe Levitow, the ABC series was an anthology of live-action films "hosted" by animated Wizard Of Oz characters (including June Foray, Daws Butler and Don Messick).

Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most prolific producer, he was born in Dallas, Texas on April 22, 1923, to impoverished Russian and Polish immigrants.

Teased during his childhood for his Jewish background, he graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

From 1942 to 1945, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, earning a Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart. He took the name Jerry Lane during the Second World War.

Despite being shy and skinny, he started work in Hollywood in 1953 portraying villains and losers in such TV Westerns as Gunsmoke. He then worked as a writer, selling his first script to Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre (1955). Other TV shows for which he wrote included Playhouse 90 (1956).

After writing his first pilot, he became a producer for Four Star Productions. Burke's Law (1963), starring Gene Barry as a millionaire Detective, was his first hit.

Spelling joined the "now generation" with The Mod Squad, which ran from 1968 to 1973 on ABC. The action series featured three young ex-delinquents who switch to the right side of the law.

Spelling achieved enormous success in the 1980s with the primetime soap Dynasty. Copying the successful formula of Dallas, it featured former British movie queen Joan Collins as bitchy Alexis and made her a TV star in her middle age.

A creative lull was followed by renewed vigor in 1990 with Beverly Hills, 90210, co-starring his daughter Tori as Donna. It followed the adventures of teens in the richest community in America.

Heather Locklear became a star with her villainous role in Melrose Place (1992), about young adults in a West Hollywood apartment complex.

7th Heaven, a church minister's family, was another huge success for Spelling. The show just started its 10th season on the WB Network.

Though once calling his shows "mind candy," Spelling also brought such serious programs to television as the dramatic series Family and the AIDS-themed TV movie And the Band Played On , based on the book by Randy Shilts.

From 1953 until their divorce in 1964, Aaron Spelling was married to actress Carolyn Jones, best known for her role as Morticia in The Addams Family. He is survived by Carol Jean (Candy), his wife since 1968, as well as their daughter Tori and son Randy, also an actor.