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The Museum of Television & Radio Launches SHE MADE IT Initiative

Thursday, December 1, 2005

New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA—The Museum of Television & Radio released today the names of the 2005 honorees who will be included in the new collection She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio—a three-year initiative celebrating the achievements of creative and business women in the television and radio industries. (See attached list.)

The initiative will launch tonight, December 1, 2005, at 6:00 p.m., at a reception at The Museum of Television & Radio's New York location, where many of the 2005 honorees will be in attendance. The website (www.shemadeit.org) will also go live at that time. Additional honorees will be named in the following two years. 

Spanning the generations from early trailblazers to current innovators, She Made It will honor writers, directors, producers, journalists, sportscasters, and executives.She Made It will preserve the legacy of women who have had an enormous impact on our most powerful media.

At the center of She Made It is a unique collection of radio and television programming created by some of the most influential women in both industries. It will serve as a major resource for scholars, students, industry professionals, and the public. At the end of the three-year project, 2000 hours of programming compiled both from the Museum's existing collection of over 120,000 programs and from new acquisitions will be available at both Museum locations, in New York and Los Angeles. Seminars, screenings, and a website will support this landmark collection.

As part of the She Made It initiative, the Museum will host a screening and listening series highlighting selected work from the collection. The screenings will be presented in four separate packages. In New York, they will screen Tuesdays through Sundays at 2:30 p.m., and in Los Angeles Wednesdays through Sundays at 3:00 p.m. The Museum will present a special Launch Week Daily Marathon of all four screening packages from December 2 to 8, 2005, as follows:

1:00 p.m. Producing Media Icons

2:00 p.m. Women Directing for Television

3:30 p.m. She Made It on Her Own

4:30 p.m. Theatrically Speaking

December 9 to January 12

PRODUCING MEDIA ICONS

In 1988, Diane English created the hit series Murphy Brown, about an outspoken broadcast journalist who opts for single motherhood. A decade later, Sex and the City burst onto the airwaves and catapulted its executive producer and star Sarah Jessica Parker to iconic status for her portrayal of a different breed of journalist-sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw, who chronicled the foibles and fables of dating in Manhattan.

  • Murphy Brown: "Full Circle" After Murphy (Candice Bergen), who is pregnant, learns of the sudden death of her mother, she receives a letter from her mother and a visit from her estranged father (Darren McGavin). (1991; 25 minutes)
  • Sex and the City: "My Motherboard, Myself" Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) agonizes over the loss of her "life" when her computer crashes, but Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) experiences a much more profound loss—the death of her mother. (2001; 30 minutes)

January 13 to February 16, 2006

WOMEN DIRECTING FOR TELEVISION

Ida Lupino (1914–95), was a Hollywood leading lady who embarked on a new phase of her career in the late 1940s: directing episodic television from The Virginian to The Twilight Zone to Gilligan's Island. Mimi Leder worked as a script supervisor on the landmark series Hill Street Blues and got her first directing job on L.A. Law, subsequently working as a director and supervising producer on China Beach and as a director and coexecutive producer of ER.

  • The Twilight Zone: "The Masks" In this episode directed by Ida Lupino, the ancient, dying millionaire Jason Foster (Robert Keith) strikes a peculiar bargain with his hateful heirs: He will leave them all of his vast estate, provided they wear a selection of grotesque Mardi Gras masks until the stroke of midnight. (1964; 25 minutes)
  • ER: "Love's Labor Lost" In this episode directed by Mimi Leder, chief resident Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) finds himself perilously out of his depth as he oversees a complicated childbirth. (1995; 40 minutes)

February 17 to March 23, 2006

SHE MADE IT ON HER OWN

Marlo Thomas created the character of aspiring actress Ann Marie and made the pilot for That Girl under the banner of her own company, Daisy Productions. Mary Tyler Moore's eponymous series (1970 to 1977) about an associate producer of a local news show was produced under the aegis of MTM Enterprises—a company Moore founded with her then-husband, Grant Tinker.

  • That Girl: "Rain, Snow, and Rice" When bad weather ensues following their friends' wedding at a cozy inn, Ann (Marlo Thomas) and Donald (Ted Bessell) are forced to share a room for the night—where Ann's parents (Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp) catch them "together." (1967; 25 minutes)
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show: "Just Around the Corner" Mary's parents (Nanette Fabray and Bill Quinn) move to Minneapolis to be near her—and drive her crazy by dropping in on her at all hours and monitoring her dating life. (1972; 25 minutes)

March 24 to April 30, 2006

THEATRICALLY SPEAKING: Mildred Freed Alberg (1917–2002) parlayed her lifelong love of theater into a distinguished television career as a producer of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, where she brought classy, accessible adaptations of Shakespeare, Shaw, and other master playwrights to the small screen.

  • Hallmark Hall of Fame: Little Moon of Alban With a teleplay by James Costigan and stars Julie Harris and Christopher Plummer, Little Moon won four Emmy Awards including Best Special Dramatic Program. Set during the time of the 1919–23 Irish Rebellion, Costigan's beautifully crafted story about the friendship between an officer and a nun was dear to Alberg's heart. (1958; 90 minutes)

RADIO LISTENING ROOM: SHE MADE RADIO

The radio listening series will be presented in two separate packages. The packages will run continuously in the radio listening rooms.

December 2 to January 29 in New York and Los Angeles

THEY MADE GENRES: Irna Phillips and Gertrude Berg

Gertrude Berg (1899–1966) created the genre of the family sitcom with her radio (and, subsequently, television) program The Goldbergs, which debuted in 1929. Irna Phillips (1901–73) created another enduring programming genre—the soap opera; one of her best known programs, The Guiding Light, began as a radio serial in 1937 and arrived on television in 1952, where it remains to this day.

  • The Guiding Light: In this episode of the long-running daytime program created by Irna Phillips, Peter confesses his misdeed and is prepared to take the consequences—which may include disbarment and the end of his legal career. (1945; 15 minutes)
  • The Goldbergs: In this episode of Gertrude Berg's popular program about a Jewish family in the Bronx, widower Mr. Allison is uncertain whether or not he should marry a woman he knew many years ago, and he is offered advice by Molly, Jake, and even young Seymour Fingerhood. (1940s; 15 minutes)

January 31 to April 30 in New York

February 1 to April 30 in Los Angeles

RADIO SUPERSTARS: Fanny Brice and Dorothy Thompson

Fanny Brice (1891–1951) was a theater superstar when she came to radio in the thirties and focused her act on an outlandish character she had been shaping for years, a precocious, bratty child named Baby Snooks. Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) was one of the most influential journalists in American history. From 1936 to 1945, as the world first balanced on the edge of war then plunged full-bore into armed conflict, Thompson's eloquent and well-informed views were regularly broadcast to millions over NBC (both the Red and Blue Networks) and, later, the Mutual Network.

  • Fanny Brice on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour (The Rudy Vallee Show) In this excerpt from Rudy Vallee's variety show, Fanny Brice portrays Baby Snooks, who has a run-in with her kindergarten principal.  Following the sketch, Brice performs a song written by her husband Billy Rose. (1936; 10 minutes)
  • Dorothy Thompson Newscasts: Dorothy Thompson reports on FDR's controversial plans to reorganize the judicial system, and also discusses the New Deal and other policies. A separate broadcast includes a report on the 1937 Nobel Prize winners and awards ceremonies held in Stockholm, Sweden. (1937; 30 minutes)

Admission to the She Made It screenings and radio listening series is included with the Museum's suggested contribution: Members free; $10.00 for adults; $8.00 for senior citizens and students; and $5.00 for children under fourteen.  Admission is free in Los Angeles.

About The Museum of Television & Radio

The Museum of Television & Radio, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, is a nonprofit organization founded by William S. Paley to collect and preserve television and radio programs and advertisements and to make them available to the public. Since opening in 1976, the Museum has organized exhibitions, screening and listening series, seminars, and education classes to showcase its collection of over 120,000 television and radio programs and advertisements. Programs in the Museum's permanent collection are selected for their artistic, cultural, and historic significance.

The Museum of Television & Radio in New York, located at 25 West 52 Street in Manhattan, is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 6:00 p.m. and until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays. The Museum of Television & Radio in California, located at 465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, is open Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5:00 p.m. Both Museums are closed on New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Suggested contribution: Members free; $10.00 for adults; $8.00 for senior citizens and students; and $5.00 for children under fourteen. Admission is free in Los Angeles.  The public areas in both Museums are accessible to wheelchairs, and assisted listening devices are available. Programs are subject to change. You may call the Museum in New York at (212) 621-6800, or in Los Angeles at (310) 786-1000.  Visit the Museum's website at www.mtr.org.  

The Museum of Television & Radio

SHE MADE IT: WOMEN CREATING TELEVISION AND RADIO

2005 HONOREES


Mildred Freed Alberg

Debbie Allen

Christiane Amanpour

Lucille Ball

Gertrude Berg

Bertha Brainard

Fanny Brice

Marcy Carsey

Julia Child

Joan Ganz Cooney

Barbara Corday

Katie Couric

Ellen Degeneres

Suzanne de Passe

Donna de Varona

Diane English

Tina Fey

Pauline Frederick

Phyllis George

Terry Gross

Susan Harris

Catherine Hughes

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Lucille Kallen

Susan Lacy

Geraldine Laybourne

Mimi Leder

Debra L. Lee

Ida Lupino

Judith McGrath

Pat Mitchell

Mary Tyler Moore

Shelia Nevins

Agnes Nixon

Sarah Jessica Parker

Irna Phillips

Cokie Roberts revised

Marlene Sanders

Cristina Saralegui

Diane Sawyer

Susan Stamberg

Alison Steele

Anne Sweeney

Lela Swift

Nancy Tellem

Marlo Thomas

Dorothy Thompson

Barbara Walters

Ethel Winant

Oprah Winfrey