Dan Gingold 

The (Mostly) Happy Career of Dan Gingold

     I joined KTSL, at 1313 Vine, in March of 1951, right about the time CBS bought the station from Don Lee, the Cadillac dealer. I came aboard as a per diem "gofer" for staff director Elbert Walker at 50 bucks a week.

     After a couple of months I got lucky and was made a staff stage manager, working with Walker and directors Bob Lehman, Bob Quinlan, Bob Adams and Alan Buchantz. Every show was live. We did cooking, amateur talent, big bands, news, sports and game shows. I stage managed Johnny Carson's "Cellar" and "Carson's Corner," on which I also joined him in occasional comedy sketches. By then we were called KNXT.

     I got my directorial wings around 1953 and found myself directing many of the shows I had stage managed, so I was familiar with the talent and formats which made it an easy transition. I slowly gravitated to news and public affairs programs, directing a number of filmed documentaries and was the original and principal director of The Big News. In sports, I directed (and later produced) the Feature Race telecasts from Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar. I created and produced "Ralph Story's Los Angeles" and
"Rod Serling's Wonderful World of..." Eventually, I was named executive producer for news and subsequently executive producer for programming. In all, the work I did at KNXT earned 9 Emmys, 2 Edward R. Murrow awards, 4 Golden Mikes, the Ohio State, Columbia/Dupont and many other regional and national awards for excellence. I also did many assignments for CBS News Special Events, including conventions, space shots and the Apollo 11 moon landing.

     After 28 years, I left CBS to become a field producer/director for NBC's "Real People", followed by a brief series for ABC, "Catastrophe!" In 1980, I joined Dave Bell Associates to produce documentaries for HBO and ABC, plus series for Disney and USA cable networks. In 1984, I was recruited by Dr. Art Ulene to develop programming for Cable Health Network and became executive producer when it changed to Lifetime.

     I was recruited by USC in 1987 as an assistant professor in the School of Journalism where I taught for 7 years. I continued to freelance as a producer/director and although I haven't earned an honest dollar in the last couple of years, I'm still full of ideas and pushing a few projects. To keep my brain functioning, I'm also doing some writing (autobiographical) but promise not to tell all.

     Roz and I have lived for the past 29 years in Sherman Oaks.

     dgingold@earthlink.net