Aaron Spelling

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BIRTHDAY

April 22, 1923

Dallas, TX

DIED

June 23, 2006

PROFESSIONS

Producer, Writer, Actor

SOMETIMES CREDITED AS

BIOGRAPHY

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While this prolific producer's shows were routinely attacked by critics, they were adored by viewers. From his breakthrough — the '60s action series The Mod Squad — to his swan song — the wholesome family drama 7th Heaven, which continued to run after his death in 2006 — Spelling was an unparalleled hit maker who didn't get a lot of respect, at least not from Emmy voters. Although he was awarded the Guinness World Record for most-prolific TV-drama producer in 1999, with more than 3,800 hours of programming to his credit, he only won two Emmys during his career, both for atypically prestigious TV-movies: Day One, about developing the atomic bomb and And the Band Played On, HBO's groundbreaking early AIDS drama. Yet Spelling's impact on the small screen was phenomenal. Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Starsky and Hutch, Dynasty and Charmed were just a few of the shows he worked on. Without them, would there have ever been Desperate Housewives or Sex and the City? Spelling started out as an actor in the '50s, then segued to writing, but found his calling as a producer in the '60s. His formula was to take a simple premise (teenagers or twentysomethings in heat, a cruise packed with guest stars, insanely hot witches) and liven it up with good-looking players, both up-and-comers (Heather Locklear on Dynasty and T.J. Hooker, Shannen Doherty on 90210 and Charmed) and stars of yesteryear (Ricardo Montalban on Fantasy Island, Robert Wagner on Hart to Hart). The actors he liked he used over and over. He also tirelessly promoted his daughter Tori's career, turning her into a B-list star on 90210. (Sunset Beach, the series his son Randy appeared in, wasn't as big a success. Neither were the patriarch's feature-film outings (Soapdish, Loose Cannons, Satisfaction, the latter boasting a then-unknown starlet, Julia Roberts, in her film debut). Even in his sixties and seventies, he was uncannily in touch with the youth market, producing series that appealed to viewers young enough to be his grandchildren. Above all, the workaholic impresario was well-loved, by his fans, (most of) his collaborators and even his critics. And while he would have preferred to be the king of high quality instead of high camp, he was proud of his legacy.

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