A TV legend, Fred Silverman remains the only individual who headed the programming divisions of the three major networks--CBS, ABC, NBC. After NBC descended to its lowest depths in 1981 and Silverman was unceremoniously removed as its chief, he licked his wounds and went on to executive produce almost 1,000 hours of primetime TV, reviving "Perry Mason" as a series of TV-movies and launching such long-time middle-of-the-road drama series as "Matlock", "In the Heat of the Night", "Jake and the Fatman" and "Diagnosis Murder".The son of a TV repairman, Silverman was raised in Queens, NY, and dreamed of a career in television from an early age. He began his career at WGN-TV in Chicago, and, after working for six weeks at the independent station WPIX in New York, joined CBS as head of daytime programming; at age 25, he was the youngest ever department head at the network. By 1970, Silverman had been promoted to vice president of programming at CBS under Robert Woods. When CBS dumped its rural-oriented series in 1971 and moved in a different direction, it was Silverman who led the way. He launched "All in the Family" in January 1970 and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in September of the same year. CBS vaulted ahead of the pack with such further hits as "Maude" and "The Bob Newhart Show" added to dramas such as "Mannix" and "Hawaii Five-O".
Silverman was never fully happy at CBS, nor did he fit the executive profile, most of his colleagues had a far more patrician bearing than Silverman, with his working-class background. He jumped ship to ABC in 1975 as president of its entertainment division. One of the first moves he is credited with is taking a marginal series called "Happy Days" and making it a success by instructing the producers to make the character of 'The Fonz' the focal point. While "Roots" was already in development when Silverman joined the network, it was Silverman who ordered the miniseries to be run during one full week in January of 1977. Helped a bit by a blizzard on the East Coast which made most viewers homebound, "Roots" became a national phenomenon. By the end of 1977, ABC--once the joke of the industry--had become the top network, with series such as "Laverne & Shirley" and "Three's Company" topping the ratings.
In 1978, Silverman was looking for a greater challenge and was lured to NBC with the title of president and CEO of the entire company. He brashly predicted that the network would be Number One in the ratings by Christmas. But, that was not to happen and the network was further hurt in 1980 when its investment in the Summer Olympics proved a bust as President Jimmy Carter ordered an American boycott of the games in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Nothing seemed to work for NBC, save a few series such as "Diff'rent Strokes", and Silverman was spread thin by his responsibilities for sports, news, radio and other broadcasting areas. In retrospect, his greatest legacy was his hiring of Brandon Tartikoff as president of the entertainment division. By 1981, with NBC reaching its lowest ratings to date, Silverman was out.
Relocating to California, Silverman moved into independent production. His first efforts were the animated series "Pandemonium" (CBS) and "Meatballs and Spaghetti" (CBS) in 1982, but he soon was in primetime and late night production funded by MGM-TV. Silverman served as executive producer of the disastrous syndicated talk show "Thicke of the Night" (1983-1984), which made an industry joke of its host Alan Thicke. Silverman's maiden voyage in primetime series was the comedy "We've Got It Made" (1983), in which two male roommates hire a buxom maid. It ended its NBC run after one season, although Silverman revived it for a year of first-run syndication in 1987. He scored his first success working in tandem with writer-executive producer Dean Hargrove in reviving "Perry Mason", luring Raymond Burr back to the role. Launched as ongoing TV-movies for NBC in 1985 to much success (ironically, the property was partly owned by CBS), eventually more than 20 "Perry Masons" were aired. But still, weekly series success proved elusive. "Morningstar/Eveningstar" (CBS, 1986), a series about orphans moving into an old-age home, also bombed. Silverman had grown up in TV when the dictum was to produce "least objectionable programming" and he seemed stuck in middle-of-the-road, even older skewing concepts, often with older former TV stars. Whatever the criticisms, the formula finally worked in 1986 with the launch on NBC of "Matlock", with Andy Griffith as a cagey defense attorney. The show, which would later move to ABC, ran for more than a decade as a weekly series and then became two-hour specials. Silverman and Hargrove had a second success with "Jake and the Fatman" (CBS, 1987-1992), which revived the career of William Conrad. In 1988, Silverman joined forces with Carroll O'Connor and writer-producer Juanita Bartlett to turn the 1968 feature film "In the Heat of the Night" into a weekly series for NBC. The show went on to air weekly (and briefly moved to CBS) and then as two-hour specials into 1996. Silverman won a shorter run for "The Father Dowling Mysteries" (NBC, then ABC, 1989-1991), starring another older TV face, Tom Bosley. He also had some flops, including "One of the Boys" (NBC, 1989). But in the 90s, the producer was still going strong, executive producing "Diagnosis Murder" (CBS, 1993- ), starring 70-plus Dick Van Dyke.
Silverman also produced additional TV-movies, such as "Farrell For the People" (NBC, 1982), which was a back-door pilot for Valerie Harper that did not go to series. In 1996, he produced the adult drama "Bedtime" for the Showtime cable network.