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In Depth

Notes from a Survivor

Hello, my name is Jerri Manthey, otherwise known as “Jerri From `Survivor,”’ “The Ice Princess,” “She-Devil in a Blue Bikini,” the “Bitch/Joan Collins of the Outback,” “Man-Eater” (thanks for that one, by the way) and various other derogatory names-most of…

Tony Verna, the man who changed sports

For almost anyone who loves sports on television, Tony Verna is a hero.Who?Mr. Verna, a former producer/director for CBS Sports, made history on Dec. 7, 1963. On that day he lugged a huge videotape machine from CBS’s New York studios…

Not one of … The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

Although I spent four sweet years working on a top-rated CBS series, “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” I actually started my television acting career in the first series to be produced on film, “Trouble With Father,” starring Stu and…

Stringer: Delivering Letterman

Sir Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony Corp. of America since 1998 and a British knight since 1999, spent the first 30 years of his career at CBS.From 1976 to 1981 Mr. Stringer was executive producer of “CBS Reports,”…

A spectacular way to present an event

The “CBS Sports Spectacular” was TV’s first sports anthology program. It was the brainchild of Bill MacPhail, the head of CBS Sports and a man who was ahead of his time. In 1960, CBS had televised the Olympic Games. The…

In it for the long run

For years, Milton Berle was known as Mr. Television. He got that moniker by becoming TV’s first superstar back in 1948. Eight years later, Mr. Berle’s reign as a TV superstar was over. But the true Mr. Television, in our…

CBS Cable: One brief, shining moment

The CBS Cable initiative, which lasted just a little more than a year, was the last great risk-taking venture by a major U.S. broadcaster before the bean counters and bottom liners took over altogether, and the once proud claims of…

Keeping an eye on the Buffalo affiliate

As the licensee of WIVB-TV in Buffalo, N.Y., the longest-running CBS affiliate not owned by Viacom, LIN TV is happy to congratulate the network on its 75th anniversary. From its early days and under its current management, CBS has been…

Dann: When CBS was king

From 1963 until 1970, Michael Dann was CBS’s head of programming, based in New York City. That was a period that included several seasons of almost unbelievable ratings dominance for the network.In 1963-64, for example, CBS had 14 of the…

ABC again No. 1 on clutter list

In a stinging response to the continuing problem of clutter on TV, MindShare, the WWP Group media agency that closely monitors nonprogramming time on TV, has just issued a report saying that it is “alarmed by the continuing deterioration of…