Rick Friedman
His Story
The following is an e-mail Rick Friedman to Gerry Wilkinson...Thanks for getting in touch. I had a chance to go through most of the
site on Friday. It's awesome. Best regards, The following is another e-mail Rick Friedman to Gerry Wilkinson... Best regards,
My favorite is the picture and quote of Harold Thomas. I didn't know
they tore Thomas Hall down, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Are all these professors really still alive???????? Amazing.
Anyway, it was great to browse down memory lane. Our era at Temple was
really special.
Thanks for preserving it.
Rick Friedman
By all means, feel free to post my home email - rick699@aol.com.
To think back and remember that professor John Roberts was the victim of the first newscast I ever produced at the then WFIL-TV. I'd been in TV
about 6 weeks when the weekend producer, Pete Spear, got sick on a
summer
Saturday afternoon when all the real producers had disappeared (probably
to
the Jersey shore) and only I, the weekend assignment editor, was
findable
(since I was on duty).
I'd put together a 45 minute show for our 30
minute
time slot, and killed two packages for every one that actually ran while
were
were on the air. But what a rush!
After the Philly trifecta from Channel 6 to Channel 3 to Channel 10, I
headed west in the summer of 1990. I'd signed up for a new 20th
Television
strip called "Personalities," hosted by Charlie Rose. I learned a lot
working with Charlie.
But when the Gulf War broke out and I was in the
middle of a two-day edit on a pasteup entitled "Stars Who Appeared in
Playboy" I had to ask myself, What are you doing with your life?
Shortly thereafter I went to work on an NBC/Kushner-Locke daytime strip
called "Trial Watch," which folded after two cycles.
When the '92 LA Riots broke out, I was producing political coverage for
KCBS. The news director, John Lipman, stopped me in the hall and said,
"Anatomy of A Riot. Can you do it?" The result was an emmy winning
special
that scooped the LA Times on what really happened by three or four days.
Several months later, I got a phone call from my former and future boss, Steve Cohen. "We're launching a network for truckers. We're doing it
from
Washington. Do you want in?" Launch a network. You bet. It was
supposed to be a DBS network direct to truckstops. Actually a pretty
good
idea. But the investors really only wanted to drive up the price of
their
penny stock.
Just before it went completely belly up six months later, I was headed to Chicago to launch the Fox morning show there.
I'm not a guy who should be getting up at 1:00 or 2:00 am, so after a
year I headed for Atlanta to work on a show about racecar drivers called
"Winners" for TNN. Six weeks into the gig, the host, driver Neil
Bonnett,
hit the wall in Daytona and was killed instantly. We finished the season with guest hosts and I went back to Chicago, where I got to produce a
pilot
for the "Danny!" (Bonaduce) talk show for Buena Vista Television.
1995.
Back to LA. That's where I am now, executive producer at KCOP-TV
(UPN). We have an hour newscast nightly at 10:00. Our current anchor
team
is Alan Frio (formerly WCAU-TV) and Tawny Little (former Miss America).
Next? You never know what's next. Sometimes the light at the end
of the tunnel is a freight train determined to run you over. Sometimes
it's
a new and exciting opportunity you never thought of. But it's quite an
adventure and it's still a rush!
Rick Friedman