Frederick William Ziv (August 17, 1905 – October 13, 2001, Cincinnati, Ohio) was an American
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
producer and
syndicator who was considered as the father of television
first-run syndication
Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
and once operated the nation's largest independent television production company. An obituary in ''
The Cincinnati Enquirer
''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, alth ...
'' noted that Ziv "was known throughout the television industry for pioneering production, sales, promotion and marketing of TV series."
Early years
Frederick Ziv was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, to William and Rose Ziv. His parents were
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish immigrants: his father William, a manufacturer of button holes for overalls, came to the US in 1884 from
Kelm,
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
(then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
) and his mother Rose from
Bessarabia
Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Be ...
three years later. He had a sister named Irma. He graduated from Hughes High School.
[
]
Ziv Company
Although he earned a Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
degree from the University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in Ann Arbor in 1928,[ Ziv did not practice law, but instead opened an advertising agency. His native city, Cincinnati, was an important center for radio in the 1920s. The nation's largest radio sponsor, ]Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
, and one of its most powerful radio stations, WLW
WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One.
WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
, were based there. Ziv and writer John L. Sinn, who later became his business partner and son-in-law, founded the Frederic W. Ziv Company (also given as Frederick W. Ziv Company) that produced syndicated radio and television programs in the United States. Horace Newcomb's Encyclopedia of Television described the company as "by 1948 ... the largest packager and syndicator of radio programs" and later "the most prolific producer of programming for the first-run syndication market during the 1950s." They produced pre-recorded radio shows such as ''Boston Blackie
Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle (1881–1928). Blackie, a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's stories, became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an ...
'' and ''The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in ''Everybody's Magaz ...
'' and occasionally bought old shows for new syndicated rerun broadcast. The best known was the serial comedy ''Easy Aces
''Easy Aces'' is an American serial radio comedy (1930–1945). It was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife. A 15-minute program, a ...
'' in 1945.
Ziv Television
In preparation for providing programming for television syndication, Ziv began purchasing film libraries. By July 1948, the company had bought four such libraries—General, Miles, Kinogram and Forster—providing a total of more than 13 million feet of film.
By that same year, 1948, the company had opened a television production subsidiary, Ziv Television Programs, Inc.; which produced some of America's best-remembered shows, including television versions of ''The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in ''Everybody's Magaz ...
'' (1949), the first American television program filmed in color, and ''Mr. District Attorney
''Mr. District Attorney'' is a radio crime drama produced by Samuel Bischoff that aired on NBC and ABC from April 3, 1939 to June 13, 1952 (and in transcribed syndication through 1953). The series focused on a crusading district attorney initia ...
'', plus such original creations as ''Highway Patrol
A highway patrol, or state patrol is either a police unit created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways, or a detail within an existing local or regional police agency that is prima ...
''. Maybe the best remembered Ziv television production ever was '' I Led Three Lives'', one of the few 1950s television crime dramas addressing the real or alleged Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
menace as an overt subject. ''Bat Masterson
Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson (November 26, 1853 – October 25, 1921) was a U.S. Army scout, lawman, professional gambler, and journalist known for his exploits in the 19th and early 20th-century American Old West. He was born to ...
'', fictionalizing the legendarily dapper marshal, gunfighter, and eventual sportswriter of his namesake, and ''Sea Hunt
''Sea Hunt'' is an American action adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges as ...
'' were also Ziv's first-run syndicated television productions.
Ziv Television Productions trademarks included odd for the times twists on the genres of his shows, twists such as a crime-fighting underwater explorer (Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. (January 15, 1913 – March 10, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. He was the father of four children, includi ...
as ''Sea Hunt's'' protagonist Mike Nelson) and ''Highway Patrol'', starred Broderick Crawford
William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Willie Stark in ''All t ...
as Dan Mathews, maybe the first crime drama to show that large urban regions were not the only places where criminals liked to roam. The company's closing logo, the name Ziv in large, Romanesque lettering, inside the frame of a television tube, was one of the most familiar sign-off logos of its time.
Ziv's fortunes shifted almost overnight in the mid-1950s. In 1955, they were America's leading and largest independent producer, with a reported two thousand employees at one point and Ziv was able to buy his own television production studio, after years of leasing from the Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
studios. The following year, in 1956, the Big Three television networks, ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
and NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
, realized how successful they could be by syndicating their own previous hits, a negative move that cut deeply into the first-run syndication television market. Then Ziv began producing series for the networks, beginning with '' The West Point Story'' for CBS in the fall of that same year.
Network takeover
By 1959, the networks began taking control of what went on the air from sponsors, a major result of the quiz show scandals
The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American Game show, television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearr ...
that exploded that same year, but Ziv was very unhappy about it. "They demanded script and cast approvals." - he was quoted as saying. "You were just doing whatever the networks asked you to do, but that wasn't my type of operation. I didn’t care to become an employee for the networks."
In 1960, Ziv sold 80% of his company to a group of investors and sold his own TV production subsidiary to United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
renamed Ziv-United Artists, leaving the board of directors when United Artists decided to phase out Ziv Television Programs and reorganize as United Artists Television
United Artists Television (UATV) was an American television production/distribution studio of United Artists Corporation that was formed on New Year's Day (January 1), 1958. The company is remembered for producing series such as ''This Man Dawson ...
two years later.
Later years
Ziv lectured at the College of Mount St. Joseph[ and served as "distinguished Professor of Radio-Television and Theater Crafts" at the ]University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
,[ which awarded him an honorary doctorate in performing arts in 1985. He then settled into full-time retirement.
]
Death
Ziv died at the age of 96 in 2001. He was survived by a son and a daughter.
The University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
annually presents a broadcasting achievement award in his name.
He is buried in the United Jewish Cemetery in his birth city, Cincinnati, Ohio.
References
* William Boddy, ''Fifties Television: The Industry and its Critics'' (Urbana, Ill.: Illinois University Press, 1980).
* "Aces Up," ''Time'', 8 September 1947.
* "A Homey Little Thing," ''Time'', 19 December 1949.
* Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Network TV Shows--1946 to Present'' (First Edition).
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziv, Frederic
American radio producers
Television producers from Ohio
Businesspeople from Cincinnati
University of Michigan Law School alumni
1905 births
2001 deaths
University of Cincinnati faculty
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
20th-century American businesspeople