Vincent John "Vin" Di Bona (born April 10, 1944) is an American
television producer
A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television net ...
of the television shows ''
MacGyver
Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot.
In both po ...
'', ''
Entertainment Tonight
''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...
'', and ''
America's Funniest Home Videos
''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on American Broadcasting Company, ABC, based on the Japanese variety show ''Kato-chan Ken-chan Gok ...
''. He runs an eponymous production company called Vin Di Bona Productions. In 2010, Di Bona launched a second business,
FishBowl Worldwide Media, an independent production company developing properties for film, television, digital platforms and brands.
Early life
A native of
Cranston, Rhode Island
Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The official population of the city in the 2020 United States Census was 82,934, making it the second largest in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island i ...
,
[ Emily Benedek]
"How the 'Funniest' Thing Happened; Vin Di Bona, Making 'Home Videos' Into a Sunday-Night Smash."
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', April 3, 1990. Retrieved March 7, 2011 from HighBeam Research. Di Bona began his career in the entertainment industry as a singer, under the stage name Johnny Lindy (the last name was taken from the Cranston area restaurant owned by his parents and where Di Bona worked as a pre-teen); releasing two records by the age of 16, which became hits regionally. However Di Bona turned his aspirations to making film and television in 1962, later saying "Guys who sang romantic ballads were up a creek without a paddle. So I adapted."
Personal life
In 2006, Di Bona married Erica Gerard, a television production executive he had known from his days at CBS. He has a daughter, Cara Di Bona Swartz and a step-daughter, Jamie Goldstein.
Education
He received an education at
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, where he served as manager of
WECB WECB may refer to:
* WECB (FM), a radio station (105.3 FM) licensed to Headland, Alabama, United States
* WECB (Emerson College), a campus radio station at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
*WFZZ
WFZZ (104.3 FM broadcasting ...
, the campus radio station.
Di Bona met his first wife, Gina, with whom he has a daughter, Cara. After graduating from Emerson in 1966 and earning a
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...
degree in film at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, he worked for nine years at Boston's then-NBC affiliate,
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (channe ...
(channel 4; now a CBS-owned station).
Career
After he left WBZ-TV, Vin moved with his family to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in 1975. Di Bona did not find a job for about eight months but finally became employed at CBS directing and producing documentaries, which earned him four Emmys and a
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
.
Di Bona is considered one of the pioneers of
reality TV
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
, thanks to ''
Battle of the Network Stars
''Battle of the Network Stars'' is a series of competitions in which television stars from ABC, CBS and NBC would compete in various sporting events. A total of 19 of these competitions were held between 1976 and 1988, all of which were aired b ...
'', which Di Bona produced in 1976.
By the 1980s, Di Bona had become a producer for the syndicated newsmagazine ''
Entertainment Tonight
''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...
'' and later served as a producer for one season on the ABC series ''
MacGyver
Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot.
In both po ...
''; he was also a director for the ''
American Music Awards
The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Produc ...
'' and the ''
Academy of Country Music Awards
The Academy of Country Music Awards, also known as the ACM Awards, were first held in 1966, honoring the industry's accomplishments during the previous year. It was the first country music awards program held by a major organization. The academy ...
'' and produced taped segments for the ''
36th Annual Emmy Awards'', among others. He also produced a short lived children's cartoon titled Tea Time with Space Dinosaur.
Di Bona's first two television series creations were spawned from Japanese programs. Di Bona developed the ABC series ''
Animal Crack-Ups
''Animal Crack-Ups'' is an ABC game show which aired in primetime from August 8 to September 12, 1987, after which it aired on Saturday mornings from September 12, 1987, to December 30, 1989, and again from June 2 to September 1, 1990. It was pr ...
'', based on a popular
Tokyo Broadcasting System
formerly is a Japanese media and licensed broadcasting holding company. It is the parent company of the television network and radio network . It has a 28-affiliate television network called JNN (Japan News Network), as well as a 34-affili ...
game show called ''Waku Waku''. ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' was inspired by another Tokyo Broadcasting System series, the variety show ''
Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan
was a Japanese television variety show aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System around the mid-1980s. Starring Ken Shimura and Cha Kato, former members of the group The Drifters from ''Hachiji Dayo! Zen'in Shugo'', the irreverent and satirical program ...
''.
''America's Funniest Home Videos,'' currently in its year and the longest-running primetime entertainment show on ABC, reached a milestone 600 episodes in 2017. The show eventually led to three spinoffs, ''
America's Funniest People
''America's Funniest People'' is an American reality show on ABC that debuted on May 13, 1990 as a 30 minute television special ''America's Funniest... Part II'', aired after the popular ''America's Funniest Home Videos''. The green-lit series ...
,'' the short-lived ''
World's Funniest Videos
''World's Funniest Videos'' is an American reality television series that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from February 1, 1996 to June 20, 1996.
Synopsis
The series consisted of humorous home videos sent in from around the world sim ...
, and
Videos After Dark
''Videos After Dark'' is an American video clip television special created by Vin Di Bona, and hosted by Bob Saget on American Broadcasting Company, ABC.
The show, which aired on March 12, 2019, was billed as "a special first-look episode" of a ...
''; along with similar home video shows ''Show Me The Funny'' for Fox Family Channel (later ABC Family, now
Freeform) and the syndicated series ''
That's Funny''. Di Bona also produced several made-for-TV movies and a
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
series, ''
Sherman Oaks
Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...
.'' In 1991, Di Bona secured the rights to produce a revival of ''
Candid Camera
''Candid Camera'' is a popular and long-running American hidden camera reality television series. Versions of the show appeared on television from 1948 until 2014. Originally created and produced by Allen Funt, it often featured practical jokes ...
'';
Allen Funt
Allen Albert Funt (September 16, 1914 – September 5, 1999) was an American television producer, director, writer and television personality best known as the creator and host of '' Candid Camera'' from the 1940s to 1980s, as either a regula ...
, who owned the rights to the show and agreed to the deal mainly because he needed the money, later spoke out against the revival in his 1994 autobiography. Funt stated that Di Bona had overused
product placement
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
and that neither he nor his choice of host,
Dom DeLuise
Dominick DeLuise (August 1, 1933 – May 4, 2009) was an American actor, comedian, director, producer, chef, and author. Known primarily for his comedic performances, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety shows ...
, grasped the concept of the show.
Di Bona was chair for
The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors for four years. Having served for many years on the board of trustees for his alma mater, Emerson College, he is now the Board's vice-chairman. He is also chairman of Emerson's 2013 fund-raising committee and donated one million dollars to kick-start the effort. Di Bona received the 2,346th star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
on Thursday, August 23, 2007. In 2009, objects from ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' were accepted into the
Smithsonian's
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...
, including the camcorder used to shoot the first winning video in 1989.
Vin Di Bona is executive producer of ''
Upload with Shaquille O'Neal'', which features the basketball superstar and TNT NBA analyst
Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), known commonly as "Shaq" ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. O'Neal is regarded as one of the greates ...
. The show consists of O'Neal and friends rounding up the week's online video clips, as well as creating their own viral videos and commenting on and parodying current pop culture stories.
The
TruTV
TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows.
The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that focu ...
show also counts executive producers
Bruce Gersh, Susan Levison, attorney-executive producer
Ellen Stiefler, and writer-executive producer
Yahlin Chang among its staff. Vin Di Bona is bringing Dr.
Mimi Guarneri's book ''The Heart Speaks'' to television at
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 ...
as a weekly medical television drama with
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...
.
Controversy
In 1992,
Arleen Sorkin
Arleen Sorkin (born October 14, 1955) is a retired American actress, screenwriter, presenter and comedian. Sorkin is known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial ''Days of Our Lives'' and for inspiring and voicing the DC Comics ...
, who is white, was fired as co-host from the television show ''
America's Funniest People
''America's Funniest People'' is an American reality show on ABC that debuted on May 13, 1990 as a 30 minute television special ''America's Funniest... Part II'', aired after the popular ''America's Funniest Home Videos''. The green-lit series ...
'' by Di Bona. In response, Sorkin filed a
lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
against Di Bona, claiming that she was dismissed from the show due to her race, after ABC Chairman Dan Burke had suggested to Di Bona that Sorkin be replaced by an African-American or a person of another ethnic minority. Sorkin sought $450,000 for lost earnings and an additional unspecified amount for harm to her professional reputation and emotional injury. Sorkin additionally claimed that after she denounced the move as unfair, Di Bona changed plans and hired new cohost
Tawny Kitaen
Julie Ellen "Tawny" Kitaen (August 5, 1961 – May 7, 2021) was an American actress, model, and media personality. She began her career as a television actress, appearing in the television films ''Malibu (film), Malibu'' (1983) and ''California ...
, who is also white.
In an interview for
Ben Shapiro
Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American attorney, businessman, columnist, conservative political commentator, and media personality. At age 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States. ...
's ''
Primetime Propaganda
''Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV'' is a 2011 book by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro. In it he argues that producers, executives and writers in the entertainment industry are using ...
'', Di Bona was asked if the accusation by many conservatives that "Hollywood is a leftist town" and leftist political perspectives dominate scripted television shows was accurate. Di Bona responded that it is "probably accurate, and I'm happy about it." This was a
double-barreled question
A double-barreled question (sometimes, ''double-direct question'') is an informal fallacy. It is committed when someone asks a question that touches upon more than one issue, yet allows only for one answer.Alan Bryman, Emma Bell, ''Business resear ...
, however, because it asked if Hollywood is a politically left-wing town and if leftist ideologies dominate scripted shows. Shapiro used Di Bona's answer as evidence in his
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
that
producers
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
, executives and
writers
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, plays ...
in the
entertainment industry
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have dev ...
discriminate against conservatives and are using
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
to promote a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
political agenda. Di Bona responded by accusing "Shapiro of misrepresentation, saying he never revealed his political agenda."
In March 2019, DiBona's two production companies, Vin Di Bona Entertainment, Inc. and Fishbowl Worldwide Media, Inc., along with individual defendant Phil Shafran, were sued for sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and retaliation by three former female employees. The lawsuit, Case No. 19STCV09487 is pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.
References
External links
Vin Di Bona Productions*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Bona, Vin
1944 births
Living people
People from Cranston, Rhode Island
Place of birth missing (living people)
Emerson College alumni
UCLA Film School alumni
American television producers