Producer Don Mischer’s New Memoir Shares Stories From Some of Live TV’s Greatest Moments
16.11.2023 - 01:20
/ variety.com
Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Think about some of the most iconic moments in modern TV history, and there’s a good chance Don Mischer was in the control room. Michael Jackson performing the Moonwalk for the first time on “Motown 25.” Muhammad Ali making a surprise appearance to light the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony torch. Prince pulling off arguably the most lauded Super Bowl halftime show ever, in the pouring rain.
President Obama’s historic inauguration. Mischer was behind all those events — and too many more to mention, including three Oscar telecasts. Each one has a story, and as Mischer recalls, the behind- the-scenes drama was often harrowing.
Ask him about the time he got into a fight with authorities in China, leading his team to prep a van in case they had to flee for the U.S. Embassy. Or the time he and Barbara Walters got dangerously close to offending the shah of Iran, which would not have been good for their safety.
Or you can read about those moments instead: Mischer finally decided to write it all down in the memoir “:10 Seconds to Air: My Life in the Director’s Chair,” available Nov. 14. “I really found it satisfying,” Mischer says of chronicling his career, which is marked by 15 Emmys, 10 DGA Awards, a Peabody and even a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“Just having a record of a lot of the stuff that I’ve been lucky enough to experience.” That includes hairy moments like that Prince halftime show, which could have turned into a disaster. “He was playing four live guitars. He had his two dancers, wearing 8-inch spiked heels on a very slippery Mylar stage.
And when it started raining I just said, ‘Damn, here we go. This is going to be terrible. What happens if one of the girls falls
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