Barbara Schultz | |
---|---|
Born | Barbara Ann Schultz February 4, 1927 New York City, U.S. |
Died | September 2, 2019 New York City, U.S. | (aged 92)
Alma mater | Barnard College |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1959–1987 |
Television | Visions (1976–1980) |
Barbara Ann Schultz (February 4, 1927 – September 2, 2019) was an American television producer and director. She is best known for her work as the executive producer and artistic director for the anthology drama series Visions (1976–1980) on PBS.
Early life and education
Born in Manhattan on February 4, 1927, Schultz was raised in New Jersey by her homemaker mother and attorney father. She graduated from Barnard College in 1948, receiving a degree in English studies. She originally pursued acting, first taking roles in student productions at Barnard and making her Broadway debut in 1952 with a bit part in a production of the play Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill.[1]
Career
Turning away from acting, Schultz went into production amid the first Golden Age of Television. She started as an assistant story editor at Burt Lancaster's production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. She worked five years as a story editor at David Susskind's company Talent Associates and worked on series like The Defenders and The Trials of O'Brien (CBS) before stepping into an assistant producer role at Armstrong Circle Theatre.[2] She became executive story editor, then executive producer, of CBS Playhouse.[1] After Playhouse, her focus turned to CBS's programming for children, producing CBS Children's Hour and the reboot of educational series You Are There.[1]
Visions and after
In 1974, Schultz joined the Los Angeles-based public broadcaster and PBS member station KCET as executive producer and artistic director of Visions, a weekly anthology series in which each episode would be a feature-length dramatic film by a screenwriter with no prior experience in television. KCET sought to maximize Schultz's artistic license and independence, with minimal interference.[3]
Jean Shepherd, who wrote The Phantom of the Open Hearth for Visions, said Schultz "not only encouraged us at every turn but gave us a totally free hand, something most writers only dream about."[4] Michael J. Arlen, writing for The New Yorker, said the high quality of Visions "has been a credit to its creators—especially to Barbara Schultz, the remarkably able and responsive woman who has been the program's artistic director and creative force."[5] In 1979, Schultz received the Crystal Award from the Women in Film and Television[6] and the Evelyn F. Burkey Award from the Writers Guild of America, East at the 31st Writers Guild of America Awards.[7]
After Visions ended, Schultz occasionally directed episodes of sitcoms like Family Ties and Diff'rent Strokes. However, directing work quickly dried up for her; a longtime friend and collaborator on Visions, Sandra Schulberg, said "the industry was not very receptive to a woman director of her age."[1] She also directed plays for the Los Angeles chapter of the New York–based Ensemble Studio Theatre.[8]
Death and legacy
Schultz died at her home in Manhattan on September 2, 2019, from complications from heart disease.[1] She has been cited as a pioneering woman in the early American TV industry, which typically discouraged women from participating at executive levels of production. Her status as a trailblazer has been cited alongside such contemporaries as Jacqueline Babbin,[9] Frances Buss Buch, Ida Lupino and Lela Swift.[10]
Filmography
Credits adapted from the website of the Paley Center for Media's She Made It initiative.[11]
Series | Year(s) | Network | Credited as | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Executive producer |
Producer | Director | Other | ||||
Armstrong Circle Theatre | 1959–1963 | CBS | No | No | No | Yes | Story editor, assistant producer (later)[2] |
The Defenders | 1963–64 | No | No | No | Yes | Story editor | |
The Reporter | 1964 | No | No | No | Yes | Story editor | |
The Doctors and the Nurses | 1964–65 | No | No | No | Yes | Story editor | |
The Trials of O'Brien | 1965–66 | No | No | No | Yes | Story editor | |
CBS Playhouse | 1967–1970 | Yes | No | No | Yes | Also executive story editor | |
CBS Children's Hour | 1969–70 | Yes | No | No | No | ||
You Are There | 1971–72 | No | Yes | No | No | ||
The Electric Company | 1972 | No | No | No | Yes | Consultant | |
Visions | 1976–1978 | PBS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Also creator |
Family Ties | 1985, 1987 | NBC | No | No | Yes | No | Episodes: "The Old College Try", "Matchmaker" |
Diff'rent Strokes | 1986 | ABC | No | No | Yes | No | Episode: "Bulimia" |
You Again? | 1986 | NBC | No | No | Yes | No | Episode: "Enid Quits" |
Webster | 1987 | ABC | No | No | Yes | No | Episode: "A Test of Characters" |
Archived works
In 2006, the Paley Center for Media (then known as the Museum of Television & Radio) named Barbara Schultz one of the honorees of its multi-year initiative "She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio", thereby inducting some of her works into its permanent collections.[12] More from Schultz's filmography can be found preserved in the UCLA Film and Television Archive,[13] and two of her productions—J.T. (1969, CBS Playhouse) and The Gold Watch (1976, Visions)—were screened at the Billy Wilder Theater in a retrospective of her work as part of the 2017 UCLA Festival of Preservation.[14]
Title | Original air date | Series | Preserved by | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Paley Center[15] | UCLA Archive[16] | |||
"My Father and My Mother" | February 13, 1968 | CBS Playhouse | No | Yes |
"The People Next Door" | October 15, 1968 | Yes | No | |
"Saturday Adoption" | December 4, 1968 | No | Yes | |
"The Experiment" | February 25, 1969 | No | Yes | |
"Shadow Game" | May 7, 1969 | Yes | Yes | |
"Sadbird" | December 1, 1969 | No | Yes | |
J.T. | December 13, 1969 | CBS Children's Hour | Yes | Yes |
"The Day Before Sunday" | February 10, 1970 | CBS Playhouse | No | Yes |
Two Brothers | October 21, 1976 | Visions | Yes | Yes |
The War Widow | October 28, 1976 | Yes | Yes | |
El Corrido | November 4, 1976 | No | Yes | |
The Gold Watch | November 11, 1976 | No | Yes | |
Liza's Pioneer Diary | November 18, 1976 | Yes | Yes | |
The Great Cherub Knitwear Strike | November 25, 1976 | No | Yes | |
Scenes from the Middle Class | December 16, 1976 | No | Yes | |
The Phantom of the Open Hearth | December 23, 1976 | No | Yes | |
The Tapestry and Circles | December 30, 1976 | No | Yes | |
Iowa | October 2, 1977 | Yes | No | |
Freeman | October 9, 1977 | No | Yes | |
Charlie Smith and the Fritter Tree | October 9, 1978 | No | Yes | |
Shoes and String | January 12, 1980 | No | Yes | |
It's the Willingness | January 19, 1980 | No | Yes |
References
- ^ a b c d e Seelye 2019.
- ^ a b Schulberg 2019.
- ^ Land 1976, p. 289.
- ^ Shepherd 1978, p. xv.
- ^ Arlen 1976, p. 198.
- ^ Gross 1979, p. 10.
- ^ Byer Winkler 1979, p. 31; Writers Guild of America, East 2012.
- ^ Paley Center for Media n.d.b; Drake 1982, p. 5.
- ^ Montañez Smukler & Rhee 2020.
- ^ O'Dell 2013, p. 20.
- ^ Paley Center for Media n.d.a.
- ^ The Museum of Television and Radio 2006.
- ^ UCLA Library n.d.a.
- ^ Quigley & Einstein 2017; Seelye 2019.
- ^ Paley Center for Media n.d.c.
- ^ UCLA Library n.d.b.
Sources
- Anon. (n.d.a). "MTR | She Made It | Barbara Schultz [Meet]". She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio. New York: Paley Center for Media. Archived from the original on October 20, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- Anon. (n.d.b). "MTR | She Made It | Barbara Schultz [Profile]". She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio. New York: Paley Center for Media. Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- Anon. (n.d.c). "MTR | She Made It | Barbara Schultz [Collection]". She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio. New York: Paley Center for Media. Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- Anon. (August 24, 2023). "UCLA Film & Television Archive Resources - Women in American Film and Television Production". UCLA Library Research Guides. Los Angeles: UCLA Library. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- Anon. (n.d.). "UCLA | UC Library Search - 'Barbara Schultz'". UCLA Film and Television Archive Catalog. Los Angeles: UCLA Library. Archived from the original on September 5, 2023. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- Anon. (October 12, 2006). "MTR Announces 2006 She Made It Honorees". PaleyCenter.org (Press release). New York & Los Angeles: The Museum of Television and Radio. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
- Anon. (2012). "Honorary Awards: Past Winners". WGAEast.org. New York: Writers Guild of America, East. Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
- Arlen, Michael J. (December 6, 1976). "The Air: What We Do in the Dark". The New Yorker. Vol. LII, no. 42. pp. 192–203. Retrieved September 4, 2023. (subscription required)
- Byer Winkler, Charlotte (Fall 1979). "Class Notes: 46". Barnard Alumnae. Vol. LXIX, no. 1. New York: Barnard College. p. 31. Retrieved September 4, 2023 – via the Internet Archive.
- Drake, Sylvie (March 6, 1982). "Seven 'Power Plays' at the Studio". Part V: Saturday/Calendar. Los Angeles Times. Vol. CI, no. 93. Los Angeles. p. 5. Retrieved September 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. (subscription required)
- Gross, Linda (June 11, 1979). "Hayes Presents WIF Award to Gish". Part IV: View. Los Angeles Times. Vol. CVIII, no. 190. Los Angeles. pp. 10, 13. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. (subscription required)
- Land, Herman W. (1976). "Public Television Production—'It Can't All Be Done by One Club'". In Cater Nyhan, Douglass; Nyhan, Michael J. (eds.). The Future of Public Broadcasting. New York: Praeger Publishers. pp. 275–291. ISBN 0-275-56990-X. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
- Montañez Smukler, Maya; Rhee, Jennifer (March 20, 2020). "In Recognition of Women's Work". UCLA Film and Television Archive. Los Angeles: UCLA Library. Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- O'Dell, Cary (2013). June Cleaver Was a Feminist! Reconsindering the Female Characters of Early Television. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-7177-5. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via the Internet Archive. (registration required)
- Quigley, Mark; Einstein, Dan (March 26, 2017). "Two by Barbara Schultz—Television Visionary". UCLA Film and Television Archive. Los Angeles: UCLA Library. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- Schulberg, Sandra (April 16, 2019). "Barbara Schultz, 92, Pioneering Television & Film Producer Won Major Awards While Battling for Creative License" (PDF). IndieCollect. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
- Seelye, Katharine Q. (April 16, 2019). "Barbara Schultz, 92, Dies; Produced Serious Drama in a Sitcom Era". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2023. (subscription required)
- Shepherd, Jean (1978). "An Introduction to the Film Script". The Phantom of the Open Hearth: A Film for Television. New York: Doubleday. pp. v–xvii. ISBN 0-385-12976-9 – via the Internet Archive. (registration required)