David Susskind
A Televised Life
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A rich biography of one of the most important cultural figures of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s—maverick television producer and talk show host David Susskind
A flamboyant impresario who began his career as an agent, David Susskind helped define a fledgling television industry. He was a provocateur who fought to bring high-toned literary works to TV. His series East Side/West Side and N.Y.P.D. broke the color barrier in casting and brought gritty, urban realism to prime time. He indulged his passion for issues and ideas with his long running discussion program, first called Open End and then The David Susskind Show, where guests could come from The White House one week and a whore house the next. The groundbreaking program made news year in and year out. His legendary live interview with Nikita Khrushchev at the height of the Cold War inflamed both the political and media establishments.
Susskind was an enfant terrible whose life—both on and off the screen—makes fascinating reading. His rough edges, appetite for women, and scorn for the business side of his profession often left his own career hanging by a thread.
Through extensive original reporting and deep access to David Susskind's personal papers, family members and former associates, Stephen Battaglio creates a vivid portrait of a go-go era in American media. David Susskind is as much a biography of an expansive and glamorous time in the television business as it is the life of one of its most colorful and important players.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Battaglio, TV Guide business editor, expands on an article he wrote about Susskind for the Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times in 2001 and delivers the first biography of the producer and talk-show host (1920 1987). In the post-WWII years, after work as a publicist and agent, Susskind launched his Talent Associates firm, quickly establishing a reputation as a prolific producer of live television with such leading series as The Philco Television Playhouse, Armstrong Circle Theater, and Dupont Show of the Month. He moved on to produce films (All the Way Home), Broadway shows (Rashomon), and Emmy-winning TV dramas (Death of a Salesman). As a groundbreaking talk-show host, Susskind reigned for 28 years, offering serious debates and discussions of culture, politics, racism, and other issues, yet his efforts to upgrade the "vast wasteland" of TV often brought him into conflicts and confrontations with the networks. Recounting such battles, while also looking at Susskind's family life, Battaglio has packed the pages with revelatory show business anecdotes, a result of interviewing more than 150 friends, family, and business associates. Battaglio views Susskind as a "fiery life force," and he has succeeded in capturing that spirit throughout this detailed, authoritative biography, written with an emotional edge.
