Art Works Podcast: Frank Price, Part One
This week, in the first of a two-part interview, we meet Hollywood writer, producer, and executive Frank Price. A current member of the National Council on the Arts, Price has had enormous impact on media culture in the second half of the 20th century, and on into the 21st. As president of Columbia Pictures, he oversaw the productions of award-winning films such as Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, and Gandhi. He then went to Universal Pictures where he supervised the productions of notable films like Back to the Future and Out of Africa. He returned to Columbia as chairman, and greenlighted more award-winners like A League of Their Own and Boyz in the Hood.
Price was so successful in film, it's sometimes difficult to remember that he spent the first half of his career in televison. In fact, it's actually hard to imagine what television would be like without Frank Price. He came to television as a story editor and writer, and became head of Universal TV in the 1970s, where he developed or supervised The Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica, The Rockford Files, Kojak, and Columbo. He was the first person to expand the length of a TV series to 90 minutes, and he also created the mini-series and made-for-TV movies.
Next week, part two of our conversation with Frank Price will focus on the movies.
