Alan Perris

In his four-hour interview, Alan Perris talks about his early years in local television in Cleveland and Buffalo. He recalls his successful stint in Jacksonville as general manager of WJXT (the CBS affiliate/part of Post-Newsweek Stations) and later, working as general manager for both WPLG (ABC) and WTVJ (CBS) in Miami. Perris outlines programming for Columbia Tri-Star and going to work for Telepictures as Senior Vice President of First Run Programming, where he oversaw such shows as Ricki Lake, Jenny Jones, Change of Heart, Judge Mathis, Extra, and Street Smarts. He talks about his time at The Hallmark Channel and the new media company Entertainment Media Works. He discusses becoming COO of the Television Academy, where he helped get its financial house in order and negotiated new deals for the networks to run the Emmy Awards telecast. He also shares his philosophy of management and what he looks for when hiring staff. Karen Herman conducted the interview on December 3, 2013 in North Hollywood, CA.