Remembering Don Mischer
We are sad to learn that Don Mischer has passed away at the age of 85. Mischer was a prolific director and producer, helming television specials (Kennedy Center Honors, Motown 25, Barbara Walters Specials), live events (the Super Bowl halftime show, the Democratic National Convention, the Olympics), and awards shows (the Tony Awards, the Emmy Awards). He was the winner of over a dozen Emmys.
Below are some excerpts from his 2008 interview:
On his interest in television starting during his childhood in San Antonio, Texas:
"[A]nytime I got near a television camera or could watch anything being televised -- and several times my country bands would play locally on television -- I just couldn’t take my eyes off the lights and the cameras and the process that was going on. … I would do things like, I remember I used to live on a street called Audrey Lane in northern San Antonio. And in the garage, we had 2x4 beams exposed and I would nail old bedspreads to like these 2x4 beams, attach strings to them and put them over nails and create a curtain that would go up. And I would take cardboard boxes that were about the shape of a black and white television camera and I would take toilet paper, empty spools or paper towel spools and stick them into the end of these boxes. I would put a broom handle in the box. And pretend that I had a television camera. And I was just enthralled with this.
Now during this whole time, of course, nobody was taking television that seriously. But I mean, I fantasized about it. I still have a paper in my attic at home that I did when I was, I think 12 years old, on television, in which I did the illustrations, did the scientific research. … It was just something that swept me off my feet. And as I’ve gone through my life, that’s been reaffirmed so many times. The power, the influence, and the culture-changing abilities of television. And in the beginning, it was extremely, extremely positive, in all those early years of television."
On advice for aspiring producers:
"Number one, care about what you’re doing. Don’t take the job lightly, really exhaust your options, in terms of different ways to create something, different ways to tell a story. Different ways to create an event or stage a musical number. You know, explore them. Make sure that you have perseverance, I think it’s the most important quality you can have in making a go of it in this business. You’ll find, you’ll have to be thick skinned at times because, no matter what you do or how good you do it, there are going to be times in which you make mistakes. And when you do, it will be pointed out in the press and you’ll have to deal with it with your fellow professionals in the business and just learn to accept those things, not look backward and go on to the next project."
On advice for aspiring directors:
"I would say, work with people. Work with directors that you respect, who’ve got respect in the business and try and learn from them. Learn the things they do right and learn their bad habits as well. And try and work with more than one, try and work with several of them and you’ll begin to absorb the things that work the best and then you can kind of make those your own ultimately when you sit in a director’s chair."
On his first Emmy win:
"Oh my god, I can’t -- it's indescribable. My first dreams of like being a network camera operator. And then I said to myself, ‘If I can ever just do a show that would air nationwide, direct one, I would, I could die and go to heaven and be really, really happy.’ And then after you’re out here for a few years you say, ‘If I could ever just get an Emmy nomination, that would be awesome.’ And then I got a couple of Emmy nominations. I think I got one for Goldie and Liza Together, which was a CBS show but did not win. And the first time I actually won was in 1981. For the Phil Donahue and Kids special. And it's, you know, you think about the fact that it's given to you by your competitors. If you win an Emmy as a director, it's other directors that have selected you. Or if you win as a producer, it's other producers who have selected you. And there’s no other feeling like it. And it was just euphoric. I just felt so good."
On the challenge of producing live events:
“[W]hat you think about normally are, these are the things that can go wrong. I mean, part of what you do in producing these kinds of things is you worry about what can go wrong. What if a little cloud comes over and it starts to rain? What if there is an earthquake? Okay, that rattles up stuff enough so that you lost your sound. When do you stop? When do you keep going forward? You know, what happens if there’s an accident? …I mean, unfortunately, that’s part of a producer’s job. …People call us stress junkies because we just have to live with that. And you do try and think about solutions. You do try to think about what you’ll do. But it is, it's high risk. And that’s part of the attraction, to me. I mean, it's high risk.”
Watch Don Mischer’s full interview and read his obituary in The Hollywood Reporter.