First Big Break

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

02:26

Tabs

About

“Breck is a very important part of my career. I did that commercial and I'm swinging my hair around and Glen Larson saw me on that and said I want her to be a lead in a McCloud.” - Jaclyn Smith, Actress

Interviewees discuss how they got their start in the entertainment industry.

Highlights

Jaclyn Smith on being a "Breck Girl" and appearing on McCloud

02:24

Norman Stiles on going to write for Sesame Street

03:21

Edie Falco on how she got her first agent

00:48

Martin Manulis on being hired by CBS

08:45

Lucy Lawless on playing "Xena" on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

05:49

Hal Linden on making his Broadway debut in "Bells Are Ringing" with Judy Holliday

05:24

Who talked about this topic

Chris Albrecht

Chris Albrecht on becoming President of Original Programming at HBO

04:44

Jason Alexander

Jason Alexander on performing in "Jerome Robbins Broadway"

10:07

Jason Alexander on being cast in The Seinfeld Chronicles, the pilot to Seinfeld

04:56

Dick Askin

Dick Askin on his first job in television

07:34

Rona Barrett

Rona Barrett on breaking into television

08:59

Rick Berman

Rick Berman on his early days in Los Angeles going to work at Warner Bros. and Paramount

08:49

Vin Di Bona

Vin Di Bona on his first television job at WBZ in Boston and becoming a director

07:40

Kevin Bright

Kevin Bright on his first job after graduating from Emerson College

01:40

David Brinkley

David Brinkley on being hired by NBC Radio

03:26

Connie Britton

Connie Britton on being cast as "Heather" on Ellen

01:14

Harvey Bullock

Harvey Bullock on coming to write for The Andy Griffith Show

01:09

Vince Calandra

Vince Calandra on his big break into entertainment - getting a job in the CBS mailroom without having an Ivy League degree

02:22

David Canary

David Canary on his first big TV role on Peyton Place, playing Mia Farrow's doctor

04:49

Jim Cantore

Jim Cantore on being hired by The Weather Channel

02:37

Glenn Gordon Caron

Glenn Gordon Caron on getting his big break at NBC - the unaired pilot The God Squad

06:14

RuPaul Charles

RuPaul Charles on his breakthrough hit song "Supermodel"

02:46

Alf Clausen

Alf Clausen on being a copyist for The Carol Burnett Show and various feature films

04:55

Barbara Corday

Barbara Corday on pitching a series with Barbara Avedon

05:41

Pierre Cossette

Pierre Cossette on the first music shows he produced

05:16

Douglas S. Cramer

Douglas S. Cramer on working at Procter & Gamble

06:06

Jane Curtin

Jane Curtin on being cast on Saturday Night Live

02:18

Tony Danza

Tony Danza on getting his first acting job on Fast Lane Blues

04:24

Bill Davis

Bill Davis on his first job at the Canadian Broadcasting Company

09:32

Elias Davis

Elias Davis and David Pollock on their first big break as writers for Pat Buttram on the radio

03:12

Betty Cole Dukert

Betty Cole Dukert on how she came to join Meet the Press as a producer

09:10

Jeff Fager

Jeff Fager on his first job out of college, at the NBC affiliate WBZ in Boston

01:17

Edie Falco

Edie Falco on how she got her first agent

00:48

Julian Fellowes

Julian Fellowes on writing the feature film "Gosford Park" for director Robert Altman

07:52

Tom Fontana

Tom Fontana on how he came to write for St. Elsewhere after being discovered by Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner

06:53

Albert Freedman

Albert Freedman on his big break - writing for Groucho Marx on You Bet Your Life

02:58

Harry Friedman

Harry Friedman on moving to Los Angeles and being hired to write for Hollywood Squares

03:52

Chuck Fries

Chuck Fries on going to work for Ziv Productions and moving to California

07:36

Paul Michael Glaser

Paul Michael Glaser on getting cast in Love of Life, appearing in the feature film "Fiddler on the Roof" and being put off by acting in film

03:29

Lesli Linka Glatter

Lesli Linka Glatter on being tapped by Steven Spielberg to direct Amazing Stories, and on shadowing many directors on that show

02:12

Gary David Goldberg

Gary David Goldberg on his mentor, Nate Monaster

00:34

Danette Herman

Danette Herman on her first television job on the Dick Clark series Where the Action Is

08:43

Ellen Holly

Ellen Holly on being discovered as an actress by Charlotte Perry

01:37

Ellen Holly on appearing as "Stephanie" in the Broadway production of "Too Late the Phalarope"

19:58

Felicity Huffman

Felicity Huffman on appearing on an ABC Afterschool Special called "Home Run for Love" when she was fifteen

02:06

Felicity Huffman on appearing on the Stephen King miniseries Golden Years, which she considers her first big break

01:49

Kim Hunter

Kim Hunter on playing "Stella Kowalski" in "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway in on film

05:51

David Isaacs

Ken Levine and David Isaacs on selling their first script, a spec for The Jeffersons

02:42

Al Jean

Al Jean on getting his first job in television

02:42

Geri Jewell

Geri Jewell on how a college friend inspired her to try stand-up comedy at the Comedy Store, which led to her breaking into television

05:15

Elodie Keene

Elodie Keene on editing Tales of the Unexpected for Norman Lloyd

09:54

David E. Kelley

David E. Kelley on meeting Steven Bochco and interviewing to work on L.A. Law

01:09

Walter Koenig

Walter Koenig on being cast as "Pavel Chekov" on Star Trek and making the character Russian

07:24

Lucy Lawless

Lucy Lawless on playing "Xena" on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

05:49

Norman Lear

Norman Lear on how he schemed to reach out to Danny Thomas and write a bit for him that turned out to be his big break

05:29

Jack Lemmon

Jack Lemmon on his first big break on the radio

04:00

Ken Levine

Ken Levine and David Isaacs on selling their first script, a spec for The Jeffersons

02:42

Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson on writing and performing with Craig T. Nelson on Lohman and Barkley

04:03

Hal Linden

Hal Linden on making his Broadway debut in "Bells Are Ringing" with Judy Holliday

05:24

Susan Lucci

Susan Lucci on auditioning for the character of "Erica Kane" on All My Children and finding out she got the part

01:55

Stewart MacGregory

Stewart MacGregory on going to work for NBC television

01:38

Robert MacNeil

Robert MacNeil on how he came to work for NBC

03:13

Martin Manulis

Martin Manulis on being hired by CBS

08:45

John A. Martinelli

John Martinelli on assistant editing The Lawrence Welk Show

01:36

David Milch

David Milch on how he came to write for Hill Street Blues

04:04

David Milch on how he came to write for Hill Street Blues

04:04

Millie Moore

Millie Moore on her first big break - working on the travelogue documentaries of Jack Douglas

01:15

Bob Newhart

Bob Newhart on his big break at the local Chicago Emmy Awards and recording his first comedy album

06:07

Bob Newhart on his national big break at the 1960 Emmy Awards

03:11

Laraine Newman

Laraine Newman on performing on The Lily Tomlin Special

03:04

Edward James Olmos

Edward James Olmos on being cast as "Martin Castillo" on Miami Vice

11:39

Bernie Orenstein

Bernie Orenstein on how he got his start in show business: he dropped out of college after appearing in a University of Toronto show called "The All Varsity Revue"

01:06

Bernie Orenstein on how his first writing job on a Canadian variety show produced by Norman Jewison led to his moving to New York City and writing for Candid Camera

02:31

Alan Perris

Alan Perris on his first television job at PBS station WVIZ in Cleveland

02:25

David Pollock

Elias Davis and David Pollock on their first big break as writers for Pat Buttram on the radio

03:12

Mark Rothman

Mark Rothman on his first professional writing job on The Mike Douglas Show

05:01

Thomas Del Ruth

Thomas Del Ruth on his working as an assistant cameraman at 20th Century Fox and learning his way around a camera

02:18

Joseph Sargent

Joseph Sargent on his first directing job on the series Lassie

08:56

John Shaffner

John Shaffner on starting out in television

11:54

John Shaffner on his big break in television in first run-syndication

03:15

Sam Simon

Sam Simon on how he came to write for Taxi

03:02

John Singleton

John Singleton on getting his first agent based on the strength of the screenplay to "Boyz n the Hood"

02:01

Yeardley Smith

Yeardley Smith on how she got her first New York agent

01:54

Yeardley Smith on her Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" directed by Mike Nichols

06:09

Jaclyn Smith

Jaclyn Smith on being a "Breck Girl" and appearing on McCloud

02:24

G.E. Smith

G.E. Smith on playing guitar for Hall & Oates and appearing with them on Saturday Night Live

03:47

Mark Snow

Mark Snow on The Rookies being the first show he worked on and getting the job through his then-brother-in-law, Georg Stanford Brown

01:12

Darren Star

Darren Star on how his first industry job, as an assistant at the public relations firm Guttman & Pam, led to his first break: selling a film script to Warner Bros.

04:18

Darren Star on the serendipitous events early on his career that led to his first big break, including working at Showtime for Peter Chernin, who later became the decision maker on Beverly Hills, 90210 at Fox

03:09

Jeremy Stevens

Jeremy Stevens on his first writing job for television on The Skitch Henderson Show

12:02

Norman Stiles

Norman Stiles on going to write for Sesame Street

03:21

Jeffrey Tambor

Jeffrey Tambor on appearing on Kojak, his first television role

02:10

Nina Tassler

Nina Tassler on how agent David Windsor helped her to see her potential to become an agent

01:45

Saul Turteltaub

Saul Turteltaub on forming a comedy team with a college friend and getting hired to perform at Catskills resorts

02:24

Saul Turteltaub on dating Shari Lewis (then Phyllis Hurwitz) at summer camp as a kid and calling her up for a writing job when he saw her on television in 1957

02:31

Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams on how she began performing at the Apollo Theater when she was nine years-old

02:09

Leslie Uggams on getting her start in television as a child on The Milton Berle Show and other variety shows

01:19

Keenen Ivory Wayans

Keenen Ivory Wayans on appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson; his childhood idol- and what it meant for him personally "like stepping into your dream"; on being asked to sit with Johnny after his act

04:45

Ellen Wheeler

Ellen Wheeler on being cast as "Marley Love Hudson McKinnon" on Another World

09:39

Cindy Williams

Cindy Williams on the effect the film "American Graffiti" had on her career and her fame

00:55

Hugh Wilson

Hugh Wilson on going to work for Armstrong and how he started in television at MTM Productions

09:31

Ben Wolf

Ben Wolf on his first television job as a cameraman at KLAC

05:49

Bud Yorkin

Bud Yorkin on his big break becoming director of The Colgate Comedy Hour at the behest of Pat Weaver

02:14

Jeff Zucker

Jeff Zucker on getting his first job after college, as an Olympic Researcher for NBC

04:52

Alan Zweibel

Alan Zweibel on meeting Lorne Michaels and being hired to write for Saturday Night Live

03:27

All Topics