I just finished reading Aaron Spelling’s autobiography and boy was I impressed with his accomplishments in life. He was this poor little kid from Dallas, Texas who ventured out in Hollywood with $200(his parents life savings) in his pocket and has made way to become one of the Hollywood’s wealthiest television producer in his time. For once, I wish I can work really,really, really hard to fulfill my dreams. For now, I just have to keep on swimming! ;)
Some of Spelling’s notable television series are as follows;
Zane Grey
Burke’s Law
The Mod Squad
Starsky and Hutch
S.W.A.T.
Family
Charlie’s Angels (with Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jacklyn Smith as Charlie’s Angels)
The Love Boat
Fantasy Island
Vegas
Hart to Hart
Beverly Hills
Melrose Place
There was one instance wherein Fred Pierce (New-York-based ABC President) had some story problems when Spelling made the pilot of Charlie’s Angels and didn’t sell. Peirce said he thought the girls were marvelous but it doesn’t make sense to have the girls working for a guy over the telephone. He questioned on how the girls will know what to do and where do these girls come from etc etc.
So Spelling did his best to talk them out of the situation.
“Fred, you haven’t seen the main title yet. It says, “Once upon a time there were three young ladies who graduated from the police academy and were given outstanding jobs. One is a traffic cop helping kids across the street. One is a girl typing in the office, and one is a meter maid. I took them all the way from that. Now, they work for me. My name is Charlie.”
And that made the trick. Spelling made that up on the spot! Fred was all excited and said, “Oh, they went to a police academy? Great. Let’s go.”
Clever! :)
And how could I forget Beverly Hills and Melrose Place? I know I was way too young that time but I do remember bits and spots of it. Oh my Marcia Cross (from Desperate Housewives) and Kristin Davis (from Sex and the City) were actually two of the casts in Melrose Place and Tori Spelling was also in the set of Beverly Hills. I just found out when I read Spelling’s Prime Time Life autobiography. Whoa!
