Donald W. Ohlmeyer is president of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), West Coast--a position he assumed in 1993. He recently signed a new contract with the network extending his tenure there until after the year 2000. As president of the West Coast division, Ohlmeyer is responsible for the operations of NBC Entertainment and NBC Productions--both of which produce television programs for the network and other venues. American television network production of such internally-developed programming has increased since the Federal Communications Commission relaxed its financial-syndication (fin-syn) regulations which previously limited such self-production.

Ohlmeyer is a veteran television producer-director who has won many Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He started his career at ABC Sports in 1967, and moved up the career ladder working on Wide World of Sports, a ground-breaking program in terms of technological broadcast innovation and breadth of coverage. At ABC, he directed three Olympic broadcasts in addition to producing Monday Night Football, an early ratings success and one of the first U.S. prime-time network sports programs (boxing excepted).

Ohlmeyer moved to NBC in 1977 as Executive Producer of Sports and worked on network coverage of the World Series and the Super Bowl. Combining his careers at ABC and NBC, he has produced or directed television coverage of championships in every major sport in the United States.

While at NBC, Ohlmeyer branched out into feature film production with The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story, an award-winning made-for-TV movie. He left NBC in 1982 to form his own production company, Ohlmeyer Communications, which produced made-for-TV films, award programs for MTV, and network series. In the latter category, Lifestories was an early reality-based series that garnered positive reviews from television critics for its story treatment, but failed to generate a large enough audience for renewal. Ohlmeyer won an Emmy as producer of Special Bulletin, a harrowing 1983 depiction of nuclear terrorism that utilized a television news approach for verisimilitude.

Don Ohlmeyer is a rarity among American television executives in that he has moved into senior management from the production side of the business. As producer-executive Grant Tinker also demonstrated at NBC, this type of background can be valuable in assessing potential projects and encouraging program submissions from producers. Ohlmeyer has leveraged his knowledge of sports, feature films, and special event coverage into a key position managing the production efforts of NBC at a time when the broadcast networks have an economic incentive to develop more of their own programming.

-Pete Seel

Don Ohlmeyer
Photo courtesy of Don Ohlmeyer

DONALD WINFRED OHLMEYER, JR. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., 3 February 1945. University of Notre Dame, B.A. in communications, 1967. Married: Adrian Perry, 1978; children: Kemper Perry; children by previous marriage: Justin Drew, Christopher Brett, and Todd Bivens. Associate director, ABC Sports, New York City, 1967-70; director, ABC Sports, 1971-72; producer, ABC Sports, 1972-77; president, Roadblock Productions from 1977; executive producer, NBC Sports, 1977-82; formed Ohlmeyer Communications Company, Los Angeles, 1982; chair of the board and chief executive officer from 1982; president, NBC West Coast, since 1993. Member: Directors Guild of America; Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. Recipient: numerous Emmy Awards; Cine Golden Eagle Award, 1979; Miami Film Festival Award, 1979; Humanitas Prize; National Film Board Award for Excellence. Address: NBC 3000 West Alameda Avenue, Burbank, CA 91523.

TELEVISION SERIES (selection)

1972-76 Monday Night Football (producer)
1990 Lifestories (director/executive producer)

MADE-FOR-TELEVISION MOVIES

1980 The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story
1983 Special Bulletin (executive producer)
1986 Under Siege
1987 Right to Die
1989 Cold Sassy Tree (executive producer)
1992 Crazy in Love

TELEVISION SPECIALS

1972 The Olympic Games (director)
1976 The Summer Olympics (director)
1976 The Winter Olympics (director)
1977 Us Against the World (also director)
1980 The Olympic Games (executive producer)
1988 Crimes of the Century
1988 John Denver's Christmas Special in Aspen
1989 Walt Disney World's 4th of July Spectacular (also          director)
1988 Season's Greetings--An Evening with John Williams         and the Boston Pops Orchestra
1990 Disney's Christmas on Ice

FURTHER READING

Coe, S. "Don Ohlmeyer and the Second Coming of Network TV." Broadcasting & Cable (Washington, D.C.), 12 April 1993.

_______________. "Ohlmeyer Reups at NBC." Broadcasting & Cable (Washington, D.C.), 10 July 1995.

See also Olympics and Television; Sports and Television