Woody Fraser, a prolific producer, creator and director behind such profitable selection and information exhibits like The Mike Douglas Show and Good Morning America, died on the age of 90 on Saturday.
He was nominated for quite a few Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on sequence like The Mike Douglas Present, GMA, The Dick Cavett Present and The Richard Simmons Present; in 1982, he gained the award for the lattermost present, shared along with his spouse Noreen Fraser, additionally a producer, who died in 2017 from breast most cancers. Notably, Fraser is accountable for establishing GMA because the foremost morning information and leisure program throughout his tenure because the present’s first government producer.
The information, first reported by Variety, was confirmed by Fraser’s daughter Stacy.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who labored with Fraser and regarded him a buddy, additionally confirmed the dying by way of social media, writing, “Woody Fraser was EP of my @FoxNews TV present & a TV pioneer. He was creator of many TV exhibits over 7 a long time. He gave Roger Ailes his 1st TV job. I liked the man. He was my mentor in TV. He died this weekend at age of 90. He was a legend.”
Fraser started his profession in 1960 as a director for NBC, the identical yr he first met Mike Douglas and created the co-host idea, launching his eponymous present — one of many longest-running and preeminently profitable discuss exhibits in TV historical past.
From 1966 and 1973, he oversaw an unprecedented 32.5 hours of tv programming each week, with simultaneous airings of The Mike Douglas Present, The Dick Cavett Present, The Della Reese Present, The Invoice Russell Present and Child Discuss. Further applications embody On Trial, What Would You Do?, The Household Problem, That’s Unbelievable!, The Dwelling Present, Dwelling & Household, America Alive, Individuals Do the Craziest Issues, Life’s Most Embarrassing Moments and extra over the course of his 50 years in Hollywood.
In more moderen years, he was behind CNBC’s McEnroe and Fox Information’ Huckabee. He additionally supported his spouse’s Stand Up to Cancer telethons, which united networks ABC, NBC and CBS to lift greater than $100 million for analysis and consciousness.
In 2018, Fraser was the topic of a wrongful termination and sexual harassment lawsuit on a part of two former workers of Dwelling & Household, who alleged they have been unfairly kicked out by Hallmark Channel proprietor Crown Media Household Networks. Fraser was finally eliminated by the father or mother firm after a variety of feminine workers and staffers took their long run claims to lawyer Lisa Bloom.