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Howard Blumenthal is an American television and new media producer, author, educator, and executive. Born and raised in New York City and nearby suburbs, he is the son of author and Concentration producer Norm Blumenthal, and the grandson of radio and music retailer Harry Blumenthal. He is best known as the co-creator and producer of the Peabody Award winning PBS series, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
A college assignment resulted in an extensive, unpublished encyclopedia of rock music, which provided access to the record industry. He became a publicist at Warner Bros. Records' New York City office, and a music journalist for ROCK, Circus, Crawdaddy!. He worked on the production and research staff of ABC game shows, The Big Showdown and The Money Maze, writing questions for the later about popular music.
In 1976, Warner Communications initiated a new venture in cable television called QUBE. [1] The venture focused on two key developmental areas: new cable television channels; and the development of interactive television. Although several new cable television channels were contemplated, three channels were developed: a music channel for teenagers that became MTV; a channel for children called Nickelodeon; and a movie channel to compete with Showtime and HBO called The Movie Channel. Blumenthal led the initial team responsible for the music channel, producing its first pilot program with director Glenn Gordon Caron. For the interactive television effort, Blumenthal developed and produced interactive games (based upon an interactive console developed by Warner's technology group and Pioneer Electronics); including the first interactive game show, How Do You Like Your Eggs? hosted by Bill Cullen, and a prototype for a 24-hour automated game channel whose contributors included Charles Csuri. Blumenthal also coordinated efforts between QUBE and new Warner acquisition Atari.
In the 1980s, many media companies were beginning to explore the potential of new technologies. The popularity of portable audio devices resulted in a new form of publishing: adaptations of books on audiotape. As head of marketing for Warner Audio Publishing, the company established learning products with Looney Tunes; penetration into the emerging young adults market with Sweet Valley High; and high-profile products suitable for mall store sale with celebrity biographies. For Wiley, he developed and produced a product line for sophisticated business customers; topics included personal finance, creativity and innovation, power and authority, and high-level corporate strategy. Some of these projects resulted in books series, notably The Portable MBA series. As additional storage capacity became available, book and software publishers developed more sophisticated educational games. For Parker Brothers, Blumenthal developed a computer game to demonstrate the cooperative thinking skills provided by various parts of the brain. For The Learning Company, he developed product and market strategies for adult education in foreign languages.[ citation needed ]
In the 1990s, technology and industry demand shifted to richer interactive works. He worked with HarperCollins to develop a rich interactive version of the popular illustrated children's book, Whatley's Quest, and with Merriam Webster in the reinvention of interaction between young students and dictionaries; the resulting work was Merriam-Webster's Dictionary for Kids, published by Mindscape. As Editor-in-Chief for a new CompuServe project, he developed the first on-line service for children, and a personal finance service for adults with Money magazine. With KidSoft (subsequently acquired by Hearst), children and parents were encouraged to explore new learning software and the emerging online environment through a magazine, a club membership, and samples of software that could be used on then-new personal computers.
By the late 1990s, new media investment had shifted from the CD-ROM and online service business to internet sites. Partly as a result of its acquisition of competitor Music Boulevard, [2] CDNow had emerged as the leader in the music retailing vertical. Encouraged by an upcoming merger with Columbia House (a record club owned by Time Warner and SONY), CDNow developed plans to become "the MTV of the internet"—with an emphasis on music industry news, artist interviews, internet radio, and video documentaries about music and musicians. Blumenthal was hired as the executive in charge of the new effort, which eventually expanded to include advertising, business development, public relations, promotion, record company relationships, artist relations, and projects with Oldsmobile, Hard Rock Cafe, and other partners. Subsequently, CDNow was acquired by Bertelsmann. [3]
Early work as a television producer resulted in various series for Warner and its QUBE network, including a popular movie game show, Screen Test. As Showtime attempted to compete with fast-growing competitor HBO, the U.S.’s second largest pay TV network invested in entertainment specials and the re-staging of Broadway shows. Completed works in this domain include The Me Nobody Knows, a musical whose lyrics were written by inner-city children, presented by James Earl Jones; The Passion of Dracula; Spectacular Scandinavia!, featuring ABBA and Victor Borge at Tivoli Gardens; and Richiardi's Chamber of Horror & Illusion, hosted by Vincent Price.
As the new home video business emerged, new production and distribution opportunities emerged. It was now possible to develop a program for a very specific special interest audience, with targeted sponsorship and targeted distribution. One early example was The World's Greatest Photography Course, sponsored by Minolta Camera Corp. with assistance from AgfaPhoto, distributed not through the new home video stores, but through established camera stores—a new idea in the 1980s. Another was the baseball documentary, The Boys of Summer , based upon Roger Kahn's story of the Jackie Robinson-era Brooklyn Dodgers.[ citation needed ]
By the mid-1980s, new cable networks were sufficiently well-established to support original half-hour series. For Nickelodeon, this path began with Scholastic Productions and Blumenthal for a series called Double Dare . For MTV, the 24/7 format was broken by Remote Control, its first half hour series, developed by Joe DaVola, Lauren Corrao, Michael Duggan and Blumenthal, who appears on the program's credits as "high-priced consultant." International game show formats were emerging as a more modern business, so Blumenthal formed Ashton-Mist Productions with former NBC international marketing executive Gary Wald, resulting in a British series on ITV based upon digital manipulation of images called Perception.[ citation needed ]
From 1990 until 1994, Blumenthal served as project lead for Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? , produced for PBS by WGBH, Boston and WQED, Pittsburgh. [4] Based upon the computer game published by Broderbund, the series presented three "gumshoe" contestants in a fantasy detective office, attempting to track down animated gang members who stole, for example, the Eiffel Tower. The cast included Greg Lee, Lynne Thigpen, and Rockapella. The series was developed and produced by Blumenthal, and co-developed with writer Dorothy Curley and director Dana Calderwood. He also supervised production, and served as story editor, for Cartoon Network's first original series, The Moxy Pirate Show, produced by using then-new motion capture technology, featuring the voices of Bobcat Goldthwait and Penn Jillette.
In 1997, Blumenthal and Calderwood established a new television production company in New York City called Glow in the Dark Productions. Partners included former Carmen Sandiego head writer Charles Nordlander and former Carmen producer Lynn Kestin, along with former Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? producer Shirley Abraham. The company produced seven specials for The History Channel under the umbrella title: The Great American History Quiz, featuring nearly 200 celebrities including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Hank Aaron, and B.B. King; two series for Food Network, Pressure Cooker and Taste Test; one series for HBO Family, 30x30 KidFlicks; several pilot programs including work for TV Land and Cinemax, and a syndicated series for Universal Television called Crossing Over with John Edward.
Since 2005, Blumenthal has served as CEO for Independence Media, a Philadelphia-based public television operation that is among the few unaffiliated with PBS. In 2008, Independence Media introduced a new service, MiND: Media Independence. The service is based upon 5-minute programs in rotation throughout the week, similar to the format originally developed for MTV. MiND programs emphasize learning about a wide range of topics, and also emphasize positive aspects of community building. Over 1,000 people have attended MiND's production Boot Camps; some of them have submitted MiND programs currently on the air. The service is also seen in the New York City market, and on the nonprofit organization's internet site. [5]
Within the public television industry, and the commercial media industries, Blumenthal's efforts have focused on reinvention and new opportunities based upon new technologies. [6] As CEO of MiND, he demonstrated the viability of a low-cost, high-impact public media operation. As Executive Director of New Jersey Network, a New Jersey State Authority, and President of the NJN Foundation, which raised money for New Jersey Public Broadcasting, Blumenthal wrote and lectured about the need for new, more contemporary public television models. [7] Previously, Blumenthal was a Senior Vice President at Bertelsmann (Direct Group), responsible for integration of CDNow, Napster, and record club operations; a Senior Vice President at CDNow, responsible for media, business development, marketing, and other customer-facing activities; Senior Vice President of KidSoft, Inc, which provided children and parents with a safe entry in the new personal computing space; and President of Glow in the Dark Productions, a television program supplier in New York City.[ citation needed ]
Blumenthal was an active magazine writer, with work published in TV Guide , Stereophile , American Film, Video, Video Review, Crawdaddy! , and other publications. From 1983 until 1997, he wrote The Hi-Tech Home newspaper column, first for The New York Times syndicate and then for United Feature Syndicate. The column reported and commented on consumer electronics products, music, photography, digital literacy, and changes in the media landscape. The column appeared regularly in over 100 newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times , The Plain Dealer , St. Louis Post-Dispatch , The Cincinnati Enquirer , and many Gannett papers.
He is the author of more than twenty books about media and culture, including This Business of Television, with attorney and law professor Oliver Goodenough, published by Random House / Billboard Books. [8] Branded for Life examines the role of marketing in daily life, and the sometimes detrimental combination of belief systems, government regulations, corporate activities and the power of brands. The Creative Professional is a business book for the 1 in 30 Americans who earn a living in a creative profession. Both were published by Emmis Books. [9]
He is the co-author of several books, based upon the History Channel series, published by Warner Books under the Great American History Quiz title. Four genre-specific books, The CD Listener's Guides to World Music, Classical Music, Jazz, and Blues, were published by Billboard Books. The Complete Time Traveler: A Tourist's Guide to the Fourth Dimension, was written with Dorothy Curley and Brad Williams, and was among the first illustrated books to be produced with desktop publishing software (Aldus PageMaker, later reworked as Adobe InDesign).[ citation needed ]
Blumenthal has been affiliated with New School University, The Annenberg School for Communication at University of Pennsylvania, and lectured at MIT, Drexel University, Temple University, and other colleges and universities.
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? is an American animated television series based on the series of computer games. The show was produced by DIC Productions L.P. and originally aired from 1994 to 1999, on Saturday mornings during FOX's Fox Kids Network block. Reruns aired on the Qubo television network from June 9, 2012 to May 26, 2018.
Carmen Sandiego is a series of American educational mystery video games that spawned an edutainment franchise of the same name. The game released in 1985, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, started off both the video game series and the franchise as a whole, which has continued up to the present day. Each game of the series has a particular theme and subject, where the player must use their knowledge to find Carmen Sandiego or any of her innumerable henchmen. This series was originally owned by Broderbund, but is now owned by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since its initial release the series has won over 125 awards and accolades.
Warner Bros. Television Studios is the television production and distribution arm owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia. Alongside ViacomCBS' television arm CBS Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW, though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on Showtime. As of 2015, it is one of the world's two largest television production companies measured by revenue and library.
In Demand is an American cable television service which provides video on demand services, including pay-per-view. Comcast, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications jointly own iN DEMAND.
Steven Jay Ross was an American businessman who was the CEO of Time Warner, Warner Communications, and Kinney National Services, Inc.
Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums is a 2004 action-adventure video game developed by A2M and published by BAM! Entertainment under license by The Learning Company. The game is based on the Carmen Sandiego series and features Cole Gannon along with Jules Argent, Shadow Hawkins and the Chief of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge.
WildBrain Entertainment, Inc. was an American animation studio that developed and produced television programming, motion pictures, commercial content and licensed merchandise. Established in 1994, it maintained offices in Los Angeles and New York City.
Steve Bornstein is the chairman of the Media Networks division of the gaming company Activision Blizzard. He previously held high-ranking roles at NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC. While at ESPN, he organized showing SportsCenter reruns during the morning hours.
Carmen Sandiego is a media franchise based on a series of computer games created by the American software company Broderbund. While the original 1985 Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? video game was classified as a "mystery exploration" series by creators and the media, the series would later be deemed edutainment when the games became unexpectedly popular in classrooms. The franchise centers around the fictional thieving villain of the same name, who is the ringleader of the criminal organization, V.I.L.E.; the protagonists are agents of the ACME Detective Agency who try to thwart the crooks' plans to steal treasures from around the world, while the later ultimate goal is to capture Carmen Sandiego herself.
QUBE was an experimental two-way, multi-programmed cable television system that played a significant role in the history of American interactive television. It was launched in Columbus, Ohio, on December 1, 1977. Highly publicized as a revolutionary advancement, the QUBE experiment introduced viewers to several concepts that became central to the future development of TV technology: pay-per-view programs, special-interest cable television networks, and interactive services.
Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time is a 1997 edutainment point-and-click adventure game developed by Broderbund for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh devices. The game is a remake of the 1989 time-travel title Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, making it the second Time video game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise. The game was strongly influenced by the short-lived PBS game show, Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?. The game was previewed at the 1997 Toy Fair in New York City. A demo version was included on the CD for Carmen Sandiego Word Detective and was available on the Carmen Sandiego website. After Broderbund was sold to The Learning Company, the game was re-released with the new title—Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time—but minimal redesign.
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is a 1996 video game part of the Carmen Sandiego franchise. It was the third version of the game, after the 1985 original title of the same name and a 1992 Deluxe version of said game. The game's release coincided on the heels of the end of the PBS game show, and features QuickTime videos of Lynne Thigpen reprising her role as "The Chief". This was the last version of the game to follow the "classic" formula of the series, but much of the game, especially the "warrant" portion, was heavily redesigned. The Deluxe Edition released in 1998 added speech welcoming the player to each country and an "ACME Global Language Link-Up" satellite which quizzed the user on the local language. Players also received a spy watch and "an introduction to 12 foreign languages".
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? is an educational video game released by Broderbund on April 23, 1985. It is the first product in the Carmen Sandiego franchise. The game was distributed with The World Almanac and Book of Facts, published by Pharos Books. An enhanced version of the game was released in 1989, which did not have the almanac-based copy protection and instead used disk-based copy protection. A deluxe version was released in 1992, and featured additional animation and a reworked interface from the original version. Some of the bonus features included digitized photos from National Geographic, over 3200 clues, music from the Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings, 20 villains, 60 countries, and 16 maps. CD-ROM versions for MS-DOS and Macintosh were released in 1992, and a Windows version was released in 1994.
Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego? is a game produced by Broderbund and released in 1993 for MS-DOS and 1994 for Macintosh. The game, for both children and adults, teaches players about the solar system. Even though the game was not a "deluxe" edition, its title was stylised as Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe Edition.
Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math is a series of five games released in 2011/2012 for the Wii, and is part of the Carmen Sandiego franchise. The style of the games are reminiscent of comic books. The 5-part series were the first English language console games from the Carmen Sandiego franchise since The Secret of the Stolen Drums. These "short, educational detective adventures" are "only available as a download through the Nintendo Wii Shop". The games were developed by Gamelion Studios, and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They could take up to 6 players, and required 600 Wii points. Maths topics included in the games include: Symmetry, Identifying angles, Graphing coordinates on a grid, Logic puzzles, Working with fractions, Solving equations, and Tangrams. The games are designed for elementary learners across grades 3–5.
Carmen Sandiego Returns is a 2015 social studies puzzle adventure video game, part of the Carmen Sandiego franchise. It is developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and uses Intel RealSense Technology in order to enhance the immersive nature of player interaction. The educational game aims to teach players about world geography and culture to its 10–14 year old target market.
America Goes Bananaz is a teenager-oriented variety show presented by Michael Young and Randy Hamilton. It premiered locally on QUBE's C-1 channel in 1977, with the title Columbus Goes Bananaz. The series was renamed America Goes Bananaz in preparation for a move to then-upcoming youth-oriented national network Nickelodeon; all episodes aired from January 19, 1979, onward used this title.
Carmen Sandiego is an animated action-adventure streaming television series with educational elements, based on the media franchise of the same name created by Broderbund. The series is produced by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt with WildBrain serving as the production company, and contains a "serialized look at Carmen's backstory that is told from her perspective". Serving as an origin story for the fictional thieving villain of the same name, it is the fourth Carmen Sandiego television show after the PBS game shows Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, and the Fox animated series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?; it is also the first Carmen Sandiego related show since the end of Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego in 1999.
CJ Kettler is an American media executive and entrepreneur. She has held senior management positions with Hearst, MTV Networks, Vestron, Oxygen Media, Channel One News, Travelzoo, LIME, and others.
Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? is a series of three video games utilising Google Earth released as tie-ins to the Netflix animated series released in the same year. To develop the series, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt partnered with Google. The games utilize the Google Earth software, and runs as an add-on that can be played by clicking the icon of Carmen Sandiego. The game is played by Google's Chrome web browser on a PC, or with the Google Earth app on iOS and Android devices. It aims to be a reimagining of the original 1985 video game, using Google Earth.