Vin Di Bona | |
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![]() Di Bona in 2010 | |
Born | Vincent John Di Bona April 10, 1944 Cranston, Rhode Island, U.S. |
Other names | Johnny Lindy |
Alma mater | Emerson College University of California, Los Angeles |
Occupation | Television producer |
Employer(s) | Vin Di Bona Productions FishBowl Worldwide Media |
Notable work | MacGyver Entertainment Tonight America's Funniest Home Videos Dancing with the Stars |
Spouses |
Erica Gerard (m. 2006) |
Children | 1 |
Vincent John "Vin" Di Bona [1] (born April 10, 1944) is an American television producer of the television shows MacGyver , Entertainment Tonight , America's Funniest Home Videos and Dancing with the Stars . He runs an eponymous production company called Vin Di Bona Productions. In 2010, Di Bona launched a second business, FishBowl Worldwide Media, an independent production company developing properties for film, television, digital platforms and brands.
A Jewish native of Cranston, Rhode Island, [2] Di Bona began his career in the entertainment industry as a singer, under the stage name Johnny Lindy (the last name was taken from the Cranston area restaurant owned by his parents and where Di Bona worked as a pre-teen); releasing two records by the age of 16, which became hits regionally. However Di Bona turned his aspirations to making film and television in 1962, later saying "Guys who sang romantic ballads were up a creek without a paddle. So I adapted." [2]
In 2006, Di Bona married Erica Gerard, a television production executive he had known from his days at CBS. He has a daughter, Cara Di Bona Swartz, and a step-daughter, Jamie Goldstein.
He received an education at Emerson College in Boston, where he served as manager of WECB, the campus radio station. [3] Di Bona met his first wife, Gina, with whom he has a daughter, Cara. After graduating from Emerson in 1966 and earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in film at UCLA, he worked for nine years at Boston's WBZ-TV (channel 4).
After he left WBZ-TV, Vin moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1975. Di Bona did not find a job for about eight months but finally became employed at CBS directing and producing documentaries, which earned him four Emmys. [2] Di Bona also earned a Peabody Award for the documentary Down at the Dunbar. [4]
Di Bona is considered one of the pioneers of reality TV, thanks to Battle of the Network Stars , which Di Bona produced in 1976. [3] By the 1980s, Di Bona had become a producer for the syndicated newsmagazine Entertainment Tonight and later served as a producer for one season on the ABC series MacGyver ; he was also a director for the American Music Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards and produced taped segments for the 36th Annual Emmy Awards , among others. He also produced a short lived children's cartoon titled Tea Time with Space Dinosaur. [2]
Di Bona's first two television series creations were spawned from Japanese programs. Di Bona developed the ABC series Animal Crack-Ups , based on a popular Tokyo Broadcasting System game show called Waku Waku. America's Funniest Home Videos was inspired by another Tokyo Broadcasting System series, the variety show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan .
America's Funniest Home Videos, currently in its thirty-fourth year and the longest-running primetime entertainment show on ABC, reached a milestone 600 episodes in 2017. [5] The show eventually led to three spinoffs, America's Funniest People, the short-lived World's Funniest Videos, and Videos After Dark ; along with similar home video shows Show Me The Funny for Fox Family Channel (later ABC Family, now Freeform) and the syndicated series That's Funny . Di Bona also produced several made-for-TV movies and a Showtime series, Sherman Oaks. In 1991, Di Bona secured the rights to produce a revival of Candid Camera ; Allen Funt, who owned the rights to the show and agreed to the deal mainly because he needed the money, later spoke out against the revival in his 1994 autobiography. Funt stated that Di Bona had overused product placement and that neither he nor his choice of host, Dom DeLuise, grasped the concept of the show. [6]
Di Bona was chair for The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors for four years. Having served for many years on the board of trustees for his alma mater, Emerson College, he is now the Board's vice-chairman. He is also chairman of Emerson's 2013 fund-raising committee and donated one million dollars to kick-start the effort. Di Bona received the 2,346th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, August 23, 2007. In 2009, objects from America's Funniest Home Videos were accepted into the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, including the camcorder used to shoot the first winning video in 1989.
Vin Di Bona is executive producer of Upload with Shaquille O'Neal , which features the basketball superstar and TNT NBA analyst Shaquille O'Neal. The show consists of O'Neal and friends rounding up the week's online video clips, as well as creating their own viral videos and commenting on and parodying current pop culture stories. [7] The TruTV show also counts executive producers Bruce Gersh, Susan Levison, attorney-executive producer Ellen Stiefler, and writer-executive producer Yahlin Chang among its staff. Vin Di Bona is bringing Dr. Mimi Guarneri's book The Heart Speaks to television at ABC as a weekly medical television drama with Sony Pictures Television. [8]
In 1992, Arleen Sorkin, who was white, was fired as co-host from the television show America's Funniest People by Di Bona. In response, Sorkin filed a lawsuit against Di Bona, claiming that she was dismissed from the show due to her race, after ABC Chairman Dan Burke had suggested to Di Bona that Sorkin be replaced by an African-American or a person of another ethnic minority. Sorkin sought $450,000 for lost earnings and an additional unspecified amount for harm to her professional reputation and emotional injury. Sorkin additionally claimed that after she denounced the move as unfair, Di Bona changed plans and hired new cohost Tawny Kitaen, who is also white. [9]
In an interview for Ben Shapiro's Primetime Propaganda , Di Bona was asked if the accusation by many conservatives that "Hollywood is a leftist town" and leftist political perspectives dominate scripted television shows was accurate. Di Bona responded that it is "probably accurate, and I'm happy about it." [10] [11] This was a double-barreled question, however, because it asked if Hollywood is a politically left-wing town and if leftist ideologies dominate scripted shows. Shapiro used Di Bona's answer as evidence in his book that producers, executives and writers in the entertainment industry discriminate against conservatives and are using television to promote a socialist political agenda. Di Bona responded by accusing "Shapiro of misrepresentation, saying he never revealed his political agenda." [12]
In March 2019, DiBona's two production companies, Vin Di Bona Entertainment, Inc. and Fishbowl Worldwide Media, Inc., along with individual defendant Phil Shafran, were sued for sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and retaliation by three former female employees. The lawsuit, Case No. 19STCV09487 is pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. [13]
Candid Camera is an American hidden camera reality television series, with versions of the show appeared on television from 1948 until 2014. Originally created and produced by Allen Funt, it often featured practical jokes, and initially began on radio as The Candid Microphone on June 28, 1947.
America's Funniest Home Videos, also called America's Funniest Videos, is an American video clip television series on ABC, based on the Japanese variety show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan (1986–1992). The show features humorous homemade videos that are submitted by viewers. The most common videos feature unintentional physical comedy, pets or children and some staged pranks.
David William Thomas is a Canadian actor, comedian and television writer, known for being one half of the duo Bob and Doug McKenzie with Rick Moranis. He appeared as Doug McKenzie on SCTV, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award out of two nominations, and in the film Strange Brew (1983), which he also co-directed. As a duo, they made two albums, The Great White North and Strange Brew, the former gaining them a Grammy Award nomination and a Juno Award.
Thomas David Schlamme is an American television director, known particularly for his collaborations with Aaron Sorkin. He is known for his work as executive producer on The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as well as his work as director on Sports Night and The Americans.
America's Funniest People is an American reality show on ABC that debuted on May 13, 1990 as a 30 minute television special America's Funniest... Part II, aired after the popular America's Funniest Home Videos. The green-lit series, then named America's Funniest People for the fall season, aired as a weekly half-hour prime time series from September 9, 1990, to June 5, 1994. It was hosted by Dave Coulier and Arleen Sorkin from 1990 to 1992. Tawny Kitaen replaced Sorkin in 1992. The announcer was Ernie Anderson. Dan Slider composed the theme song, which was performed by Peter Hix.
Australia's Funniest Home Videos was an Australian television show on the Nine Network that presents home videos sent in by viewers. It was the Australian counterpart to America's Funniest Home Videos, which was also created by Vin Di Bona.
Thomas Raymond Bergeron is an American television personality, comedian, and game show host, best known for hosting Breakfast Time from 1994 to 1997, Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2004, America's Funniest Home Videos from 2001 to 2015, and Dancing with the Stars from 2005 to 2019 as well as being an anchor on Good Morning America from 1997 to 1998 and a cohost on the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008.
Arleen Frances Sorkin was an American actress, screenwriter, television presenter and comedian. Sorkin is known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial Days of Our Lives and for serving as the real-life inspiration and voice for DC Comics character Harley Quinn, co-created by her friend Paul Dini on Batman: The Animated Series.
Animal Crack-Ups is an ABC game show which aired in primetime from August 8 to September 12, 1987, after which it aired on Saturday mornings from September 12, 1987, to December 30, 1989, and again from June 2 to September 1, 1990. It was produced by ABC Productions in association with Vin Di Bona Productions and hosted by Alan Thicke, who was on Growing Pains at the time. The program was based on a Japanese Tokyo Broadcasting System Television series, Wakuwaku Dōbutsu Land.
Michael Tollin is an American film and television producer/director who served as executive producer of the Emmy award-winning The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty. The series received rave reviews and set numerous ratings records, being seen by nearly 15 million viewers per episode on ESPN and many million more on Netflix around the world.
Kato-chan Ken-chan Gokigen TV is a Japanese television variety show that aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System around the mid-1980s. Starring Ken Shimura and Cha Kato, former members of the group The Drifters from Hachiji Dayo! Zen'in Shugo, the irreverent and satirical program would poke fun at contemporary society in Japan, and would feature comedy vignettes similar to those found on The Benny Hill Show or The Carol Burnett Show. Leslie Nielsen once made a special appearance on the show as well.
Chris Bearde was a British-born comedy writer, producer and director best known for his work as a writer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and for co-writing and producing television specials for Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Sonny & Cher, Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Andy Williams, The Jackson 5, The Osmonds, Dinah Shore, Diana Ross, and Lucille Ball. He also created the format for the original Gong Show and a number of network and pay-cable comedy series including That's My Mama and Sherman Oaks.
Todd Thicke is a Canadian television writer and producer most known for his work as the executive producer and head writer of America's Funniest Home Videos since the show's premiere in 1989.
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Fishbowl Worldwide Media is an independent production company with a focus on transmedia development and production. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, it was founded by Vin Di Bona and Bruce Gersh.
"We Just Decided To" is the first episode of the first season of the American television series The Newsroom. It first aired on June 24, 2012 in the United States on HBO. "We Just Decided To" was written by creator Aaron Sorkin and directed by Greg Mottola. In the aftermath of his public tirade, acclaimed Atlantis Cable News anchor Will McAvoy returns to his job to find that most of his staff are leaving and his new executive producer is his ex-girlfriend, MacKenzie McHale and when some breaking news about a potentially disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hits the network, the staff faces a new challenge.
Upload with Shaquille O'Neal is an American comedy television series starring Shaquille O'Neal. It premiered on February 21, 2013, on truTV. It was announced in April 2013 that truTV has ordered an additional six episodes. New episodes were supposed to begin airing on February 26, 2014, but were never released.
Videos After Dark is an American video clip television special created by Vin Di Bona, and hosted by Bob Saget on ABC.
Thirty two reality show celebrities engage in competitive physical and mental challenges against one another.
Yahlin Chang ("Pan Am") is on board to pen the hour, which is set up at Sony Pictures Television. She'll executive produce alongside Fishbowl Worldwide Media's Vin Di Bona, Bruce Gersh and Susan Levison as well as Ellen Stiefler.[ dead link ] Alt URL