Special Guest
Burt Dubrow
Producer
Burt Dubrow has changed the face of television. Before Oprah, Ellen, “The View”, or even reality TV, the daytime talk show space was a male dominated market with primarily female viewers at home. Burt Dubrow had the courage and the vision to change the landscape by putting the first female talk show host on air. Her iconic red glasses, her desire to ask the controversial questions viewers were thinking and the fact that women at home saw themselves in Sally made way for female talk show hosts to dominate the arena today. Multiple Emmy Award, Cable Ace Award and Peabody winning producer, praised by industry leaders and the media for having “an intuitive sense of what people want to watch,” Burt developed and consistently reinvented the genre of daytime talk, producing many of television’s most successful shows. When examining Dubrow’s career, Burt was destined to transform television due to his fascination and downright obsession with the medium dating back to his youth in the 1950s. A career that has spanned 5 decades and counting, Burt Dubrow is television pioneer and legend.
From his earliest memories, Dubrow was fascinated and determined to produce television. Growing up in New Rochelle, New York in the 1950’s, Dubrow made it his mission to befriend the host of the wildly popular children’s show “Howdy Doody” as he learned Bob Smith had a liquor store nearby. Young Burt went to the store daily until Bob just could not ignore this pint-sized “pest” and a friendship blossomed that would last until Smith’s death. Around age 10, Burt would take the bus to New York City to attempt to join the audience of the shows he was watching on TV while writing in asking for signed photos and tickets. A lover of ventriloquism and comedy, Burt would walk around with his Jerry Mahoney figure and became known for his persistence and certainty that he would work in television one day. Burt went on to attend Grahm Junior College briefly where he produced the student television show, “The Grahm Spotlight” and hunted down celebrities such as Joan Rivers to serve as guests when they would come through Boston! In a full circle moment, Dubrow left school to serve as Bob Smith’s Road Manager for the Howdy Doody College Tour.
Post working on the college tour, Dubrow officially began his illustrious professional career as the youngest ever Associate Producer of the local morning series Kennedy & Company on Chicago’s WLS-TV, as well as three other shows where he began to mix news and entertainment. From there he became Associate Producer on the Mike Douglas Show. Dubrow handled all the comics on the show including, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Flip Wilson, Freddy Prince, and David Brenner to name a few. He then moved on to Executive Produce all live programming for Warner Communications’ Qube, the first two-way television system. While at Qube, Dubrow designed and implemented a wide variety of game shows that were the foundation of the Qube Network. This led him to create and Executive Producer the first teenage talk/game show, America Goes Bananas, which won a Cable Ace Award and helped launch the Nickelodeon Network.
After leaving Qube, Dubrow spent four years producing ABC-TV’s Kids Are People Too. Dubrow formed Burt Dubrow Productions where he has been involved in numerous consulting and piloting projects with such companies as Fremantle Media, Discovery Networks, MTV, Nickelodeon, and others. Other past endeavors include Executive Producer on Its Christopher Lowell for Discovery (which aired for 8 seasons), co-created and Executive Producer of The New Tom Green Show for MTV, as well as creating a prime time special for TV Land which prompted the network to pick up six episodes of Alf’s Hit Talk Show. Burt Dubrow Productions also updated I’ve Got a Secret, a classic hit game show with a contemporary twist, for GSN “Game Show Network”. Dubrow has been fortunate to excel on both management and creative levels, giving him a varied and unique perspective of the broadcasting industry.
Dubrow was responsible for the launch of The Sally Jessy Raphael Show. A true visionary, Burt knew that Sally Jessy Raphael would be the first daytime female host of an issue driven syndicated talk show. When he approached Sally, an unknown broadcaster in a small market, he broke two traditional rules of television: radio personalities do not translate to television and women cannot host talk shows focusing on controversial issues. This successful syndicated series spanned a phenomenal 18 years nominated for 10 Emmy Awards which included 2 wins. Named Senior Vice President of Programming for Multimedia Entertainment, Dubrow also saw potential in another little-known local news commentator, Jerry Springer, and developed a talk show around him. Burt served as Executive Producer on both series. Some of Dubrow’s other projects include Executive Producer for Dr. Joy Browne and Executive Producer for the syndicated series Crook & Chase.
Dubrow developed and produced Dr. Drew’s live nightly news program for CNN’s sister station HLN. For 6 years, Dubrow served as the Executive Producer of The Dr. Drew Show which covered breaking news and late breaking developments on the stories of the day. Dubrow was praised for putting the show on the map in the already crowded cable news space with a unique and diverse panel. Under Dubrow’s direction, several of Drew’s programs won awards, including a Peabody Award. During Dr. Drew’s show, Instagram and Snapchat were launched. Dr. Drew’s show was one of the first to use live comments on the air and interact with the audience in a way that no other show had at the time.
Currently Dubrow is Senior Executive Producer of “Daily Blast Live” a nationally syndicated daytime talk show airing in 76 markets and on 80 stations across the country, representing 48% distribution nationwide. DBL markets consist of 52 TEGNA and 24 non-TEGNA markets including Scripps, Hearst, and Gray. In addition to the broadcast, “DBL” streams 4.5 hours of content weekdays on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, homepage, the DBL app and TEGNA’s OTT station apps on Roku. Daily Blast Live is the first show of its kind. DBL crowd sources its content, allowing the audience to interact with the show in real time, all over the country through social media.
Dubrow has had personal relationships with many celebrity TV icons over the years and has intimate stories that make you feel that you were there with them. These include Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Shari Lewis, Paul Winchell, Alan Ludden, Betty White, Joan Rivers, Wink Martindale and Pat Sajack, to name a few. Dubrow is a student of television with a memorabilia collection from the 50’s and 60’s that include ventriloquist figures, videotapes, photographs, animation cels, and other nostalgic pieces.
Burt currently resides in Denver, Colorado with his wife, Lynn. Together they have two daughters, Ali and Liza, and a son-in-law Andrew.
From his earliest memories, Dubrow was fascinated and determined to produce television. Growing up in New Rochelle, New York in the 1950’s, Dubrow made it his mission to befriend the host of the wildly popular children’s show “Howdy Doody” as he learned Bob Smith had a liquor store nearby. Young Burt went to the store daily until Bob just could not ignore this pint-sized “pest” and a friendship blossomed that would last until Smith’s death. Around age 10, Burt would take the bus to New York City to attempt to join the audience of the shows he was watching on TV while writing in asking for signed photos and tickets. A lover of ventriloquism and comedy, Burt would walk around with his Jerry Mahoney figure and became known for his persistence and certainty that he would work in television one day. Burt went on to attend Grahm Junior College briefly where he produced the student television show, “The Grahm Spotlight” and hunted down celebrities such as Joan Rivers to serve as guests when they would come through Boston! In a full circle moment, Dubrow left school to serve as Bob Smith’s Road Manager for the Howdy Doody College Tour.
Post working on the college tour, Dubrow officially began his illustrious professional career as the youngest ever Associate Producer of the local morning series Kennedy & Company on Chicago’s WLS-TV, as well as three other shows where he began to mix news and entertainment. From there he became Associate Producer on the Mike Douglas Show. Dubrow handled all the comics on the show including, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Flip Wilson, Freddy Prince, and David Brenner to name a few. He then moved on to Executive Produce all live programming for Warner Communications’ Qube, the first two-way television system. While at Qube, Dubrow designed and implemented a wide variety of game shows that were the foundation of the Qube Network. This led him to create and Executive Producer the first teenage talk/game show, America Goes Bananas, which won a Cable Ace Award and helped launch the Nickelodeon Network.
After leaving Qube, Dubrow spent four years producing ABC-TV’s Kids Are People Too. Dubrow formed Burt Dubrow Productions where he has been involved in numerous consulting and piloting projects with such companies as Fremantle Media, Discovery Networks, MTV, Nickelodeon, and others. Other past endeavors include Executive Producer on Its Christopher Lowell for Discovery (which aired for 8 seasons), co-created and Executive Producer of The New Tom Green Show for MTV, as well as creating a prime time special for TV Land which prompted the network to pick up six episodes of Alf’s Hit Talk Show. Burt Dubrow Productions also updated I’ve Got a Secret, a classic hit game show with a contemporary twist, for GSN “Game Show Network”. Dubrow has been fortunate to excel on both management and creative levels, giving him a varied and unique perspective of the broadcasting industry.
Dubrow was responsible for the launch of The Sally Jessy Raphael Show. A true visionary, Burt knew that Sally Jessy Raphael would be the first daytime female host of an issue driven syndicated talk show. When he approached Sally, an unknown broadcaster in a small market, he broke two traditional rules of television: radio personalities do not translate to television and women cannot host talk shows focusing on controversial issues. This successful syndicated series spanned a phenomenal 18 years nominated for 10 Emmy Awards which included 2 wins. Named Senior Vice President of Programming for Multimedia Entertainment, Dubrow also saw potential in another little-known local news commentator, Jerry Springer, and developed a talk show around him. Burt served as Executive Producer on both series. Some of Dubrow’s other projects include Executive Producer for Dr. Joy Browne and Executive Producer for the syndicated series Crook & Chase.
Dubrow developed and produced Dr. Drew’s live nightly news program for CNN’s sister station HLN. For 6 years, Dubrow served as the Executive Producer of The Dr. Drew Show which covered breaking news and late breaking developments on the stories of the day. Dubrow was praised for putting the show on the map in the already crowded cable news space with a unique and diverse panel. Under Dubrow’s direction, several of Drew’s programs won awards, including a Peabody Award. During Dr. Drew’s show, Instagram and Snapchat were launched. Dr. Drew’s show was one of the first to use live comments on the air and interact with the audience in a way that no other show had at the time.
Currently Dubrow is Senior Executive Producer of “Daily Blast Live” a nationally syndicated daytime talk show airing in 76 markets and on 80 stations across the country, representing 48% distribution nationwide. DBL markets consist of 52 TEGNA and 24 non-TEGNA markets including Scripps, Hearst, and Gray. In addition to the broadcast, “DBL” streams 4.5 hours of content weekdays on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, homepage, the DBL app and TEGNA’s OTT station apps on Roku. Daily Blast Live is the first show of its kind. DBL crowd sources its content, allowing the audience to interact with the show in real time, all over the country through social media.
Dubrow has had personal relationships with many celebrity TV icons over the years and has intimate stories that make you feel that you were there with them. These include Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Shari Lewis, Paul Winchell, Alan Ludden, Betty White, Joan Rivers, Wink Martindale and Pat Sajack, to name a few. Dubrow is a student of television with a memorabilia collection from the 50’s and 60’s that include ventriloquist figures, videotapes, photographs, animation cels, and other nostalgic pieces.
Burt currently resides in Denver, Colorado with his wife, Lynn. Together they have two daughters, Ali and Liza, and a son-in-law Andrew.