Word: cascio
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...subject can defray costs, not only by allowing extensive interviews but also by providing free, all-important photos. Many biography shows will proceed only with the subject's approval. E! and A&E, which do some shows without cooperation--"It's Biography, not Autobiography," A&E's Cascio likes to say--contend that gives them independence; others say cooperation only improves the final product. But in a BTM on Madonna, says the episode's producer, Goodman, "cooperation" meant the star got approval over interviewees. Executive producer Gay Rosenthal responds, "On rare occasions there has been editorial input...
...videos, a digital all-bio channel and a magazine whose readership A&E places at more than 2 million. The program's thesis is simple: people are more interested in history that has a famous face on it. "We live in an age of celebrity," says Michael Cascio, A&E's senior vice president for programming. "That's how people define an era; that's how they define their own life, by the people...
...filmmaker Ken Burns' latest opus, Thomas Jefferson, debuted on PBS last month, complete with the voice of Gwyneth Paltrow reciting the diary entries of Jefferson's granddaughter Ellen Coolidge, at least one history buff in America bailed out before the closing credits. "I couldn't bear it," says Michael Cascio, executive producer of the A&E network's hour-long documentary series Biography. Cascio is annoyed that Burns' often tiresomely long dissertations are the standard by which all TV documentaries should be measured. "We're trying to develop a style without having to linger on a meadow for 45 seconds...
...different production teams around the country churning out 130 episodes a year. Two of the units are actually contracted divisions of cbs News Productions and abc News Productions. This is a savvy, cost-effective move on A&E's part, given those organizations' vast photo and film archives. Says Cascio: "The big rule around here is, you've got to find the baby picture...
Filling up another year's worth of Biography episodes is something Cascio does not find daunting. The series has had success with a broad variety of shows, The Gambino Crime Family being its best rated and Nostradamus high on its most-watched list. Despite Biography's range, however, only 17% of its subjects have been women--and, sadly, Kathie Lee Gifford is among them. A little art-house selectiveness here would not hurt...