THE TEAM

Airing on Veteran’s Day Weekend

Sunday Nov 10th, 2013

7-11 pm EST on the

Hosted by Alan Alda & Joe Mantegna

 

GARY SMITH

Executive Producer


As a partner in the television production company Smith-Hemion, Gary Smith created many of the most distinguished specials and events.  The team has won an unprecedented 25 Emmy Awards.  From the celebration of Liberty Weekend, featuring performers at the unveiling of a newly restored Statue of Liberty, to a one-woman show for Barbra Streisand, Mr. Smith has been responsible for putting the “special” in television special.  He produced Paul McCartney’s first and only television special, Elvis Presley’s last, Bette Middler’s first and Bing Crosby’s last.  He was Executive Producer of six Tony Awards telecasts 1993 through 1997, as well as the 55th and 56th Annual Tony Awards. He has produced the Emmy Awards and The People’s Choice Awards along with many other award shows over the years.


Mr. Smith was responsible for the production of the Democratic National Convention in 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000; Baryshnikov on Broadway; an adaptation of Peter Pan that starred Mia Farrow and Danny Kaye; four years of the Emmy Awards; three years of the People’s Choice Awards; five years of AFI “100 years” specials; ABC’s 24-Hour Millennium coverage; Command Performances specials for the Queen of England; as well as productions for Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, The Apollo Theatre, Woody Allen, and Radio City Music Hall, among others.  He produced President Reagan’s Inaugural Gala in 1985 and President Clinton’s in 1993 and 1997.  He has been Executive Producer for most of Barbra Streisand’s specials including the May 2, 2001 telecast of her AFI Life Achievement Award.  He also Executive-Produced the AFI Life Achievement Award honoring Tom Hanks, I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show Reunion.  Under his Executive Producer Banner is 100 Years of Hope and Humor (honoring Bob Hope on his 100th Birthday,) along with all of the AFI 100 series including the most recent AFI’s 10 Top 10.


A graduate of Carnegie Tech’s Theatre Department with a degree in Scenic Design, he became the producer of the Judy Garland series in 1963.  It was two years later on the series he created, “Hullabaloo,” that he met and later married Maxine Smith, who was cited in Architectural Digest AD 100 issue of the leading interior designers of the world.  In October of 2002, Gary was the recipient of his alma mater’s prestigious Annual Life Achievement Award.  He is only the 4th drama alum in the 52 year history of the award to be so honored.  They have two sons, Jake and Zack, both working in the business, and Gary has three children from a previous marriage, Daisy, Doug, and Sam.  His proudest achievement is as starting catcher for twelve years in the Hollywood Celebrity Baseball Game held annually at Dodger Stadium.


For more about Gary please visit his website.

LEE MILLER

Producer


Lee Miller has had a most varied television career as both producer and director, covering film dramas, live event specials, variety specials and series, situation comedies, news documentaries, and medical television - over 2700 hours of television programming.  Lee began his career as an actor and a musician in his hometown of Pittsburgh, later attending Carnegie Mellon University in the world famous department of drama, graduating with a degree in directing.

After graduation, and a few summers entertaining in the mountains of New York State, Lee’s first job in New York was as an NBC page.  Serving two years in the military, Lee was stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a television producer/director.  Returning to New York after the army, Lee began as a production assistant and rose to Producer on some of television’s best known programs, including Omnibus, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, The Kraft Music Hall, Hullabaloo, That’s  Life, The Tony Awards,  and about 35 other specials and series.  Lee then spent four years with NBC News working on The NBC White Papers  and DuPont Show of the Week series.

Lee moved to Los Angeles in 1970, and since then has been the associate producer, producer and/or director of fifteen series and countless specials.  The list includes programs such as Cher, Doris Day, Cass Elliott, Raquel Welch, Pearl Bailey, Jimmy Durante & The Lennon Sisters, The Everly Brothers, TV Bloopers And Practical Jokes, Motown Christmas, Ladies Man, Charles In Charge, She’s The Sheriff, and the award winning NBC documentary One Minute To Midnight – The Real Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis.


Lee has also been Producer, Associate Producer or Director of many of the major "event" specials (most of which were live) such as The Tony Awards, The Oscars, The Emmys, Miss Hollywood, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, The Special Olympics Opening Ceremonies, The People’s Choice Awards, The 11th, 12th, and 13th ACE Awards, The CBS 50th Anniversary Week, The 40th Anniversary of the Guiding Light, Kathie Lee Gifford’s Celebration of Motherhood, Garth Brooks-The Hits, Life in the Fat Lane, and the 1991 thru 2011 Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethons.  Lee has also produced and/or directed 15 years of reality specials and series, including Bloopers and Practical Jokes, Inside America, The National Love and Sex Test,

an Intimate Portrait of Stefanie Powers, and Fall In Love With A Perfect Stranger, a 2 hour event special, to celebrate the Adapt A Pet Weekend, the 2004 and 2005 Spirit Awards Arrivals Premiere Special for Bravo, Executive Producer of the 2005 thru 2009 and 2013 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, The 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011 Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Awards, the last 13 years of the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors Awards dinner.


Along the way, Lee did films and dramatic pilots such as the award winning Missiles of October, Sandcastles, A Guide For The Married Woman, Seizure-The Kathy Morris Story, The Man  in the Santa Claus Suit, “A Cry For Help - The Tracey Thurman Story”, A Fine Romance,  and Lifestories.

Lee is a member of the Directors Guild of America; Past Treasurer of Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; Current Director’s Peer Group Governor of The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; Past Co-Chair of The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors and current Steering Committee member; Current Treasurer of The Caucus of Producers, Writers and Directors; past member of The Producers Guild of America Board of Directors; The Council of Producers, Directors, Writers, Journalists and Performers of the Museum of Broadcasting; Past President of the West Coast Drama Alumni of Carnegie Mellon University; University of Southern California TV Production Lecturer and teacher, President of The Synagogue for The Performing Arts.


Lee has been honored with the Carnegie Mellon Distinguished Alumni Service Award, Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors Distinguished Service Award, and a “favorite son” of the City Of Pittsburgh.


Lee met his wife, the former Cookie Azenberg, in New York where she was working in program practices for ABC-TV, and who is now an educational therapist.  They have two daughters, Allison and Julie, both working in television as script supervisor, and associate director

GAIL PURSE

Co-Producer/Talent Executive


A television and special events producer, Gail Purse has earned three Emmy nominations and a National Educators Association award for the television series “Disney’s Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra”. which aired for nine years on The Disney Channel with Smith-Hemion Productions. Prior to that, she spent ten years heading up the production department at Pierre Cossette Productions, where she produced the Grammy Awards Pre-Telecast, as well other Network Music specials.  Following that time, she was a producer at Smith-Hemion Productions,  for “Neil Diamond”, “Michael Crawford”, “Monica Mancini- on Record”, and  “Disney American Teacher Awards”  She was the talent producer for two  “Democratic National Conventions”, “Presidential Inaugural Gala” “I Love Lucy- 50th Anniversary” “50 Years of Television”, and “ABC Millenium” . She was also the Coordinating Producer for the PBS special “We Love Ella-A Tribute to the First Lady of Song” and for the 2009 “ Special Olympics World Winter Games” in Boise, Idaho.


Specializing in live events, she has produced the seven years of the “Mancini Musicale”, “John Kerry Concerts”, “two Inaugural Galas for Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania,  “Tribute to Henry Mancini- Stamp Issue”, “10th Anniversary of HMI starring Tony Bennett”, “Childrens Hospital Los Angeles- Noche de Ninos, 1,2 & 3”, “ Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Freedom Award”, “ three of NARAS- Musicares”, “Unforgettable Evening- Women’s Cancer Research” five of  “Oscar De La Hoya –Evening of Champions”,  and the “Young Musicians Foundation Gala” for over twenty five years.


Gail Leamy was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, graduating from

The College of Communication Arts at Michigan State University.  She worked at local radio and TV stations, and married well-known radio and television personality, Todd Purse.  She later became a partner at Mars Advertising Agency in Southfield, Michigan.  She and her son Matt moved to California where she started work in Television with Pasetta Productions, followed by Head of Production at Pierre Cossette Productions.  She then joined Smith-Hemion Productions as a producer.  Matt is a video editor at Encore Video-Hollywood.




BRUCE CHARET

Creative Consultant



GREGG GELFAND

Director



LESLIE WILSON

Executive in Charge of Production



RENE LAGLER

Art Director



CONNIE FRANCIS

Haven From The Storm Hostess