Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones Jr. (born May 19, 1949) is an American television producer and director of award shows and live television events. He is a public speaker and frequent moderator and panel participant for entertainment industry events, and the founder of SJ2 Entertainment. He is the son of satirical musician and bandleader,

Spike Jones Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician, bandleader and conductor specializing in spoof arrangements and satire of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment wer ...

, and singer and actress, Helen Grayco, and has three sisters, including Grammy-winning recording engineer,

Leslie Ann Jones Leslie Ann Jones is an American multiple Grammy Award-winning recording engineer, working as Director of Music Recording and Scoring at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm, Ltd. company. She is a past Chair of the National Academy of Recording Arts ...

Early life

Jones Jr. was born into a show business family, and had a childhood career as a musician and performer. His father, satirical musician

, led the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers. They recorded numerous hit parody songs from the 1940s through the early 1960s. His mother, singer and actress Helen Grayco, often performed in her husband's stage and television shows. Jones Jr. and his sisters spent much time on the road visiting their parents during the summer months. In early 1965, at age 15, Jones Jr. briefly took over as bandleader when his father became too ill to perform. At that time, the band was called Spike Jones and the Band That Plays for Fun. Jones Jr. had watched his father's act so many times, he knew where every gunshot, horn honk and glug went. During the following months, when his father returned to work doing three shows a night in Vegas and Lake Tahoe, Jones Sr. would perform the first two shows, and Jones Jr. would lead the band during the third show. When his father died on May 1, 1965, Jones Jr. once again stepped in and led the band for a number of scheduled performances.

Career

For 20 years he produced the

Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

for The Television Academy taking it from a dinner-dance held in a convention hall to a nationally telecast primetime production, emanating from the

Microsoft Theater The Peacock Theater, formerly Nokia Theatre and Microsoft Theater, is a music and theater venue at L.A. Live in the Downtown Los Angeles, downtown core of Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater auditorium seats 7,100 and holds one ...

LA Live L.A. Live is an entertainment complex in the South Park District of downtown Los Angeles, California. It is adjacent to the Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center. L.A. Live was developed by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG ...

. For five consecutive years, he produced the Emmy Awards Nominations Announcement Ceremony. He produced the

41st Daytime Emmy Awards The 41st Daytime Emmy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), "recognizes outstanding achievement in all fields of daytime television production and are presented to individuals and programs broadcast fro ...

and has produced and directed projects for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

, Oxygen,

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

A&E Networks A&E Television Networks, LLC, doing business as A+E Global Media (formerly A+E Networks) is an American multinational broadcasting company owned and operated as a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company th ...

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, E!,

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

, IFC, and ABC. These include the

Film Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers. Founded in ...

Writers Guild of America Awards The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility The ...

Jerry Lewis Telethon The ''MDA Labor Day Telethon'' was an annual telethon held on (starting the night before and throughout) Labor Day in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The Muscular Dystrophy Association was founded in ...

, the

Spike Video Game Awards The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by '' GameT ...

, the Red Carpet for the

TV Land Awards The TV Land Awards was an American television awards ceremony that generally commemorated shows now off the air, rather than in current production as with the Emmys. Created by Executive Producer Michael Levitt, the awards were hosted and broadca ...

, and

The Closer ''The Closer'' is an American police procedural television series starring Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Leigh Johnson, a Los Angeles Police Department Chief of police#United States, deputy chief. A CIA-trained interrogator originally from Atlanta, G ...

series finale. Jones Jr. entered the arena of online gaming by directing Blizzard Entertainment's premiere release of

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

: Warlords of Draenor Cinematic Reveal in 2014. Jones Jr. lectures, mentors and presents seminars for the Television Academy's educational and charitable arm, the

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation is the charitable arm of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The Foundation’s educational and preservation programs include the Summer Internship program, the College Television Awards ...

(ATAS). In 2015 he executive-produced the Foundation's College Television Awards. In 2015, Jones was presented with the Syd Cassyd Founders Emmy Award by ATAS his work and contribution its behalf. In 2014 Jones Jr. produced and directed SCORE: A Concert of Music Composed for Television, a one-off orchestral concert at Royce Hall featuring a range of iconic television theme music from

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...

, all conducted by the composers of each popular theme.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Spike Jr. 1949 births American television producers Living people