Douglas Netter (May 23, 1921 – May 8, 2017) was a United States television industry executive, his credits largely being in the field of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

. He was first credited as associate producer of the 1967

Matt Helm Matt Helm is a fictional character created by American author Donald Hamilton (1916-2006). Helm is a U.S. government counter-agent, a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of ...

(

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

) movie ''

The Ambushers ''The Ambushers'' is a novel by Donald Hamilton first published in 1963, continuing the exploits of assassin Matt Helm. Plot introduction Matt Helm conducts a by-the-book assassination in the (fictional) Central American nation of Costa Verde. A ...

'' which involved a US-government built flying saucer.

Biography

Between 1970 and 1975 Netter was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at

MGM Studios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

. It was a controversial period at the studio with many filmmakers unhappy with the treatment they received from Netter and studio president James Aubrey. In 1975 he produced the Dean Martin crime movie ''

Mr. Ricco ''Mr. Ricco'' is a 1975 crime drama film directed by Paul Bogart and starring Dean Martin in his last leading film role, along with Eugene Roche, Denise Nicholas and Cindy Williams. Plot A murder charge is dropped against San Francisco black mili ...

'', and in 1978 was co-producer of the African mercenary movie ''

The Wild Geese ''The Wild Geese'' is a 1978 war film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Krüger. The screenplay concerns a group of mercenaries in Africa. It was the result of a long-held ambi ...

''. The next year he began a period when he concentrated on the Western genre, producing ''The Sacketts'', a TV

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

based on

Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; né LaMoore; March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work "frontier stories"); however, he also wrote hi ...

's Sackett family and serving as

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

of the NBC TV movie ''Buffalo Soldiers''. Over the next two years he also executive produced ''Wild Times'' and L'Amour's '' The Cherokee Trail''. 1987 saw Netter's first involvement with

J. Michael Straczynski Joseph Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' ...

, when he was producer of ''

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future ''Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future'' is a science fiction-action television series, merging live action with animation based on computer-generated images, that ran for 22 episodes in Canadian and American syndication. A toy line was ...

'' that was story-edited and partially written by Straczynski, after which he was executive producer of the ''

Babylon 5 ''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Televi ...

'' TV series and various spin-offs (sharing equal executive producer credit with Straczynski). A still photo of Netter shows him portraying the ''Babylon 5'' character of Earth Alliance

President Luis Santiago The list of ''Babylon 5'' characters contains characters from the entire '' Babylon 5'' universe. The Babylon station was conceived as a political and cultural meeting place. As such, one of the show's many themes is the cultural and social inter ...

(''The A-Z Guide to Babylon 5'', ). Between the third and fourth seasons of ''Babylon 5'', he founded and appointed himself

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

Netter Digital Netter Digital Entertainment (NDE) was a visual effects and CGI special effects company founded in 1995 and went out of business in 2000. History Netter Digital Entertainment was created by Douglas Netter in 1995. The company produced the show ...

, a CGI special effects company. Netter Digital then replaced

Foundation Imaging Foundation Imaging was a CGI visual effects studio, computer animation studio, and post-production editing facility. History The company was founded by Paul Beigle-Bryant and Ron Thornton. It pioneered digital imaging for television programming ...

as the special effects studio for the series, doing all the CGI work for the final season of that show, as well as several of the ''Babylon 5''

telefilms A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

, and did all the effects for its short-lived spinoff, '' Crusade''. He was also an executive producer for the only season of ''

Hypernauts ''Hypernauts'' is a proof of concept show produced by Foundation Imaging and Netter Digital Entertainment. To further prove that the computer-generated imagery and visual effects created in '' Babylon 5'' were easily applied to other venues, ...

'' in 1996. With the cancellation of ''Crusade'' in 1999, Netter Digital lost its only client. Unable to promptly replace it with other customers, the company went out of business in 2000. In 2006, Netter began executive producing '' Babylon 5: The Lost Tales'', the latest venture set in the ''Babylon 5'' universe. The

direct-to-DVD Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was ...

publication was released on July 31, 2007. Netter died on May 8th, 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Netter, Douglas American television executives 1921 births 2017 deaths