Frederick Ziv
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Frederick William Ziv (August 17, 1905 – October 13, 2001, Cincinnati, Ohio) was an American
broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...
producer and syndicator who was considered as the father of television
first-run syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...
and once operated the nation's largest independent television production company. An obituary in ''
The Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, altho ...
'' noted that Ziv "was known throughout the television industry for pioneering production, sales, promotion and marketing of TV series."


Early years

Frederick Ziv was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
, to William and Rose Ziv. His parents were
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish immigrants: his father William, a manufacturer of button holes for overalls, came to the US in 1884 from Kelm,
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
(then part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
) and his mother Rose from
Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
three years later. He had a sister named Irma. He graduated from Hughes High School.


Ziv Company

Although he earned a
Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
degree from the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in Ann Arbor in 1928, Ziv did not practice law, but instead opened an advertising agency. His native city, Cincinnati, was an important center for radio in the 1920s. The nation's largest radio sponsor,
Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
, and one of its most powerful radio stations,
WLW WLW (700 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial news/talk radio station city of license, licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as "The Big One". Its studios ...
, were based there. Ziv and writer John L. Sinn, who later became his business partner and son-in-law, founded the Frederic W. Ziv Company (also given as Frederick W. Ziv Company) that produced syndicated radio and television programs in the United States. Horace Newcomb's Encyclopedia of Television described the company as "by 1948 ... the largest packager and syndicator of radio programs" and later "the most prolific producer of programming for the first-run syndication market during the 1950s." They produced pre-recorded radio shows such as ''
Boston Blackie Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle (1881–1928). Blackie was originally depicted as a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's stories, and became a private detective in adaptations for films, radio and televisi ...
'' and '' The Cisco Kid'' and occasionally bought old shows for new syndicated rerun broadcast. The best known was the serial comedy '' Easy Aces'' in 1945.


Ziv Television

In preparation for providing programming for television syndication, Ziv began purchasing film libraries. By July 1948, the company had bought four such libraries—General, Miles, Kinogram and Forster—providing a total of more than 13 million feet of film. By that same year, 1948, the company had opened a television production subsidiary, Ziv Television Programs, Inc.; which produced some of America's best-remembered shows, including television versions of '' The Cisco Kid'' (1949), the first American television program filmed in color, and '' Mr. District Attorney'', plus such original creations as ''
Highway Patrol A highway patrol is a police unit, detail, or law enforcement agency created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways within a jurisdiction. They are also referred to in many countri ...
''. Maybe the best remembered Ziv television production ever was '' I Led Three Lives'', one of the few 1950s television crime dramas addressing the real or alleged
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
menace as an overt subject. ''
Bat Masterson Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson (November 26, 1853 – October 25, 1921) was a U.S. Army scout, lawman, professional gambler, and journalist known for his exploits in the late 19th and early 20th-century American Old West. He was bo ...
'', fictionalizing the legendarily dapper marshal, gunfighter, and eventual sportswriter of his namesake, and '' Sea Hunt'' were also Ziv's first-run syndicated television productions. Ziv Television Productions trademarks included odd for the times twists on the genres of his shows, twists such as a crime-fighting underwater explorer ( Lloyd Bridges as ''Sea Hunt's'' protagonist Mike Nelson) and ''Highway Patrol'', starred Broderick Crawford as Dan Mathews, maybe the first crime drama to show that large urban regions were not the only places where criminals liked to roam. The company's closing logo, the name Ziv in large, Romanesque lettering, inside the frame of a television tube, was one of the most familiar sign-off logos of its time. Ziv's fortunes shifted almost overnight in the mid-1950s. In 1955, they were America's leading and largest independent producer, with a reported two thousand employees at one point and Ziv was able to buy his own television production studio, after years of leasing from the Hollywood studios. The following year, in 1956, the Big Three television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, realized how successful they could be by syndicating their own previous hits, a negative move that cut deeply into the first-run syndication television market. Then Ziv began producing series for the networks, beginning with '' The West Point Story'' for CBS in the fall of that same year.


Network takeover

By 1959, the networks began taking control of what went on the air from sponsors, a major result of the quiz show scandals that exploded that same year, but Ziv was very unhappy about it. "They demanded script and cast approvals," he was quoted as saying. "You were just doing whatever the networks asked you to do, but that wasn't my type of operation. I didn’t care to become an employee for the networks." In 1960, Ziv sold 80% of his company to a group of investors and sold his own TV production subsidiary to
United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...
renamed Ziv-United Artists, leaving the board of directors when United Artists decided to phase out Ziv Television Programs and reorganize as United Artists Television two years later.


Later years

Ziv lectured at the College of Mount St. Joseph and served as "distinguished Professor of Radio-Television and Theater Crafts" at the
University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in performing arts in 1985. He then settled into full-time retirement.


Death

Ziv died at the age of 96 in 2001. He was survived by a son and a daughter. The
University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
annually presents a broadcasting achievement award in his name. He is buried in the United Jewish Cemetery in his birth city, Cincinnati, Ohio.


References

* William Boddy, ''Fifties Television: The Industry and its Critics'' (Urbana, Ill.: Illinois University Press, 1980). * "Aces Up," ''Time'', 8 September 1947. * "A Homey Little Thing," ''Time'', 19 December 1949. * Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Network TV Shows--1946 to Present'' (First Edition).


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ziv, Frederic American radio producers Television producers from Ohio Businesspeople from Cincinnati University of Michigan Law School alumni 1905 births 2001 deaths University of Cincinnati faculty American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent 20th-century American businesspeople Mass media people from Cincinnati