Barbara Schultz

For the French actress, see Barbara Schulz.
Barbara Schultz
Born
Barbara Ann Schultz

(1927-02-04)February 4, 1927
New York City, U.S.
DiedSeptember 2, 2019(2019-09-02) (aged 92)
New York City, U.S.
Alma materBarnard College
Occupations
  • Television executive
  • television producer
  • television director
Years active1959–1987
TelevisionVisions (1976–1980)

Barbara Ann Schultz (February 4, 1927 – September 2, 2019) was an American television producer and director. She is best known for her work as the executive producer and artistic director for the anthology drama series Visions (1976–1980) on PBS.

Early life and education

Born in Manhattan on February 4, 1927, Schultz was raised in New Jersey by her homemaker mother and attorney father. She graduated from Barnard College in 1948, receiving a degree in English studies. She originally pursued acting, first taking roles in student productions at Barnard and making her Broadway debut in 1952 with a bit part in a production of the play Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill.[1]

Career

Turning away from acting, Schultz went into production amid the first Golden Age of Television. She started as an assistant story editor at Burt Lancaster's production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. She worked five years as a story editor at David Susskind's company Talent Associates and worked on series like The Defenders and The Trials of O'Brien (CBS) before stepping into an assistant producer role at Armstrong Circle Theatre.[2] She became executive story editor, then executive producer, of CBS Playhouse.[1] After Playhouse, her focus turned to CBS's programming for children, producing CBS Children's Hour and the reboot of educational series You Are There.[1]

Visions and after

In 1974, Schultz joined the Los Angeles-based public broadcaster and PBS member station KCET as executive producer and artistic director of Visions, a weekly anthology series in which each episode would be a feature-length dramatic film by a screenwriter with no prior experience in television. KCET sought to maximize Schultz's artistic license and independence, with minimal interference.[3]

Jean Shepherd, who wrote The Phantom of the Open Hearth for Visions, said Schultz "not only encouraged us at every turn but gave us a totally free hand, something most writers only dream about."[4] Michael J. Arlen, writing for The New Yorker, said the high quality of Visions "has been a credit to its creators—especially to Barbara Schultz, the remarkably able and responsive woman who has been the program's artistic director and creative force."[5] In 1979, Schultz received the Crystal Award from the Women in Film and Television[6] and the Evelyn F. Burkey Award from the Writers Guild of America, East at the 31st Writers Guild of America Awards.[7]

After Visions ended, Schultz occasionally directed episodes of sitcoms like Family Ties and Diff'rent Strokes. However, directing work quickly dried up for her; a longtime friend and collaborator on Visions, Sandra Schulberg, said "the industry was not very receptive to a woman director of her age."[1] She also directed plays for the Los Angeles chapter of the New York–based Ensemble Studio Theatre.[8]

Death and legacy

Schultz died at her home in Manhattan on September 2, 2019, from complications from heart disease.[1] She has been cited as a pioneering woman in the early American TV industry, which typically discouraged women from participating at executive levels of production. Her status as a trailblazer has been cited alongside such contemporaries as Jacqueline Babbin,[9] Frances Buss Buch, Ida Lupino and Lela Swift.[10]

Filmography

Credits adapted from the website of the Paley Center for Media's She Made It initiative.[11]

Series Year(s) Network Credited as Notes
Executive
producer 		Producer Director Other
Armstrong Circle Theatre 1959–1963 CBS No No No Yes Story editor, assistant producer (later)[2]
The Defenders 1963–64 No No No Yes Story editor
The Reporter 1964 No No No Yes Story editor
The Doctors and the Nurses 1964–65 No No No Yes Story editor
The Trials of O'Brien 1965–66 No No No Yes Story editor
CBS Playhouse 1967–1970 Yes No No Yes Also executive story editor
CBS Children's Hour 1969–70 Yes No No No
You Are There 1971–72 No Yes No No
The Electric Company 1972 No No No Yes Consultant
Visions 1976–1978 PBS Yes Yes No Yes Also creator
Family Ties 1985, 1987 NBC No No Yes No Episodes: "The Old College Try", "Matchmaker"
Diff'rent Strokes 1986 ABC No No Yes No Episode: "Bulimia"
You Again? 1986 NBC No No Yes No Episode: "Enid Quits"
Webster 1987 ABC No No Yes No Episode: "A Test of Characters"

Archived works

In 2006, the Paley Center for Media (then known as the Museum of Television & Radio) named Barbara Schultz one of the honorees of its multi-year initiative "She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio", thereby inducting some of her works into its permanent collections.[12] More from Schultz's filmography can be found preserved in the UCLA Film and Television Archive,[13] and two of her productions—J.T. (1969, CBS Playhouse) and The Gold Watch (1976, Visions)—were screened at the Billy Wilder Theater in a retrospective of her work as part of the 2017 UCLA Festival of Preservation.[14]

Title Original air date Series Preserved by
Paley Center[15] UCLA Archive[16]
"My Father and My Mother" February 13, 1968 CBS Playhouse No Yes
"The People Next Door" October 15, 1968 Yes No
"Saturday Adoption" December 4, 1968 No Yes
"The Experiment" February 25, 1969 No Yes
"Shadow Game" May 7, 1969 Yes Yes
"Sadbird" December 1, 1969 No Yes
J.T. December 13, 1969 CBS Children's Hour Yes Yes
"The Day Before Sunday" February 10, 1970 CBS Playhouse No Yes
Two Brothers October 21, 1976 Visions Yes Yes
The War Widow October 28, 1976 Yes Yes
El Corrido November 4, 1976 No Yes
The Gold Watch November 11, 1976 No Yes
Liza's Pioneer Diary November 18, 1976 Yes Yes
The Great Cherub Knitwear Strike November 25, 1976 No Yes
Scenes from the Middle Class December 16, 1976 No Yes
The Phantom of the Open Hearth December 23, 1976 No Yes
The Tapestry and Circles December 30, 1976 No Yes
Iowa October 2, 1977 Yes No
Freeman October 9, 1977 No Yes
Charlie Smith and the Fritter Tree October 9, 1978 No Yes
Shoes and String January 12, 1980 No Yes
It's the Willingness January 19, 1980 No Yes

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Seelye 2019.
  2. ^ a b Schulberg 2019.
  3. ^ Land 1976, p. 289.
  4. ^ Shepherd 1978, p. xv.
  5. ^ Arlen 1976, p. 198.
  6. ^ Gross 1979, p. 10.
  7. ^ Byer Winkler 1979, p. 31; Writers Guild of America, East 2012.
  8. ^ Paley Center for Media n.d.b; Drake 1982, p. 5.
  9. ^ Montañez Smukler & Rhee 2020.
  10. ^ O'Dell 2013, p. 20.
  11. ^ Paley Center for Media n.d.a.
  12. ^ The Museum of Television and Radio 2006.
  13. ^ UCLA Library n.d.a.
  14. ^ Quigley & Einstein 2017; Seelye 2019.
  15. ^ Paley Center for Media n.d.c.
  16. ^ UCLA Library n.d.b.

Sources