Don Mischer

Don Mischer
Born	Donald Leo Mischer (1940-03-05) March 5, 1940 (age 81) San Antonio, Texas[1]
Alma mater	University of Texas
Occupation	Television producer and director
Years active	1969–present
Spouse(s)	Beverly J Mischer ​ ​ (m. 1960⁠–⁠1984)​ Suzan Reed Mischer ​ (m. 1989)​
Children	Jennifer Christine, Heather Mischer Godsey, Charles Donald, Lilly Ellison
Website	donmischerproductions.com

Donald Leo Mischer^[2] (born March 5, 1940)^[3] is an American producer and director of television and live events and president of Don Mischer Productions.

Career[]

Mischer has been honored with fifteen Emmy Awards, a record ten Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, two NAACP Image Awards, a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, and the 2012 Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America and the 2019 Director’s Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award for Television”.^[4]

As a producer/director, his credits include The Oscars, We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center Honors, the 100th Anniversary of Carnegie Hall, Motown 25, the Super Bowl Halftime Shows (Michael Jackson, Prince, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen), the Democratic National Convention, and the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics. Mischer has also produced specials with Beyoncé, Bono, Prince, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Garth Brooks, Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Yo Yo Ma, and Morgan Freeman, among others. He also presided as director over the 1975 flop, Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell, which he blamed on the inexperience and indifference of producer Roone Arledge.^[5]

He has received the Governors Award from the National Association of Choreographers and is a member of the Event Industry Hall of Fame, the Producers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, where he has served two terms on the board of governors. As a member of the Directors Guild of America, he has served three terms on the National Board, and in 2019 received the DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Television. Only the fourth such award ever given for television.^[6] On December 11, 2014, Mischer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[7]

Personal addendum[]

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• Don Mischer Productions was formed in 1983. Charlie Haykel and Juliane Hare became partners in DMP in 2005. They function out of Los Angeles as an international producing/packaging team and are represented by CAA.
• Don was with a group of University of Texas students at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin Texas awaiting the arrival of President John Kennedy on November 22, 1963. That fateful Friday afternoon, President Kennedy was to have traveled to Austin. He was en route to the airport when he passed the Texas Schoolbook Depository building in Dallas, where he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.
• At the age of 25, Mischer wrote and directed a documentary film in Saudi Arabia for ARAMCO. “Valley of Saleh” explored the trade routes and settlements of the ancient Nabatean civilization (300-500 BC) in the Hejaz region of Northwestern Saudi Arabia. The film was shot with a Middle Eastern crew in extremely remote areas of the Arabian Peninsula.
• Mischer summited the Matterhorn, in the Swiss Alps, on July 31,1996. Climbing with Legendary Swiss Mountain Guide, Richard Andenmatten, they began in Zermatt and reached the 14.692 foot summit via the Hornli Ridge, on the Northeastern edge of the iconic mountain.
• While in Washington D.C. Mischer wrote, directed, and edited a short film with Ronald Bladen, an American painter and sculptor, particularly known for his large-scale sculptures. “X” was shot at the Corcoran Museum in all night sessions while Bladden completed his work, which later appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine. The film received an Award of Merit from the Yale Film Festival.
• For 18 consecutive years, Mischer has directed the Annual 9/11 Memorial Commemoration at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. In honor of the 2,977 people who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, each individual name is read aloud. NYPD, NYFD, and Port Authority Honor Guards stand at attention during the readings. Moments of silence are observed that mark each of the events of 911, at the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and the farm in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where UA Flight 93 went down.
• On May 21, 2014, Don Mischer Productions produced the official dedication of the 9/11 Memorial Museum by President Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg, and other national dignitaries.
• Don has had a lifelong interested in model railroading. He has built layouts in N, O, HO, and LGB gauges. His layouts are theatrical, with music, extensive lighting cues, and sky cycloramas embedded with fiber optic stars.

Personal life[]

Mischer was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Lillian and Elmer Mischer.^[8] After graduating from Douglas MacArthur High School in San Antonio, Mischer completed his education at the University of Texas Austin. He graduated with a BA Degree in 1961 and with a master's degree in Sociology and Political Science in 1963. Mischer’s work took him to Washington, D.C., where he worked with the US Information Agency and Oscar-winning documentarian Charles Guggenheim. With his first wife Beverly, he has two children, Jennifer Christine and Heather Mischer Godsey. After 10 years in New York, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he had two children, Charles Donald and Lilly Ellison, with his wife Suzan Reed Mischer, a former CBS executive and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Accolades[]

• Mischer has 40 Primetime Emmy nominations, with 15 Emmy wins: 13 wins through The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and 2 wins through the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
• 10 Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
• George Foster Peabody Award for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.
• Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television, from the Producers Guild of America (2012).
• Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (2019). Only the fourth such award given for Television Direction.
• 2 NAACP Image Awards.^[4]
• Governors Award from the National Association of Choreographers.
• Membership in the Event Industry Hall of Fame.
• Received Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 11, 2014.^[9]
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Cinematographers Guild

2004 Democratic National Convention[]

In 2004, he produced the Democratic National Convention at the FleetCenter in Boston. After John Kerry’s acceptance speech, balloons were supposed drop from the ceiling onto the delegates below. However, the balloons got stuck in the ceiling and did not fall. Mischer subsequently lost his temper with his tech crew and his profanities were aired accidentally by CNN’s live broadcast.^[10][11]

Selected television credits[]

References[]

External links[]

• Don Mischer Productions official website
• Don Mischer at IMDb
• Crafting a Successful Career, an interview with Mischer from the University of Texas at Austin website