(CBS Primetime Specials, 1964 - 1973; ABC Primetime Specials, 1973 - 1975; PBS Specials at various times, 1975 - 1985; Syndicated re-runs; Cable TV weekly series 1985 - present) [The National Geographic Society is a national U.S. institution, founded in 1888, the worlds largest scientific and educational organization; famous for its remarkable magazine -- "The National Geographic" -- containing photographic essays -- not only about geography around the world -- but also about the flora, fauna and peoples who inhabited the geography; The magazine always had high standards and was often collected and handed down from parent to child as a family legacy; subscribers who became members of the "National Geographic Society" were also offered maps and books and other well made items for sale, as well as other priveleges; The society underwrote a prestigious series of TV specials in its name on CBS and ABC for a decade, before settling into a new home during the 1970s -- on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS); These specials were well-done educational documentaries about the diverse subjects of many lands and peoples, flora and fauna, and carried forward the high quality tradition of the magazine into the medium of television -- no mean feat; When cable television expanded and diversified the TV audience, so too did the National Geographic diversify -- eventually into a weekly series called "The National Geographic Explorer", which has appeared on several different cable networks since it first began in 1985; and also another series titled "National Geographic On Assignment"; David Wolper Productions and Metromedia alternated as producers of the specials for the commercial networks; Then when it went to PBS, the production was brought in-house -- using some of the most talented documentary producers, photographers and editors; and in my opinion the best productions were made at that time... * * * Editor's note: When I was a broadcasting major at San Diego State University (1963 - 1968) a young professor named Thomas Skinner was teaching the TV production courses and directing an early diverse and ambitious TV series called "Profile"; We produced it every week for broadcast on the fledgling Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) -- a loose confederation of stations which shared programming by a "bicycle network" of videotapes shipped around, which preceded the wired physical TV cable network of PBS; Working on the "Profile" series was great training; I fell in love with broadcasting partly because of the depth and variety of experiences working many long days on crews for this series -- one week we would do an interview show, the next week a drama with actors, costumes and sets, the following week a musical group might be featured, but many of the productions were documentaries similar in style to those recently done by Ken Burns -- we called them a "film-o-graph" style, involving historical graphics and clips, with pre-recorded narration tracks and music cues which I played and mixed live as audio man; Since videotape was in its infancy, we had to learn to be very careful and plan each move since we were recording each show "live on tape" (editing early videotape required a microscope and a magnetic liquid, and our "master" tape was also the only copy -- the one shipped to other TV stations, so no one wanted to do splicing); therefore, if any cast or crew member made one mistake we would have to go back to the top of the show and start all over again; we learned to focus and be very careful; Working under Thomas Skinner, our professor, who was also the producer/director of the series, I got three amazing years of experience as a paid student assistant -- in roles of audio man, boom microphone operator and sometimes even cameraman; I also worked into the position of defacto music supervisor, selecting music for the documentaries when needed; Dr. Skinner was a bright, quick-witted man who knew how a quality program should be put together; He had high standards, and often challenged us to do better when he knew we were capable of more; The result were some amazing programs that came from a college television department, that helped establish our reputation as a superb training ground, and eventually drew students down from Los Angeles and all parts of the west; In those days as a student under this system, I just assumed all broadcasting people were as knowledgeable, and all productions done with such great care and planning; Later during my days working in commercial broadcasting -- where so much had to be done ad-hoc "set of the pants" -- I realized how rare were those qualities were that I had witnessed during my days in the SDSU broadcasting department working on "Profile" and other series; So it provided me with quite a sense of satisfaction years later during the 1970s (PBS years of the National Geographic Specials), when I saw the name of my old professor -- Dr. Thomas Skinner -- credited as one of two co-Executive Producers of the National Geographic Specials; and was also pleased also to see the names of two of my fellow students whom I knew from the old "Profile" crew at SDSU; They were also listed on the National Geographic credits -- but not in just any role -- they were actually the Editors of these fine programs for years -- a couple who also met during their college days -- Linda Reavely and Barry Nye; These three names explained to me in part why the series was so well-done; Seeing their names brought me joy and a sense of satisfaction that there was indeed a place for such talented, caring people to be able to do what they do best]
Composer: Walter Scharf (ASCAP) 1978 Publisher: [not listed in the 1978 ASCAP Index of Performed Compositions] 2001 Publisher: [listed without publisher in the 2001 ASCAP ACE repertoire database] Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recording:
[above is title in the BMI Repertoire database] Composers: Frank Daniel Gari (BMI) and Christian Daniel Gari (BMI) 1978 Publisher: 2001 Publisher: Dingletown Music (BMI) a div. of Frank Gari Productions of Westlake Village, CA Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recording:
[above is title in the BMI Repertoire database; title variations... aka: "End Credits National Geographic Special" Jack Tiller was a partner in Neiman-Tillar post-production services.] Composers: William G. ("Bill") Loose (ASCAP/BMI) and Jack Tillar (BMI) 1978 Publisher: [not found in the 1978 ASCAP Index of Performed Compositions] 2002 Publishers: [for current Title, Publisher and Licensing information regarding this THEME... contact Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)] Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recording:
[ASCAP title variations... aka: "NGS Theme (Signature) (MT)"; aka: "National Geographic Special Theme"; aka: "National Geographic Specials (Theme)"] Composer: Elmer Bernstein (ASCAP/BMI) 1978 Publisher: Music Of The Times Pub. Corp. (ASCAP) 2001 Publisher: Agouti Music (ASCAP) c/o NTL Geographic Society Washington, DC Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recording: