There he helped the company shift its emphasis from distribution to production, and he oversaw the studio’s production of such hit movies as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Footloose (1984). In 1976 Diller, then chairman of Paramount’s board of directors, hired Eisner as president and chief operating officer of the movie studio. During this time Eisner was regarded as a driving force behind ABC’s rise from the bottom of the network rating ranks to the top. In 1966 Eisner was hired, through the good offices of Barry Diller, as an assistant to ABC’s national programming director, and he soon proved his worth, rising to become vice president for daytime programming by 1971 and senior vice president for prime time production and development in 1976. Eisner then moved to the programming department of CBS, where he was in charge of the placement of ads in children’s shows. A summer job working as a page at TV network NBC led to his later employment at NBC logging the times that advertisements aired. Michael Eisner, in full Michael Dammann Eisner, (born March 7, 1942, Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.), American business and entertainment executive who was known for his role in reviving the fortunes of, successively, the television network ABC, the film studio Paramount Pictures, and the Disney Company.Įisner grew up in a wealthy family and graduated from a private boarding school before studying English literature and theatre at Denison University (B.A., 1964). SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.

Will Eisner's New York by Will Eisner