ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the "professionalization" of producers and develops a typology of producers from an analysis of the interviews, finding three major types—the film makers, the writers-producers, and the old-line producer. The film maker for the most part had grown up professionally with television films; their work experiences and even their education was connected with communications, often film making. Most of the writers-producers had their work experience in television and related communications, but they differed from the film makers in several ways. Because many had started their working careers shortly after World War II, several had experience in "live" television and radio before television films were being produced in Hollywood. While the overall work experience of old-line producers differed markedly from the others, most also had been writers at the beginning of or during their careers. Their writing experience had often been in several media and was not a part of their immediately previous occupation.
