Michael Shamberg, co-producer of duPont-Columbia award-winning Lord of the Universe, became a Hollywood film producer (The Big Chill, A Fish Called Wanda, Pulp Fiction and Erin Brockovich); Don Mischer, producer of Making Television Dance with choreographer Twyla Tharp, became a major television producer-director (Olympics, Emmy Awards, and Kennedy Center Honors); Diane English, writer of the speculative fiction drama, The Lathe of Heaven, produced the long-running TV situation comedy, Murphy Brown; Jon Alpert, who with his wife, Keiko Tsuno, produced several TV LAB documentaries beginning with Cuba – The People and Vietnam: Picking Up the Pieces, continues to cover global hot spots: he won a duPont-Columbia award for his HBO documentary Baghdad E.R.; Alan & Susan Raymond, whose The Police Tapes influenced dramatic and reality TV cop shows, continue to make video vérité documentaries; Bill Viola, whose slow-motion video art is seen in museums worldwide; William Wegman, whose artistic photographs of Weimaraner dogs are beloved.

The TV LAB owed its success to a unique group of people, especially: Nam June Paik, the pioneering video artist whose video synthesizer inspired other artists everywhere; engineering genius/video editor John Godfrey whose collaboration with artists produced award-winning programs; artist-curator Russell Connor, host of the TV LAB’s behind the scenes VTR – Video and Television Review; and TV LAB director David Loxton, who made innovative TV dramas on a shoestring with his producing & directing partner and friend Fred Barzyk of WGBH-TV, Boston. Barzyk said, “David was left alone to manage these highly individual creative talents and he knew how to make their work better and how to attract more money to support their efforts.”

In 1972, we were a few years into the age of Marshall McLuhan, author of The Medium is the Message. Television meant only three networks and a few local stations. President Richard Nixon was yet to be disgraced. Anti-war sentiment persisted. The counterculture of the 60’s was looking for its own means of expression. Sony had just invented the Portapak. Television no longer would have to be, as Fred Friendly described it, “writing with a one-ton pencil.” Portable video – less expensive than film – allowed for more stories, instant feedback, and pictures in low-light conditions.

In exploring the ferment that was the history of the TV LAB, we learn more about what’s possible for television today as it confronts its digital future.

Howard Weinberg, commissioned by Nam June Paik, produced and directed “Topless Cellist" Charlotte Moorman, a documentary profile of Paik’s collaborator and muse, impresario and performance artist. During the TV LAB era, from 1973-80, Weinberg produced for Bill Moyers’ Journal, Assignment America with Studs Terkel; was Founding Producer of The MacNeil/Lehrer Report; and Executive Producer of The Dick Cavett Show. He later produced for Sunday Morning and Sixty Minutes at CBS; and was Executive Producer of Listening to America with Bill Moyers at PBS. His independent public television productions include New York in Song, net.LEARNING, and Sid at 90. Recent credits: The Unraveling of a Candidate for New York Times Television & The Discovery Channel; Ethics in Sports: A CBS News Religion Special. He is President of the New York Film/Video Council, the oldest non-profit organization promoting independent film in the United States, and has taught documentary film and television journalism at NYU, Dartmouth and Columbia.