Collection: George Schlatter Collection

Television producer and director George Schlatter has gifted the world with endless hours of laughter. In the span of his career, he has produced an array of TV shows, specials and award shows. In the earlier days of his career, he worked as a producer on “The Danny Thomas Show,” “Colgate Comedy Hour” and “The Dinah Shore Chevy Show” before he began executive producing “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” in 1968. It was “Laugh-In” that changed everything, with an estimated total of 50 million viewers tuning in each week at the hight of its popularity. His innovation didn’t stop there, and he went on to help launch the reality TV era with “Real People.” His catalog is full of celebrity TV specials from “A Party For Richard Pryor” to both the 50th and 60th birthday specials for Muhammad Ali. He also created “George Schlatter’s Comedy Club,” a show dedicated to showcasing stand-up comedians such as Arsenio Hall, Paula Poundstone, Rita Rudner, Judy Tenuta, Emo Philips and many more. He created and produced 15 American Comedy Awards broadcasts that highlighted the best of the best in all fields of comedy; from stand-up to film and television. The award shows also highlighted legacy comedians with lifetime achievement awards such as Betty White, Dick Van Dyke, Garry Marshall, Richard Pryor and Phyllis Diller. Schatter’s goal has always been to bring people together with laughter in as many ways as he could, and he has done just that through his work in television.