ROBB WELLER Beyond Entertainment Tonight
Television personality and producer After a lengthy career in front of the camera, Robb Weller, Washington ’72 has now achieved major success as partner/executive producer at one of the television industry’s most prolific and successful production companies. Through his North Hollywood-based Weller/Grossman Productions, he has collaborated with numerous networks on the development of series and specials, in addition to managing operations on daily production and postproduction schedules. Since 2000, Weller has been executive producer of more than 40 realitybased TV series, movies and specials. Among his productions are First Command, Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels, Time Machine: Beyond the Da Vinci Code, UFO Hunters, Decoding the Past: Prophecies of Iraq, The Turnaround, Wolfgang Puck, Reality Check, The Making of the Rose Parade, Crafters Coast to Coast, Your Reality Checked and NBC’s Funniest Outtakes. He still has had the opportunity to be on camera as anchor of Good Day LA on KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles; co-host of HGTV’s Tournament of Roses Parade, and host of the weekly series, A&E’s Top 10.
As an undergraduate in the Beta chapter at Washington, Weller instilled school pride in thousands of Husky fans as a yell leader at athletic events. He became a leading personality on campus and was invited to emcee University events while still a student. He has been hailed as the inventor of “The Wave,” the cheer that gets spectators on their feet and ripples through an entire stadium. He recalls, “We used to do a version of the wave in the student section of the stadium but we didn’t have a name for it. Then, while I was serving as a guest cheerleader at the 1981 UW homecoming game, the wave leaked out of the student section and just took off. That’s how it got started.”
Recognized around the world as a television personality, Weller has hosted series and specials for NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, A&E, HBO and TNN since co-hosting Entertainment Tonight in the mid-1980s. That was followed by a stint as co-host on Entertainment This Week; host of The Home Show (1988-89), and host of Win, Lose or Draw (1989-90.) He estimates he has interviewed more than 5,000 guests in his career, including Ronald Reagan, George Bush, John Glenn, Sophia Loren, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon and Harrison Ford, among others.
Radio and Television Broadcasting Inspired by his uncle and mentor, Art Gilmore, a successful radio/TV announcer and host, Weller decided early on that he wanted a career in radio and television. After graduating with a communications degree, he became a sideline announcer at Husky games. He later filled in for the host of Seattle Today, which led to TV host jobs in Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago. His successor on a Chicago morning talk show was a then unknown named Oprah Winfrey. After taking a host job on an evening magazine show in New York, he received a call from the executive producer of Entertainment Tonight, who asked him to come to California. He filled in for weekend hosts, and then became the show’s regular host four weeks later. Weller became interested in producing while hosting The Home Show in 1988-89 and later started Weller/Grossman Productions with partner Gary Grossman, a former coordinating producer on Entertainment Tonight. Their first TV show aired in 1992 and they shared a Daytime Emmy Award (with several other producers) in 2002 for Wolfgang Puck (Outstanding Service Show.) They also received a 2005 Emmy Award nomination for Time Machine: Beyond the Da Vinci Code in the Outstanding Nonfiction Special category. Weller has also been honored as the first inductee into the Washington State Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Winter 2007
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