ABC Executive, Producer on ‘Stephen King’s It’ Was 83
Jim Green, the programming executive who helped launch the ABC Movie of the Week franchise before spearheading landmark telefilms and miniseries including Fallen Angel, And the Sea Will Tell and Stephen King’s It, has died. He was 83.
Green died Aug. 9 in Santa Barbara following a long illness, his wife of 59 years, singer Cathy Cole Green, a member of The King Family, announced.
At ABC under then-development head Barry Diller, The ABC Movie of the Week became a ratings juggernaut and transformed the once-struggling network’s primetime lineup.
Green helped develop and shepherd nearly 200 made-for-TV movies of the week including Steven Spielberg’s feature-length directorial debut, Duel (1971), the emotional Emmy-winning Brian’s Song (1971) and several made-for-TV movies that went on to become hit series, among them The Six Million Dollar Man, The Night Stalker, Starsky & Hutch and The Love Boat.
He also helped develop the landmark eight-part television adaptation of Alex Haley’s Roots in 1977.
After graduating from Cal State Northridge, Green considered law school while dating singer Cathy Cole, who appeared with her family on the ABC variety program The King Family Show.
When the family was about to embark on a national concert tour, Green suggested to Cole’s mother, Yvonne King of The King Sisters, who hosted, created and produced the series, that he serve as the group’s tour manager. His work with the Kings would launch his entertainment career.
After a stint as a publicist at Universal Studios, he joined ABC in 1966 and married Cole the following year.
Green began producing independently in 1977 with the telefilm Black Market Baby, starring Desi Arnaz Jr. and Linda Purl. He then joined former ABC executive Allen Epstein to form Green/Epstein Productions, which would produce more than 50 network and cable movies and miniseries, many rooted in the human experience.
Women at West Point (1979), starring Purl and Andrew Stevens, dramatized the experiences of the first female cadets admitted to the U.S. Military Academy. Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (1979), starring Robert Conrad, Billy Crystal and Ted Bessell, offered an uncompromising look at divorce from a male perspective. A Shining Season (1979), starring Timothy Bottoms, told the story of an Olympic-level track star who, after learning he had terminal cancer, devoted the rest of his life to coaching at-risk children. To Find My Son (1980), starring Richard Thomas, traced the true story of the first single man to adopt a child, and Money on the Side (1982), starring Karen Valentine, Purl and Jamie Lee Curtis, tackled prostitution.
In 1981, Green produced Fallen Angel, starring Melinda Dillon, Richard Masur and Dana Hill, one of television’s first treatments of the issue of child pornography. The film received wide acclaim, and Green received an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama special. A commendation celebrating Green, the telefilm and its impending impact was entered into the U.S. States Congressional Record by Rep. Robert K. Dornan of California in advance of its premiere.
Partnering with producer Mark Bacino in 1986, Green/Epstein Productions continued to score with a series of literary adaptations. Deadly Intentions (1985), featuring Michael Biehn, Madolyn Smith and Cloris Leachman and adapted from William Randolph Stevens’ true-crime best-seller, and Vincent Bugliosi’s And the Sea Will Tell (1991), starring Richard Crenna, James Brolin, Rachel Ward and Susan Blakely, became ratings-winning miniseries.
Their landmark TV adaptation of Stephen King’s It (1990) starred Thomas, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Seth Green and Jonathan Brandis and showcased Tim Curry’s memorably terrifying performance as Pennywise.
Bacino noted that Green, his four-decade producing partner, “led with compassion, discipline, vision and a genuine sense of fun … [he] expected excellence, but he also believed in mentorship, generosity and giving people the opportunity to grow; he never wavered from his lifelong passion for discovering meaningful stories and bringing them to the screen.”
Following Doublecrossed (1991), an HBO project starring Dennis Hopper, Green, Epstein and Bacino produced One Special Night (1999), adapted from the Jan Hartman play A Winter Visitor; this film marked the third screen pairing of Julie Andrews and James Garner following The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Victor/Victoria (1982).
Recognizing his track record with true-crime and social-issue-oriented projects, ABC approached Green about replicating that success in kids and family programming. The network offered Green/Epstein the opportunity to produce a film for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, then the stars of ABC’s Full House.
The resulting telefilm, To Grandmother’s House We Go (1992), was a hit for ABC, and its success led the Olsen family’s shingle, Dualstar Entertainment, to make Green/Epstein/Bacino their ongoing producing partners.
For nearly a decade thereafter, in collaboration with Dualstar, Green/Epstein/Bacino produced feature-length telefilms including Double, Double Toil and Trouble (1993) and How the West Was Fun (1994) and numerous TV specials and home video productions starring Mary-Kate and Ashley.
Green’s success continued with the made-for-TV biopics Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story (1997) and Michael Landon, the Father I Knew (1999) and with popular TV reunions such as The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin’ in Brooklyn Heights (1999) and, following Epstein’s death in 2001, Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers (2004).
Green and Bacino later co-founded Goodland Pictures, producing the feature film On Wings of Eagles (2016), starring Joseph Fiennes. At the time of Green’s death, they were developing several projects, including a limited-series reimagining of And the Sea Will Tell.
In addition to his wife, survivors include his daughter, Jamie, and son-in-law, Spencer. A celebration of his life is being planned for this fall.
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