Ron Howard, Al Michaels, and More to Be Inducted Into TV Academy Hall Of Fame

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame Committee has selected a distinguished group of television innovators and icons to be inducted into the 22nd Hall of Fame. Additionally, for the first time ever, this year's Hall of Fame ceremony will benefit the Television Academy Foundation's Archive of American Television.

This year's honorees include Emmy-winning actor/director/producer Ron Howard, legendary sportscaster Al Michaels, iconic network executive Leslie Moonves, acclaimed journalist Bob Schieffer and prolific writer-producer Dick Wolf. Additionally, Philo T. Farnsworth, credited with inventing all-electronic television transmission, will be inducted posthumously. The inductees will be honored during a gala ceremony at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on March 11, 2013, which is sponsored by Audi. The Hall of Fame gala will be executive produced by noted television producer Phil Gurin (Oh Sit!, Shark Tank, The Singing Bee).

The proceeds from the Hall of Fame gala will benefit the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation's Archive of American Television, an ongoing collection of hundreds of video interviews with the legends and pioneers of television, reaching fans worldwide at www.emmytvlegends.org.

"Each of this year's Hall of Fame inductees is incredibly deserving of this honor and is truly a legend of our industry," said Bruce Rosenblum, Chairman and CEO, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. "This will be a spectacular evening, rich with stories and reminiscing. We couldn't be happier to announce that this year's event will benefit the Archive of American Television, a program of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving and celebrating television's past while educating those who will lead our industry in the future."

"We are particularly delighted that the Television Academy has chosen to make the Hall of Fame a benefit for the Foundation's Archive of American Television," added Jerry Petry, Chairman of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. "Each of this year's honorees has had their achievements and personal stories chronicled in our Archive, and we can't think of a better way to honor them than to perpetuate the good work of the Foundation."

The 2013 honorees join the more than 120 individuals previously inducted into the Hall of Fame since its inception in 1984. Recognized for their extraordinary contributions to the medium, candidates are submitted by the Television Academy's membership and the industry at large to the Hall of Fame selection committee chaired by Peter Roth, President of Warner Bros. Television. In addition to Roth, this year's committee includes Marcy Carsey, Emmy Award-winning producer; Bonnie Hammer, Chairman of NBCU Cable Entertainment and Cable Studio; Rick Rosen, Board Member and Head of Television of WME; Fred Silverman, Founder of the Fred Silverman Company and former executive at ABC, CBS and NBC; and Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment.

Following is background information on this year's Hall of Fame inductees:

Ron Howard - Ron Howard is the producer and director of such landmark television programs as the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, winner of three Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Miniseries in 1998. He produced (and provided the ongoing narration) for Fox's acclaimed comedy Arrested Development, winner of the Emmy in 2004 for Outstanding Comedy Series and in 2006 for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, as well as the NBC series, Parenthood. Howard began his career as a child actor, first appearing in two motion pictures, The Journey and The Music Man, numerous episodes of Playhouse 90, followed by his portrayal of Sheriff Andy Taylor's son Opie on the long-running television series, The Andy Griffith ShoW. Howard later starred in the popular series Happy Days and drew favorable reviews for his performances in American Graffiti and The Shootist. Setting his sights on a career as a director, Howard attended USC's Film School and eventually co-founded Imagine Entertainment with Brian Grazer in 1986 to create independently produced feature films and television. From the celebrated dramas A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 to the hit comedies Parenthood and Splash, he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films. Howard directed and produced Cinderella Man starring Oscar winner Russell Crowe. The two had previously collaborated on A Beautiful Mind, for which Howard earned an Oscar for Best Director and which also won awards for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. The film garnered four Golden Globes as well, including the award for Best Motion Picture Drama. Additionally, Howard won Best Director of the Year from the Directors Guild of America. In 1995, he received his first Best Director of the Year award from the DGA for Apollo 13. The true-life drama also earned nine Academy Award nominations, winning Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. It received Best Ensemble Cast and Best Supporting Actor awards from the Screen Actors Guild. Howard produced and directed the film adaptation of Peter Morgan's critically acclaimed play Frost/Nixon. The film, which was released in December 2009, was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, and was nominated for The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures by the PGA.

Al Michaels - Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Al Michaels, one of the most renowned sports broadcasters of all time, and the commentator named "TV's best play-by-play announcer" by the Associated Press, just completed his seventh season as The Voice of NBC's Sunday Night Football. He received critical acclaim for his call of Super Bowl XLVI on NBC in February 2012, the most viewed program in U.S. television history. Michaels recently hosted NBC's weekday and weekend daytime coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games, the most-watched event in U.S. television history with more than 217 million viewers. Michaels has covered more major sports events than any sportscaster, including 20 years as the play-by-play voice of Monday Night Football. He is the only commentator to call the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and host the Stanley Cup Final for network television. Among his many accolades, Michaels has captured six Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Personality - Play-by-play (1986, 1989, 1995, 2000, 2007 and 2008) and in 2011 received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sports Emmy Awards. He was inducted into the NSSA Hall of Fame in 1998. Michaels garnered his first Sportscaster of the Year award in 1980, the year he made his memorable call, "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" during the U.S. men's hockey team's dramatic upset victory over the USSR at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. Michaels was named Sportscaster of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review in 1991, and in 1996, the American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year. Regarded as one of the best baseball announcers of all time, Michaels was ABC's lead baseball play-by-play announcer during the network's coverage of Major League Baseball from 1976 - 1989. Michaels has also earned praise as a news journalist and became the second sportscaster in history to receive a News Emmy nomination for his coverage of the San Francisco earthquake during the 1989 World Series.

Leslie Moonves - Leslie Moonves is president and chief executive officer of CBS Corporation, one of the world's largest media enterprises, which creates and distributes industry-leading content across a variety of platforms to audiences around the world. Under his leadership, CBS Corporation has continued to grow in value, revenue and market-share, while identifying and developing key new revenue streams for future growth. Moonves' roots in the business are as a programmer where he has overseen some of the most successful television series of the last 20 years. He came to CBS in 1995 as president of Entertainment after serving as president of Warner Bros. Television where his team developed hit shows like Friends and ER. Once at CBS, Moonves and his team took the network from last to first place in the ratings, launching hit series such as Everybody Loves Raymond, Survivor and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The CBS Television Network has now been #1 in viewers for nine of the past 10 years, currently featuring television's #1 drama, NCIS; the #1 comedy, The Big Bang Theory; the #1 news program, 60 Minutes; and time period-leading shows on virtually every night of the week. CBS Corporation's Showtime Networks have also generated millions of new premium cable subscribers on the heels of edgy, critically-acclaimed programming, including the Emmy Award-winning Homeland.

Bob Schieffer - Bob Schieffer began a new chapter in his long career when most people are retiring. He had planned to retire in 2008 at age 71. Instead, he published his fourth book, Bob Schieffer's America, moderated the final Presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, received a News Emmy for Lifetime achievement, was named a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress and, along with his country music band Honky Tonk Confidential, made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. In 2012, Schieffer marked his 55th year as a reporter and his 43rd year at CBS News. He is one of the few broadcast or print journalists to have covered all four major beats in the nation's capital - the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill. He has been a principal anchor for CBS News since 1973. Schieffer anchored the CBS Evening News from March 2005 to August 2006, an 18-month period that saw a substantial increase in viewers. Schieffer has served as the moderator of Face The Nation, CBS News' Sunday public affairs broadcast, since 1991. He is also CBS News' chief Washington correspondent, a post he has held since 1982. Before joining CBS News, he was a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and, in 1965, became the first reporter from a Texas newspaper to report from Vietnam. Schieffer later became news anchor at WBAP-TV Dallas/Fort Worth, a post that eventually led to his joining CBS News. Schieffer has received virtually every award in broadcast journalism, but feels the greatest honor was bestowed upon him in 2005 when his alma mater, Texas Christian University, created the Schieffer School of Journalism. He provided full coverage of the 2012 Presidential conventions as well as served as the moderator for the 3rd Presidential debate between President Obama and Governor Romney.

Dick Wolf - Two-time Emmy-winning and Grammy-winning producer, and New York Times bestselling author Dick Wolf ("The Intercept") is one of television's most respected drama series creator/producers and the architect of one of the most successful brands in the history of television - Law & Order. He serves as creator and executive producer of all of the Law & Order-branded series from Wolf Films and Universal Television (including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in its 14th season on NBC). Wolf Films also produced the Grammy-winning and Emmy-nominated When You're Strange, a critically-acclaimed documentary about The Doors, and Twin Towers, which won an Oscar in 2003 as Outstanding Short Form Documentary. In 2007, Wolf executive produced the critically-acclaimed HBO original movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which won six Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie. The film tells the tragic and powerful story of the subjugation and cultural extermination of the Native American, and garnered a record 17 Emmy nominations, the most of the 2006-2007 television season. Wolf's Law & Order branded series continue to rewrite the annals of television history. Law & Order, which ran a remarkable 20 seasons on NBC, is tied with Gunsmoke as the longest-running drama series on television. It has earned 11 consecutive Outstanding Drama Series Emmy nominations - the record for most consecutive series Emmy nominations in the history of television (tied with Cheers and M*A*S*H) - and won the coveted Emmy in that category in 1997. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, has been one of NBC's top performers. Law & Order: Criminal Intent, completed its critically-acclaimed and successful 10 year run on NBC and USA Network in 2011, and other branded series include Law & Order: Los Angeles (LOLA), Law & Order: Trial By Jury, Crime & Punishment and Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. Wolf has been a creative force in television for more than 25 years, with an illustrious career as a top advertising executive and continuing as one of television's most prolific producer/writers with such series as Conviction, L.A. Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, New York Undercover, Arrest & Trial, South Beach, Feds and Players.

Philo T. Farnsworth (1906 - 1971) - Philo Taylor Farnsworth has been called the "forgotten father of television." His youthful fascination with electricity led him to conceive the basic operating principles of electronic television while still in high school. A self-taught physicist, Farnsworth attended Brigham Young University before moving to San Francisco in 1926, where he established his first corporation, Farnsworth Television Incorporated. It was there that the first crude television image was created from the Farnsworth system when a photograph of a young woman was transmitted in the San Francisco Green Street laboratory on September 7, 1927. The first patents for the Farnsworth television system were filed January 1927. In 1931, Farnsworth moved to Philadelphia to establish a television department for Philco. By 1933 when Philco decided that television patent research was no longer a part of its corporate vision, Farnsworth returned to his own labs. In 1938, he established the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation. This research and manufacturing company was later purchased by the International Telephone and Telegraph Company (IT&T). Farnsworth's work for IT&T included both television and nuclear fusion. In December 1938, Farnsworth moved to Salt Lake City to organize his last venture: Philo T. Farnsworth and Associates. Its purpose was to continue the work on fusion he started at IT&T. In 1990 a statue was dedicated in Washington's Statuary Hall-the inscription reads "Philo T. Farnsworth: Father of Television."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos

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