Trivia

Following his huge successes as Head of Programming at both CBS and ABC, he managed to astound everyone by giving NBC some of its worst seasons in years. Many of the shows that premiered on his watch failed, the situation getting so bad that Johnny Carson quipped that NBC stood for Nine Bombs Cancelled.

Was responsible for the Rural Purge of 1971 at CBS. This was when he ordered the cancellations of several shows that he felt only appealed to either rural audiences or to older viewers. Among those that got the ax were The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Green Acres (1965) and Hogan's Heroes (1965).

Another purge that Silverman had a hand in was the cancellation of all the game shows that CBS aired in prime time: What's My Line? (1950), I've Got a Secret (1952), To Tell the Truth (1956) and Password (1961).

Graduated from Forest Hills High School in Forest Hills, Queens, NY.

Earned a master's degree from Ohio State University where he wrote his thesis analyzing 10 years of ABC programming data.

During his 1978-81 run as president of NBC, he was often lampooned by John Belushi on Saturday Night Live (1975).

Program Executive, WGN-TV, Chicago, 1959-63. Vice President of Daytime, CBS; 1965-70. Vice President of Programs, CBS; 1970-75. President, ABC Entertainment, 1975-78. President & CEO, NBC; 1978-81. Independent Producer, 1981-2020.

Many of his early attempts at television series until 1985 were failures. His first major success was the series Matlock (1986), followed by In the Heat of the Night (1988).

The fictional character name, of Fred Jones, "Freddie", in Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969) was named after him.

At ABC, he was responsible for shutting down its longtime game show Let's Make a Deal (1963) (which has just been moved to noon from its longtime 1:30 p.m. home on December 29, 1975), as well as two newfound games Rhyme and Reason (1975) and Break the Bank (1976) in 1976, in favor of greenlighting The Hot Seat (1976) and Family Feud (1976) and the expansion of the two popular soaps One Life to Live (1968) and General Hospital (1963) by 15 minutes (it was expanded further by additional 15 minutes to a full hour by 1978).

At NBC, he was responsible for shutting down its longtime game show The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965) (which the network changed its timeslot several times since 1976), as well as two other games High Rollers (1974) and newfound game show Chain Reaction (1980) in 1980, in favor of greeenlighting The David Letterman Show (1980), and it almost killed off Wheel of Fortune (1975), but reversed the decision in favor of launching the soap opera Texas (1980), with reductions of Letterman and Another World (1964) from 90 to 60 minutes.

During his time on ABC, he had another purge in the cancellation of various established shows, some in the Top 20, like Good Heavens (1976), The Rookies (1972), S.W.A.T. (1975), Harry O (1973), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), On the Rocks (1975), That's My Mama (1974), When Things Were Rotten (1975), Barbary Coast (1975), Swiss Family Robinson (1975) and Mobile One (1975).

During his time at NBC in 1978, he had another purge in the cancellation of the entire new and some returning shows NBC had aired in the fall of 1978, including Lifeline (1978), Grandpa Goes to Washington (1978), Live Wednesday (1978), Project U.F.O. (1978), W.E.B. (1978), David Cassidy - Man Undercover (1978), The Waverly Wonders (1978), Who's Watching the Kids (1978), The Eddie Capra Mysteries (1978) and Sword of Justice (1978).

Grew up in Rego Park, Queens, New York.

Received a BA from Syracuse University.