Biography

Robert (Bob) M. Bennett was a pioneer of the MDA Love Network, a network of 200 Television stations that participated in the MDA Labor Day Telethon.

Bob produced more than 60 hours of locally produced programming for WCVB-TV including: -An ABC Network movie, "Summer Solstice" starring Henry Fonda. -A sitcom called "The Baxters" developed for national syndication with Norman Lear. -Another sitcom "Park Street Under," set in a subway bar in Boston and followed the lives of an ex-Red Sox pitcher as bartender, an outspoken waitress, (does this sound familiar??) from which Paramount TV and NBC then developed its big hit "Cheers;" -And more than 200 national and international award-winning documentaries, dramas, and magazine/talk shows.

WCVB-TV received the prestigious Peabody Award for America's finest television station. WCVB-TV was sold in 1981 to Metromedia for $220 million, eclipsing the highest price ever paid for a television station in American History at the time. WCVB-TV went on to become the flagship station for the Metromedia broadcasting group. Then Bennett did it again! In 1985 Bennett carefully coordinated and directed the sale of WCVB-TV to the Hearst Corporation to the tune of $450 million, setting the new high- bar for any television station sale in the U.S.

Bob and his son Casey Bennett founded Bennett Productions in Los Angeles, CA, Bob served as Chairman of the Board of Bennett Productions until his death in 2016. Bennett Productions was one of the country's leading high definition television production and post-production companies.

Bennett, a philanthropist at heart, was once the president and board member of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which famously telecast the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon every Labor Day weekend and became a Labor Day weekend tradition to millions of Americans. The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon raised more than $2.5 billion for the Muscular Dystrophy Association until the television program's end in 2014. When Bob was general manager of WNEW-TV in New York, which was the only station then carrying the MDA Telethon, he contacted his peers in the business and convinced them to carry the weekend-long program. That led to the formation of Lewis' national MDA Love Network.

Bob Bennett died Tuesday November 28, 2016
- IMDb mini biography by: Lola Davidson