Story: 20th Hall of Fame Ceremony Inducts Television Pioneers and Icons

That folksy whistling in the opening sequence of The Andy Griffith Show, accompanying Mayberry sheriff Andy Taylor and son Opie on their walk to a day of fishing, is one of the most enduring sounds in all of television.

The whistling was provided by the late Earle Hagen, who composed the show’s theme music and weekly underscore. On January 20, Hagen and six other television notables received the highest honor the television industry can bestow: induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. The twentieth such ceremony, held in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel, also honored Diahann Carroll, Tom Freston, Susan Harris, Cloris Leachman and posthumously, Peter Jennings and Bill Todman.

The seven became the 127th through 133rd members of the Hall of Fame, which, as Academy chairman John Shaffner said in his welcoming speech, “recognizes those who have had a profound impact on our community and our culture … and recognizes excellence of a lifetime of career achievement.” Jeff Probst, the four-time Primetime Emmy-winning host of Survivor, presided as the ceremony’s personable host.

Hagen was the evening’s first inductee. The prolific composer, who died in 2008, provided the music for The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Danny Thomas Show, I Spy, Gomer Pyle USMC, That Girl, The Mod Squad, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and numerous others, scoring more than 3,000 hours of television and winning a Primetime Emmy for I Spy.

Van Dyke Show creator and Hall of Fame member Carl Reiner presented the Hall of Fame award to Hagen’s widow Laura. “I know Earle is here in spirit; he’s smiling from ear to ear,” she said. “He was the real deal. He consistently held himself to a higher standard, and others, as well. Thank you, especially in this day and age, for your recognition of the importance of music in our daily lives.”

Next up: producer-writer Susan Harris, creator of such groundbreaking series as Soap and The Golden Girls, for which she won a Primetime Emmy, as well as Benson and Empty Nest. She was presented her honor by former network executive/Hall of Fame member Fred Silverman, who first became aware of Harris when Norman Lear sent him the scripts she had written for the controversial two-part Maude story in which the title character has an abortion.

“I’m truly very happy,” Harris said in acceptance. “But you’ve also made me a wreck. I’m terrified of speaking in public. … In the late ’60’s, I was very fortunate: my husband left me for another woman. I had a two-year-old, no visible means of support and no skills. I was watching TV and said, ‘Maybe I could do that.’” She teamed up with Tony Thomas and Paul Junger Witt (eventually marrying the latter), working at her kitchen table. “We were fortunate to be working at a time when people stayed home and watched shows. Television has given me such a wonderful life — and for this, I’m being honored? Thank you.”

The evening’s third inductee was the late Bill Todman, who with late partner Mark Goodson, a previous honoree, produced dozens of game shows, among them What’s My Line?, I’ve Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth, Password and two still running, The Price is Right and Family Feud. In developing the game show format for television, they pioneered such elements as bartering for prizes to be used on shows and the lockout buzzer system; Todman, who died in 1979, was known for his business acumen along with his creativity, selling shows overseas and diversifying into primetime dramas as well as non-television endeavors.

The award was presented by game show veteran Florence Henderson, who noted Todman’s “boundless enthusiasm and energy.” Said son Bill Todman, Jr. in acceptance, “I know [my father] would be humbled and extremely proud. He loved the business of the week-in-week-out challenge of making television. He would say he was an extremely fortunate man, not only for getting to work, but for the ability to do so at the beginning of television.”

Fourth to be recognized was cable executive Tom Freston, who helped build MTV and its sister networks from their inception and is now a consultant to the Oprah Winfrey Network; he is also working to set up private television networks in Afghanistan and works with a Farsi satellite network. Former Warner Bros. studio head Robert Daly did the presenting honors: “It just takes one person with a vision to motivate people,” he said. “Tom had a vision to take MTV and Nickelodeon and put it all over the world.”

“I’m the cable guy,” Freston quipped in acceptance. “The wild ride we had in digital and cable started in one hotel room, with one phone line and call waiting. We didn’t understand what it was — we were at the birth of cable, and it became a rocket ship. … At its best, television informs, entertains and gives people a window on the world. We saw how it helped bring the Iron Curtain down, and now I see how it’s changing attitudes in Afghanistan and Iran. Thank you to the Television Academy for this high honor. It was certainly the last thing on my mind when I was sitting in that hotel room.”

The fifth honoree, Cloris Leachman, has won more Emmy Awards than any other female performer — eight Primetime and one daytime – for such roles as neighbor Phyllis in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and grandma Ida in Malcolm in the Middle; her recent credits include Dancing with the Stars and Raising Hope. She was lauded by presenter — and ex-husband — George Englund: “Cloris glows in every role … she explores every aspect of becoming another person. She has explored nearly every type of [woman]. Through the years, I’ve watched with undiminished awe her creations coming to life.”

In her acceptance speech, rather than focus on her own career, Leachman chose to speak about her mother’s influence and to read an ode to an ancestor. “Thank you for this honor,” she finished. “I’m beside myself.”

The penultimate honoree was the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, who died in 2005. Presenter Bob Woodruff, who succeeded Jennings as a co-anchor of World News Tonight before being seriously injured on assignment in Baghdad, characterized him as someone who “only wanted to report incredibly important news” and “had all this energy — he could anchor without taking a break.” Indeed, Jennings, a 16-time Emmy winner, anchored for 17 hours following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Said widow Kayce Freed Jennings in acceptance, “I don’t have to be modest about Peter’s talent. He really was good. I know he’d want to thank ABC — they let him do what he wanted. … His unquenchable curiosity made every day an adventure. On a bike ride in France, he veered off to see what a farmer was doing. He knew the names of [his neighborhood’s] homeless people. He was born to be a reporter. He for sure would be dismayed by all the careless reporting out there … and excited by the new platforms that have opened up.”

The evening’s final recipient was Diahann Carroll, who broke racial barriers in 1968 as the first female African-American sitcom lead in a non-stereotypical role, playing nurse and working single mother Julia Baker on Julia. She later played, as she termed it, “the first black bitch on TV,” Dominique Deveraux on Dynasty, has also had roles in A Different World and Soul Food and currently appears on White Collar. Presenter Tavis Smiley turned emotional in describing Carroll’s “caring, commitment, courage and character,” thanking her for those inspirational traits which “advance us, not just as a people, but as a nation.”

“I thank you for the privilege of this honor,” Carroll said in acceptance. “I came here for 13 weeks in 1967. I’m still here. [Creator] Hal Kanter started Julia only three years after desegregation. They [he and others] explained that my character would be something never before seen. That was a tremendous responsibility. The only reason I went forward was that they hoped I would be part of desegregation in the United States.” Then in 1983, when she called Dynasty executive producer Aaron Spelling with her idea for her role, she told him to think of the character as “a power-hungry, tough white male corporate mogul.” She concluded, “It’s an honor to be recognized by an industry that can recognize it’s useful as an instrument of progress, while at the same time be a silly guilty pleasure.”

Lee Miller, Kevin Hamburger and Tim Gibbons produced the ceremony. Mark Itkin is chairman of the Hall of Fame committee.