Charlie Parsons

For other people named Charlie Parsons, see Charlie Parsons (disambiguation).

Charles Andrew "Charlie" Parsons[1] (born 7 August 1958) is a British television producer who created a number of notable television shows including Survivor.[2] He also created The Big Breakfast and The Word.[3] He first began to sell the idea of the Survivor series format in 1994, and the first version of it was the Swedish 1997 season.[2]

Education

Parsons was educated at Tonbridge School, a boarding independent school in the town of Tonbridge in Kent in South East England, and credits the tough boarding school regime he endured there in the early 1970s, which at the time was commonplace, as providing an inspiration for his creation of the series Survivor.[4] He then went to Pembroke College at the University of Oxford, where he studied English Literature and afterwards trained as a journalist. According to a review in 2000,

“ This nice middle-class schoolboy from Kent, who read English at Oxford, became - so his critics claim - the Titan of Tack TV. He's the bloke that gets the blame for everything that is bad about British television - yoof TV, decline in standards and dumbing-down. But to his admirers, Parsons is a creative genius; a co-founder of Planet 24 and the brain behind such television hits as The Word and The Big Breakfast.[5] ”

Life and career

Parsons has won several awards including an Emmy for US series Survivor in 2001. His life partner is Lord Waheed Alli,[6] who is also his business partner. Their former company, Planet 24, was sold for 15 million pounds in 1999 to Carlton Communications.[1][7]

In March 2010 the Guardian newspaper reported that Parsons was investing in new independent production company, NERD, and had become the company's Chairman.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 "The Guardian (April 15, 2007)". theguardian.com.
  2. 1 2 Nylén, Susanne (12 February 2004). "Parsons blev miljonär på "Robinson"". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  3. 1 2 Robinson, James (25 March 2010). "Charlie Parsons invests in new TV production company NERD". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  4. ↑ Charlotte Edwardes (3 June 2001). "Survivor game show based on public school". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  5. ↑ The Sunday Times: News Review, 3 September 2000, page 6
  6. ↑ "The Independent (Saturday 06 June 2015)". independent.co.uk.
  7. ↑ "The Economist (March 2, 2013)". economist.com.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.