Syndicated series The original
Biography was produced by David Wolper and
Jack Haley Jr. and narrated by Mike Wallace, who at the time was just beginning his award-winning journalism career. The show featured no interviews, consisting instead of a half hour of film clips,
newsreel footage, still photographs and recordings. Production began in 1961 and the show was distributed in
syndication The program became popular in syndication, and in 1962, won a
Peabody Award (Television Education), the first of several for both Wolper and Wallace.
Biography has been credited with turning Wallace's journalism career around, and in 1963, he left to join
The CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace, and later,
60 Minutes.
Biography stopped releasing new episodes in 1964, although some episodes continued to be used as educational films in classrooms, became standards for filmed biographies of the persons profiled, and it played for decades in syndication. In 1994, A&E expanded the show from one night per week to five (every weeknight at 8pm) and commissioned over 100 hours of new programming. Journalist
Jack Perkins joined the show as an alternate host along with Graves. For the 1995–96 season, A&E expanded
Biography again, adding a sixth night,
Biography This Week, which profiled someone from the previous weeks' news, such as
Yitzak Rabin,
George Burns,
Jackie Robinson,
Andrew Cunanan and
Gene Kelly. six nights per week, and received its first
Emmy nominations (The Presidents Award and Outstanding Informational Series). A&E started producing approximately 130 hours of new programming each year, and expanded the franchise into other media.
Barnes & Noble began selling
Biography videos in its 400 stores. In the summer of 1996, A&E launched Biography.com. In the fall, a Saturday-morning children's version,
Biography for Kids, was released. The next year,
Biography won its first
Emmy Award (Outstanding Informational Series), and was nominated in two other categories. 367,000 by mid-1998; 528,000 by 1999; and 700,000 by 2001).
Crown Publishing Group, a subsidiary of
Random House, began publishing a line of 200-page
Biography paperbacks in 1997, beginning with books on
Muhammad Ali,
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,
Ronald Reagan, and
Pope John Paul II. In 1998,
Biography was airing twice a day, six days a week. The episode profiling
Ozzie and
Harriet Nelson, aired on three separate time slots on Sunday, June 21, 1998, became the show's highest-rated episode up to that point. A&E released
Biography Movies, featuring subjects such as
P.T. Barnum,
Lillian Hellman, and
Dashiell Hammett.
Bill Kurtis hosted a spin-off show,
Biography: American Justice, and a series of
Biography record albums by artists who had been profiled on the show, including
Dean Martin,
Judy Garland,
Nat King Cole,
Mel Torme, and
Lena Horne, was released by
EMI-Capitol Entertainment Properties. By 1999,
Biography had profiled 600 people. It won its second
Emmy Award (Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming), Journalist
Harry Smith (previously with CBS's
This Morning) joined
Biography as the primary host, though
Peter Graves and Jack Perkins continued to appear on the show. By the end of the century,
Biography had profiled over 800 people, and on October 1, 2000, A&E Networks expanded its British partnership with
Sky UK with the launch of a UK market Biography Channel.
Biographys ratings declined 15% from 2000 to 2001, and another 17% from 2001 to 2002, before increasing 6% in 2003. Despite the decrease in ratings, by 2002,
Biography won its third
Emmy Award (Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series), and marked its 1,000th profile. A&E responded to the ratings decline by changing
Biographys management personnel and launching a marketing campaign centering on photographs taken by photographer
Annie Leibovitz of well-known subjects that had been profiled on
Biography, including
Jerry Seinfeld, Muhammad Ali,
Steven Spielberg and
Harrison Ford. In 2002, host Harry Smith left to join CBS's
The Early Show. A&E began reducing the number of nights
Biography aired starting 2003, when
Neil Ross became the show's final host, narrating episodes on
Elizabeth Taylor and
Elvis Presley. The growth of
Biographys magazine circulation slowed in 2002 and declined 9% in 2003. In 2004, A&E scaled back
Biography magazine from monthly to quarterly publication. By 2006, Ross had left the show and
Biography was airing only once a week, usually on Friday nights with three back-to-back episodes. A&E removed
Biography from its lineup in August, making new episodes of the show exclusively available on
The Biography Channel. Its first year on The Biography Channel featured 64 hours of new programming, including episodes on the
Onassis family,
Jamie Oliver,
Russell Simmons,
George Lopez,
Anthony Hopkins,
Grace Slick,
Elmore Leonard and
Olivia Newton-John. The following year, The Biography Channel was rebranded "Bio." In 2008,
Biography released a documentary, ''
Johnny Cash's America'', together with a companion DVD/CD package published by
Legacy Recordings containing an unreleased recitation by the singer entitled "I Am the Nation". The last new episode aired in 2011, and the show ended its run in 2012. In 2014, A&E replaced its underperforming Bio channel with
The FYI Network and partnered with digital publisher
SAY Media. SAY Media began operating Biography.com, while A&E continued producing short-form videos for the website.
2017 revival In 2017, A&E Networks relaunched the franchise with a set of two-hour specials and mini-series for three of its channels,
A&E,
History and
Lifetime. Biography returned to A&E on June 28, 2017, with
The Notorious Life of Biggie Smalls. A&E announced that it would produce up to 40 hours of new episodes as part of the relaunch, including features on
John Gotti,
Tupac Shakur,
Vladimir Putin,
Elizabeth Smart,
Mike Tyson, and
David Koresh. == Biography.com ==