In 1961, Bolen began her career producing commercials. She then worked on documentaries about
Twiggy, and then as a writer and producer of documentary films, which included
Crisis in America – Welfare for ABC-TV and ''Stravinsky's Requiem to Martin Luther King'' with the
New York City Ballet. Bolen was appointed Vice President of Daytime Programming at NBC in 1972. She developed an expanded format for
Days of Our Lives and
Another World, changing both to an hour-long running time. The expanded shows attracted new viewers and became hits with young women. Although NBC was airing the successful game shows
Hollywood Squares,
Concentration, and
Jeopardy! at the time, Bolen's mandate was to increase ratings of young women ages 18–34. Daytime and late-night were seen as NBC's profit center at that time, and advertisers wanted programs that attracted young women. In late 1972, Bolen ended
Concentration 's fifteen-year run and replaced it with the
Heatter-Quigley Productions game show
Baffle.
Baffle failed to compete with
CBS's new game show,
The $10,000 Pyramid, and was canceled on March 29, 1974. Bolen also decided to end the eleven-year run of
Jeopardy!, feeling that its demographics were old. The show's creator and producer
Merv Griffin did not wish to change the show's format, so Bolen commissioned a new game show from Griffin called
Wheel of Fortune. Two pilots were produced before the network was satisfied that young women would love the show, although Bolen risked being fired if the show failed.
Wheel of Fortune debuted on January 6, 1975, and was an immediate ratings hit. In the spring of 1976, while NBC was still the #1 network in daytime, Bolen left the network to become an independent TV producer. She formed her own production company called Lin Bolen Productions. The new company created and developed game shows, movies of the week, and theatrical films for networks and studios. Bolen created the game show
Stumpers! hosted by
Allen Ludden, which was produced exclusively by Bolen's production company. The show was a word game with game elements similar to
Password, which had also been hosted by Ludden. The show lasted 13 weeks before being canceled by new NBC president
Fred Silverman. One series which Bolen's company produced for NBC was loosely based on her own career, taking a serious look at the men who ran network television.
W.E.B. was scheduled against
ABC's hit series ''
Charlie's Angels'' and did not perform well. It was canceled after 13 weeks. In 1982, Bolen was hired as head of creative affairs at InterMedia Entertainment, which was owned by
Fred Silverman. Bolen's company produced the television movie
The Christmas Coal Mine Miracle, starring
Kurt Russell and
Melissa Gilbert, which became the highest rated movie of the year for NBC. Other films followed, including
Good Against Evil starring
Kim Cattrall and
Dan O'Herlihy for ABC;
Golden Gate starring
Perry King,
Melanie Griffith, and
John Saxon; A two-hour
pilot for ABC called
Farrell for the People starring
Valerie Harper and
Ed O'Neill; a comedy pilot for NBC called
The Ann Jillian Show, and an NBC summer variety pilot called
Live From the South Seas starring
John Rowles. ==
Network==