ABC Family's Paul Lee: "We're in a Glory Period for Dramatic Television"

Originally Published April 25 2005Paul Lee president of ABC Family Channel grew up in London has jumped off moving freight trains with hobos in Nevada been in the midst of battle in Belfast experienced the end of the Cold War at the Winter Palace in Leningrad and was a director for a top telenovella in Rio de Janeiro Now Paul is on a mission at ABC Family quotPeople are more passionate about their families than anything elsequot Paul told me during our lunch at Michael39s as Barbara Walters lunched nearby with Peter Price and as Gerry Byrne Maury Rogoff CNBC39s Bob Meyer Nick Verbitsky and Joe Armstrong stopped by to say hello quotI39m on a mission to make great television about today39s families that reflect real family passions dysfunction and diversity stories that reflect real values and real life with an undercurrent of heart and optimismquot quotPeople are coming to Hollywood from around the world to tell stories on American televisionquot Paul exclaims quotWe39re in a moment in television when intelligent dramatic story telling is in a glory period and we39ll look back at this period of television as being a great time for dramas I39m privileged to be a part of this periodquot ABC Family39s slate of original programs for the 20052006 season is weighted toward dramas designed to complement quota strong foundation of disciplined offnetwork acquisitionsquot headed by quotGilmore Girlsquot and quotSmallvillequot With a programming vision that39s as diverse as his own experiences Paul and his team have been responsible for dramatically increasing ABC Family39s ratings and Paul is confident a strategy built around offnetwork series original series and major tent pole events such as quot25Days of Christmasquot can establish his network as an industry leader in ratings and brand equity It hasn39t taken very long for Paul and his family to become acclimated to the US since they moved from London to Washington in 1998 when Paul was named to head the launch of BBC America Paul has also made a quick adjustment from Britishbased to American television since joining ABC Family just one year ago While the Lee family enjoyed their time in Washington they are quotthrilledquot to be in Los Angeles quotThe West Coast is open to ideas from anywhere and to people who come from everywherequot Paul laughs about how acclimated he has become to America quotI was watching myself on the network39s Upfront tape and I thought 39Oh my God I DO have an English accent39 I think I sound totally Americanquot As busy as Paul is at work he quotloves being in the popcorn period of my life watching TV with my kids and 39Desperate Housewives39 with my wifequot Paul39s 11 yearold son quotis an ecowarrior and a real wise human with tremendous spiritquot His 13year old son quotis totally into sports and especially basketball Both my boys love it here They have enough perspective beyond the US but they are Americansquot Paul notes that he like most parents tries to get to all his son39s games quotMy dadquot he observes quotgave me the tools and support to follow my passions but I remember him coming to only one of my rugby games and that was typical for all my teammates Now we turn up for all the games and kids think we don39t care if we39re not there There are so many dynamics in families today so many stories to tellquot Paul39s father a famed surgeon had grown up in South Africa and as a child and teen Paul often visited his grandparents there and he joined his parents on trips to major museums across Europe He learned to love traveling and while a student at Oxford he spent several months in Russia returning years later to produce quotOblomovquot for the BBC starring George Wendt of quotCheersquot He also traveled to Brazil arranging an interview with leading network Rede Globo through a family contact and quotamazingly getting a job as a runner on the 7 PM novella I was on the floor with a headset getting lines from the director and giving them to the actor I was speaking Portuguese with a Brit accent and there were some pretty humorous momentsquot After a year Paul returned to London for a job with the BBC and was sent to cover unfolding events in Belfast where he met Dierdre his wife of 16 years The BBC asked him to produce a documentary in the US about folk singer Woody Guthrie which took him crosscountry replicating Guthrie39s travels including his life as a hobo riding freight trains quotWe got on a freight car in Sacramento and rode the train to Reno We were waiting for the train to stop but it only slowed down We had to jump off with all our equipmentquot Of all the documentaries he39s produced Paul is most proud of the Guthrie program which was part of the quotArenaquot series for which Lee and the BBC won a British Academy Award quotI made a lot of very clever documentaries that I liked at the time but they haven39t survived The ones that had real emotion are the ones that have survived the test of time and I39m proudest ofquot Paul39s mission today is for ABC Family to quottell great stories about families that have real emotion and will stand out for their quality and human valuesquot when we look back at this quotglory periodquot for American dramatic television To contact Paul Lee send your email to contactmediavillagecom

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ABC Family's Paul Lee: "We're in a Glory Period for Dramatic Television"

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ABC Family's Paul Lee: "We're in a Glory Period for Dramatic Television"

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