David Susskind

Production

David Susskind

Born — Died

1920-12-19 — 1987-02-22

Place of birth

New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Production

Credits

59 titles

David Howard Susskind (December 19, 1920 – February 22, 1987) was an American producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a TV talk show host. His talk shows were innovative in the genre and addressed timely, controversial topics beyond the scope of others of the day. His first job after the war was as a press agent for Warner Brothers. Next, he was a talent agent for Century Artists, ultimately ending up in the Music Corporation of America's newly minted television programming department, managing Dinah Shore, Jerry Lewis, and others. In New York, Susskind formed Talent Associates, representing creators of material rather than performers. In 1954, Susskind became a producer of the NB…

Known for

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson poster
7.6

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962

Saturday Night Live poster
6.9

A late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, and features performances by a musical guest.

Saturday Night Live

1975

The Mike Douglas Show poster
5.8

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The Mike Douglas Show

1961

The Merv Griffin Show poster
6.8

No synopsis available yet.

The Merv Griffin Show

1962

What's My Line? poster
7.0

Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.

What's My Line?

1950

The Dick Cavett Show poster
6.8

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

The Dick Cavett Show

1968

Film credits

2010s · 2 titles

Series credits

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson poster
7.6

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962

Saturday Night Live poster
6.9

A late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, and features performances by a musical guest.

Saturday Night Live

1975

The Mike Douglas Show poster
5.8

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The Mike Douglas Show

1961

The Merv Griffin Show poster
6.8

No synopsis available yet.

The Merv Griffin Show

1962

What's My Line? poster
7.0

Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.

What's My Line?

1950

The Dick Cavett Show poster
6.8

The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

The Dick Cavett Show

1968

The Phil Donahue Show poster
NR

The Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, was an American television talk show hosted by Phil Donahue that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, and it was broadcast nationwide between 1970 and 1996. In 2002, Donahue was ranked twenty-ninth on TV Guide magazine's list of the fifty greatest television shows of all-time.

The Phil Donahue Show

1967

Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine

1962

Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine

1962

The David Susskind Show poster
7.0

The David Susskind Show is an American television talk show hosted by David Susskind. The program began its existence in 1958 as Open End, and was broadcast by WNTA-TV in New York City. The title referred to the fact that the program continued until Susskind or his guests were too tired to continue late on a Sunday night.

The David Susskind Show

1959

Behind the camera

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore poster
7.0

After her husband dies, Alice and her son, Tommy, leave their small New Mexico town for California, where Alice hopes to make a new life for herself as a singer. Money problems force them to settle in Arizona instead, where Alice takes a job as waitress in a small diner.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

1974

The Bunker poster
6.3

Dramatization depicting the events surrounding Adolf Hitler's last weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the battle for the city.

The Bunker

1981

Edge of the City poster
7.1

A male army deserter and a black male dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager, in a corrupt environment, and as their connection blossoms they must face the oppressive and morally decaying city they live in.

Edge of the City

1957

Requiem for a Heavyweight poster
7.2

After suffering a brutal defeat and being told he can no longer fight, 37-year-old, scar-ridden prizefighter Louis 'Mountain' Rivera struggles to find a new direction in life.

Requiem for a Heavyweight

1962

A Raisin in the Sun poster
7.7

Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.

A Raisin in the Sun

1961

Lovers and Other Strangers poster
5.1

Mike Vecchio and Susan Henderson are preparing for their upcoming wedding. However, they seem to be the only two people at the wedding that are happy. Mike's brother Richie and his wife Joan are going through a divorce, which is upsetting his overly devout Catholic mother Beatrice. Also, Susan's father is carrying on an affair and her sex starved older sister Wilma is going through her troubles with her husband Johnny. All this is going on while Mike's best friend Jerry is trying to bed the maid of honor, Susan's cousin Brenda.

Lovers and Other Strangers

1970

The Pursuit of Happiness poster
6.2

William Popper is the son of a stockbroker and is thoroughly disenchanted with "the system." So much so that even though he can prove that he ran over a woman in his car entirely by accident, he accepts a sentence for manslaughter.

The Pursuit of Happiness

1971

The Diary of Anne Frank poster
8.0

During World War II, a teenage Jewish girl named Anne Frank and her family are forced into hiding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

The Diary of Anne Frank

1967

Death of a Salesman poster
6.4

Willy Loman is an over-the-hill salesman who faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family: Willy's long-suffering wife Linda, and Biff and Happy, his troubled sons and his life.

Death of a Salesman

1966

All the Way Home poster
10.0

Jay Follet is suffering a mid-life crisis while his wife, Mary, is expecting their second child. When Jay takes his family to visit his 103-year-old grandmother, he begins to realize that life is passing by too quickly. He turns more and more toward alcohol to escape from reality. When Jay doesn't come home one night, Mary learns that he was in an accident and waits anxiously for his return. Screen adaptation of Tad Mosel's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning play based on James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel A Death in the Family.

All the Way Home

1971

Meet Me in St. Louis poster
6.0

A year in the life of a turn-of-the-century middle class family, leading up to the opening of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Meet Me in St. Louis

1959

A Hatful of Rain poster
7.0

A Korean War veteran's morphine addiction wreaks havoc upon his family.

A Hatful of Rain

1968

Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess poster
7.0

The life and times of silverscreen goddess Rita Hayworth.

Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess

1983

Harvey poster
6.6

Elwood P. Dowd's constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall invisible rabbit. To his sister, his obsession with Harvey has been a thorn in her plans to marry off her daughter. However, when she decides to put Elwood in a mental institution, a mix-up occurs, and she finds herself committed instead. It's now up to Elwood and "Harvey" to straighten out the mess.

Harvey

1972

The Glass Menagerie poster
7.7

An aging Southern Belle complicates life for her ambitious son and crippled daughter because of her own warped views of what life should be.

The Glass Menagerie

1973

Dial M for Murder poster
7.5

Wealthy Margo Wendice's husband (Laurence Harvey) plots her murder to inherit her fortune after discovering her affair, leading to a tense, failed, and improvised criminal scheme. A made-for-television remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film.

Dial M for Murder

1967

The Power and the Glory poster
9.0

Based on Graham Greene's novel about a flawed but devoted priest in 1930s Mexico who attempts to perform his duties while eluding a police lieutenant determined to capture him.

The Power and the Glory

1963

Medea poster
8.0

A betrayed queen takes a terrible revenge.

Medea

1959

The Moon and Sixpence poster
7.0

A staid, dull Englishman abruptly deserts his wife and children to become a painter in the South Seas.

The Moon and Sixpence

1959

If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band poster
5.0

Life in a black ghetto isn't easy for 14-year-old Billie Jean Sims, who has a father in jail, a blind grandmother, and a brother with a drug habit. Growing up among drug pushers, prostitutes, and pimps, Billie Jean still has some things going for her: fierce pride, a loyal friend named Fish, and, at last, enough savings to visit her father 1200 miles away in prison.

If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band

1972

The Price poster
NR

After the Great Depression, Victor Franz gave up going to college to support his father. After 30 years, Victor returns to sell his parents’ estate. His wife, Esther, his brother, Walter, and a canny furniture dealer have their own agendas. Victor must finally deal with his sacrifice.

The Price

1971

No artwork available
NR

"An after-dinner farrago" featuring British writers and performers Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.

At the Drop of a Hat

1962

The Plutonium Incident poster
6.5

A plutonium plant employee becomes the target of management, as well as union harassment, when she tries to blow the whistle on the company for negligent safety procedures, and she soon finds her life in peril.

The Plutonium Incident

1980

No artwork available
NR

Unable to marry the divorced Wallis Simpson, King Edward VIII has to choose between the crown and love.

Crown Matrimonial

1974

Back to Back poster
8.0

These dueling one-act comedies highlight the work of playwright John Mortimer. In "The Dock Brief," an ill-prepared attorney is put to the test when his client confesses to killing his wife. In "What Shall We Tell Caroline?" a father with good intentions tries to protect his wife and daughter from the bad things in life.

Back to Back

1959

Hedda Gabler poster
7.2

Hedda Gabler has just come back from her honeymoon, married to boring but reliable academic George Tesman. Refusing to tie herself down in life and name, Hedda is banking on George being appointed a professorship to secure a better life for the young couple, However, the arrival of cleaned up ex-lover Eilert threatens to destroy everything.

Hedda Gabler

1962

A Moon for the Misbegotten poster
6.5

A cynical, self-hating, failed actor visits the gruff, earthy daughter of his scheming Irish tenant farmer and passes a soul-baring night of guilt-ridden confessions, tenderness, and absolution.

A Moon for the Misbegotten

1975

Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking poster
NR

A biography of President Harry S. Truman.

Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking

1976

The Country Girl poster
10.0

Frank Elgin's career in the theater is all washed up — but his friend Bernie thinks he can make a comeback, as long as his wife Georgie doesn't interfere.

The Country Girl

1974

Johnny Belinda poster
9.0

In post-war Cape Breton, a doctor's efforts to tutor a deaf and mute woman are undermined when she is raped, and the resulting pregnancy causes scandal to swirl.

Johnny Belinda

1967

The Human Voice poster
6.8

A monologue of a woman talking on the phone with her longterm lover who is about to marry another girl.

The Human Voice

1966

No artwork available
NR

The 1973 program that explored Howard Hughes’ connection to Watergate and the alleged $100,000 bribe to Nixon that may have precipitated the break-in.

Howard Hughes: the Watergate Connection

1973

Miracle On 34th Street poster
7.2

In this charming TV adaptation of the 1947 film classic, a kindly old gentleman (Ed Wynn) working as a Macy's department store Santa causes a commotion when he claims to be the real St. Nick. Forced to prove his sanity, he is taken to court where he must convince the judge and his friends that he actually is Santa Claus. The faith of one skeptical little girl (Susan Gordon) and a Christmas miracle are the keys to his true identity.

Miracle On 34th Street

1959

No artwork available
9.0

A no-nonsense diplomat of the Soviet Union, Nina Ivanovna Ninotchka Yakushova arrives in Paris to ensure the sale of jewels seized during the Russian Revolution. Meanwhile, carefree bachelor Count Leon d'Algout attempts to intercept the valuables on behalf of their former owner, the Grand Duchess Swana. Despite their conflicting allegiances, the icy Ninotchka soon warms to Leon's charms, reluctantly going against her better judgment. A 1960 American television remake of the 1939 Greta Garbo film Ninotchka.

Ninotchka

1960

The Winslow Boy poster
7.0

In pre-WWI England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.

The Winslow Boy

1958

Eagle in a Cage poster
9.0

Recounts the events of the final years of Napoleon, culminating in his exile on the isle of St. Helena.

Eagle in a Cage

1965

Mark Twain Tonight! poster
7.5

Recreating the one-man show he starred in on Broadway, Hal Holbrook portrays Mark Twain as a 70-year old humorist who skewers politicians, newspapermen and so-called patriots in this 90 minute monologue. Holbrook adapted Twain's own words for a commentary on slavery, religion and politics, mixing the satire with comic yarns about life on the Mississippi and a very effective ghost story. The show's highlight are the lengthy passages from "Huckleberry Finn".

Mark Twain Tonight!

1967

No artwork available
NR

An extensive interview originally broadcast in Feb. 1979. Host David Susskind and Truman Capote discuss the icon's history, his writing, his social persona and impact. More than an interview, the wide-ranging conversation between longtime friends delves into topics you are unlikely to see elsewhere.

David Susskind Archive: Truman Capote Tells All

—

David Susskind Archive: Interview With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr poster
NR

The historic interview that stopped JFK in his tracks...

David Susskind Archive: Interview With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

1963

David Susskind Archive: I Was a Hitman for the Mafia poster
NR

The fascinating 1973 interview with a mid-level hitman named “Joey” who describes in detail his life in the mob that included the murder of 38 men.

David Susskind Archive: I Was a Hitman for the Mafia

2020