Greg Garrison (born Harvin Ginsburg; February 20, 1924 – March 25, 2005) was an American producer and director in television, directing nearly 4,000 shows in his career. He received more than a dozen Emmy Award nominations, although he never won.
Garrison started his television career by accident at the age of 22. Among his first productions were The Kate Smith Show (CBS, 1950) and Your Show of Shows. He went on to produce and direct many television specials with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Donald O'Connor and many others. He was probably best known for producing and directing The Dean Martin Show, The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, hour-long comedy specials with Dom DeLuise, and summer shows with Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, Jonathan Winters, The Golddiggers, and Marty Feldman. He also directed one of television's landmark 1960 presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Garrison also produced the highly successful The first Fifty Years, a celebration of NBC Television being on the air for fifty years.
In his later years Garrison supervised for Guthy-Renker the digital remastering of The Dean Martin Show and celebrity roasts for release on DVD. The marketing of these included an entertaining informercial with clips of an interview of Garrison by host Regis Philbin about his memories of producing/directing the Martin show.
A close friend of Orson Welles, he was the executor of his estate following Welles' death in 1985.
Death
Garrison died from pneumonia on March 25, 2005 in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 81.
External links
- Greg Garrison at IMDb
- obituary by Mark Evanier with anecdotes about Garrison's technique to produce The Dean Martin Show
- further Dean Martin Show and Garrison anecdotes by Evanier