Robert L Woodruff TV Pioneer and Legend is dead.

Robert  Woodruff died on Oct 21, 2010. He was 70. Woodruff was a true television legend. Bob loved creating television. The impact of his decades work will become very clear as you read through this site and learn about the man behind the tube. Taken as a whole he is one of the great American television pioneers.

Robert Woodruff has died-Television Pioneer

Robert L Woodruff, a television pioneer for nearly four decades, has died at the age of 70. Born in May of 1940 and passed on October 21, 2010 in Wilmington, Delaware. Cause of death unknown. 

PRLog (Press Release) – Jan 15, 2011 – Mr. Woodruff was a pioneering creative producer whose ideas helped transform television programming.

In the 1980s Woodruff was the Sr.Vice President and Executive Producer for Universal television. Working from their flagship station WWOR TV in Secaucus, New Jersey

Woodruff created and oversaw such daring and popular shows such as "The Morton Downey Jr. Show" "The Howard Stern Television Show" and a refreshingly funny kids show "Steampipe Alley" with host comedian Mario Cantone.

Woodruff also oversaw the stations morning show "People Are Talking" with Renee Hambley Bidstrup and Richard Bey. A show which morphed into a live three hour morning show "9 Broadcast Plaza" with Matt Lauer and Sara Lee Kessler. After a number of attempts to create a morning hit Woodruff finally came up with a concept for Richard Bey and thus was born "The Richard Bey Show" A spoof of talk shows with sound effects, a wheel of torture and a yearly contest for" Ms Big Butts".and" Mr Punnyverse". The Bey show went national and was a big hit.

Woodruff also worked at KGO in San Fransisco and in Detroit.

He was respected and loved by all who knew him. He will be missed and will remain forever somewhere in the millions of television viewers whom he touched.

Woodruff Was Executive Producer of the"Morton Downey Jr. Show"

This clip was not one of his favorite tapings.

Woodruff created The Howard Stern Show (WWOR)

Stern was approached by Bob Woodruff, vice president of program development at WWOR-TV, in early 1990. He agreed to host a weekly late night television show at a production and salary budget of $100,000.^[5] The Howard Stern Show made its launch on July 14, 1990 with four Saturday night pilots. The program entered national syndication in January 1991 by All American Television. ^{[6] [7]} Unlike the Fox pilots, Stern enjoyed greater creative freedom. The WWOR show featured outrageous segments including "Guess the Jew" and "Lesbian Dating Game". A critic of the Los Angeles Times described the show as "at once incredibly funny and incredibly vile." ^[6] In the New York market, The Howard Stern Show often doubled those of Saturday Night Live on NBC during the half-hour the two programmes overlapped. ^[8] In Los Angeles, the show managed to attract a 34.4% market share at 12:30 am in the males aged 18 to 49 demographic. ^[9]

In July 1992, The Howard Stern Show came to an end. "We made this business decision, even though the show had high ratings, because the cost exceeded the revenue," a WWOR spokeswoman explained. ^[10] A total of 69 episodes were broadcast to 65 markets across the country; the last airing on August 8, 1992. ^[11][7]

^{Woodruff Staff at the "Morton Downey Jr. Show}

Bob Woodruff Created "The Richard Bey Show" And "The Jackie Mason Show" for WWOR- TV.

Here Richard interviews Mr Mason and Joan Rivers.

Bob created a daily three hour live morning show. This is day two.

https://sites.google.com/site/bobwoodrufftvpioneerdies/

Bob Woodruff talks to the NYTs about his new three hour live morning show.

By JEREMY GERARD

Published: September 16, 1989

The new program will also have elements on fashion, consumer issues and a regular feature produced in cooperation with Good Housekeeping magazine, said Robert Woodruff, the executive producer of the program and Channel 9's head of program development. Mr. Woodruff said that despite elements like a wall of television monitors similar to one used on ''Primetime Live,'' ''Nine Broadcast Plaza'' would be technically simple and no more costly to produce than any other three hours of programming. He also said that except for the new set, the program did not require a major investment by MCA. The Downey Strategy WWOR, like most independent stations, relies heavily on syndicated reruns of network programs. Nevertheless, Mr. Alexander said that the station now presented 33 hours of its own original programming, and that the figure would increase in January. He has also eliminated paid religious programs that were staples of the old schedule.

And then, of course, there was Mr. Downey's raucous program, which began as a local talk show and spent a little more than a year in national syndication before expiring. ''It was all part of a counterprogramming strategy,'' Mr. Alexander said, smiling. ''It sure got us attention. It served that purpose extremely well.''