Lorimar Productions
From left: Jeffrey Schlesinger, Lisa Gregorian, Nina Tassler, David Janollari, Leslie Moonves, Kelly Kahl, Nancy Tellem, Bruce Rosenblum and David Stapf were photographed together Oct. 21 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City.
From left: Jeffrey Schlesinger, Lisa Gregorian, Nina Tassler, David Janollari, Leslie Moonves, Kelly Kahl, Nancy Tellem, Bruce Rosenblum and David Stapf were photographed together Oct. 21 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City.
"I thought we'd make good music together, and we did for a lot of years," says Adelson, the Lorimar co-founder, of his rocky partnership with co-founder Lee Rich.
Adelson: "I had been in Vegas for a long time, and I came back to Los Angeles and noticed that most of my friends were writers, and they were a very unhappy group because everybody wanted to stick their nose in what they were doing. So I said, 'Let's have a business where we let people go. These are talented people; let them use their talent.' "
"We had amazing success … and we're all very close friends still," says Nancy Tellem, noting that they've been through a lot together. "Children born, bar mitzvahs," notes Nina Tassler, with Les Moonves adding, "And divorces!"
Company founders Rich and Adelson (in director's chairs at bottom) fronted the casts from the Lorimar hit TV shows The Waltons, Eight Is Enough and Dallas in 1978.
The 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons (starring Uma Thurman and Glenn Close) proved a rare critical and commercial hit for Lorimar Films.
Lorimar Films' 1988 action flick Action Jackson, starring Rocky's Carl Weathers (left), grossed a mere $20 million.
Via its acquisition of Karl Home Video, Lorimar found big success with Fonda's workout video series.
Friends, ultimately produced under the Warner Bros. TV banner, was born out of a rich Lorimar deal with co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane.
"I remember being in [producers] Tom [Miller] and Bob [Boyett]'s office, and there was a litter full of babies, twins, and they were looking down at them trying to decide who should the baby be in the show," recalls then-publicist Stapf of the decision to cast Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in ABC's Full House.