Dighton Spooner
- Years: 1974-86
- Positions: Writer-Researcher, Say Brother; Director of Viewer Support, Development Department; Unit Manager, The Advocates; Production Manager, Ephraim McDowell’s Kentucky Ride; Executive Producer, The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s One Hundredth Anniversary Concert; Assistant to the Head of National Programming
From Dighton Spooner — 3/22/2008
After leaving ‘GBH in 1986 I moved to Los Angeles to work at the CBS Television Network as Director of Mini-Series. I was responsible for overseeing the development and production of multi-part dramatic programs for broadcast on the network including the multi-Emmy award winning, eight-hour mini-series Lonesome Dove, starring Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, and Tommy Lee Jones.
While at CBS I was recruited by Granada Television in London to join them as Executive Vice President, Films for Television. There I created a new department designed to develop and produce international movies for television in cooperation with CBS in the United States as well as broadcasters in Germany, Italy and France.
I returned to the states for a few years after Granada and worked developing television movie projects in Los Angeles before returning to London a second time to work as Executive Vice President, Drama Development for ECM Productions Ltd. There I was responsible for developing television programming that would uniquely position ECM’s multi-national corporate clients and help them reach their advertising and marketing goals. In this position I worked extensively with broadcasters and creative talent in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The People’s Republic of China, and the United States.
Most recently, in television, I was Project Director for Craft in America, Inc. in Los Angeles. Here I was responsible for overseeing the development and production of a multi-media project that included a three-part national PBS television series, a companion book, and a nationally touring art exhibit.
I left the television business in 2006 and moved to Brunswick, Maine, where I worked as Senior Associate Director of Career Planning at Bowdoin College. I enjoyed immensely having the opportunity to advise students wanting to pursue careers in the arts and communications fields. I also served nine years as a board member of the Maine Community Foundation, the last two years as board chair. I retired from Bowdoin in 2019 and now live in central Massachusetts.
Send me an e-mail. I’d love to hear from my old ‘GBH colleagues.