Veteran ABC News Director Roger Goodman to Expand His Production Company

April 27, 2009 — -- Veteran ABC News director Roger Goodman is changing his full-time status at the news division to pursue additional opportunities outside the company, ABC News President David Westin announced today.

Beginning May 1, Goodman will focus his efforts on his own production company and continue to serve as a consultant to ABC News.

In an e-mail to the news division, Westin wrote: "Roger's profound effect on television news and sports cannot be overstated. He has directed every kind of special event imaginable from the millennium to war coverage and from election nights to the Olympics. He has pioneered the use of new technology through live programming from nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and, most recently, an 11-car rolling Amtrak train.

Westin continued, "Roger's enthusiasm, creativity, and attention to detail are legendary. We are fortunate that he will remain very much a part of ABC News for many years to come and wish him all the best as he opens a new chapter in his life."

Goodman said, "This has been the most unbelievable ride imaginable. If someone told me 45 years ago that I would be given the opportunity to direct the millennium, the Olympics and the Oscars I wouldn't believe it were possible. And yet here I am, all these years later, with those experiences and many more to be thankful for."

Goodman's career spans four decades in news, sports and entertainment -- creating, producing and directing live events on and off the air.

Since 1998, Goodman has served as vice president of special projects for the ABC television network, where he created, produced, and directed special programming.

For ABC News, Goodman developed and executed the creative design and direction of ABC's political coverage of presidential conventions, debates, elections and inaugurations, a responsibility he has had since 1981.

Goodman directed the Peabody Award-winning coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks for ABC News, which broadcast live over 91-hours, making it the longest consecutive news report in ABC history. He also served as executive director of ABC News' 15-hour coverage of the one-year anniversary of 9/11.

On Dec. 31, 1999, Mr. Goodman was the co-executive producer and director of "ABC 2000: The Millennium," the distinctive 24-hour news and entertainment broadcast in which 175 million viewers took a world tour that included more than 60 countries. He directed for an unprecedented 24 consecutive hours, using more than 400 cameras, 32 satellites, four control rooms and a staff of 1,000 technicians.

Goodman also has designed and directed "20/20," "PrimeTime Live," "Nightline," "This Week," "Good Morning America," "World News" and coverage of the war with Iraq; funeral coverage of Pope John Paul II, President Reagan and President Ford; tours of the White House and the Kremlin; the five-hour live special from the beaches of Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day; the historic week-long series "Nightline in South Africa," "Nightline in the Holy Land," the unprecedented four-hour "Nightline" on AIDS; Liberty Weekend and "Capital to Capital."

In February 2009, Goodman directed the 81st Academy Awards telecast. For ABC Entertainment, he also has directed the Daytime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Emmy and Oscar countdown shows, "David Blaine: Drowned Alive," "David Blaine: Frozen in Time," "Michael Jackson Talks to Oprah," and the only live broadcast of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

For ABC Sports, Goodman has been the director and/or coordinating director for 10 Olympic Games, four Super Bowl halftime shows, college football, "Wide World of Sports," NCAA college football, the Preakness Stakes, the New York Marathon and the Indianapolis 500.

In addition to his direction and production expertise, the multiple award-winning Goodman has been instrumental in a number of technological advances and industry firsts that have ranged from the invention of the over-the-shoulder Quantel box, to the first successful transmissions of live programming from a nuclear submarine, an aircraft carrier, and most recently, a week of live programming from aboard an 11-car Amtrak train moving at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. He has designed and built studios and sets ranging from Times Square Studios -- the home of "Good Morning America," to ABC's ongoing news and magazine shows and specials, the development of ABC's efforts in interactive, enhanced television, virtual-reality production sets and other integrated new media projects.

Goodman has received numerous awards for his work, including 54 Emmy nominations and 26 Emmy Awards, three Christopher Awards, three Peabody Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, the first Gold Baton ever presented by the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, a George Polk Award, two International Broadcast Design Awards, the 1988 Directors Guild of America directorial achievement for the Indianapolis 500, a 1992 Cine Award, a Bronze Medallion Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award, a 1989 National Headliners Award and the 1985 Creative Direction Award.

Goodman began his broadcasting career at WKRB-TV in Chicago in 1964.

He joined ABC Sports in 1965 as a production assistant.

In 1968, he was named associate director for ABC Sports, and, in 1976 was promoted to director of production development, ABC News and Sports.

In 1988, he became director of production and design, ABC News, and in 1996 was named executive director, special projects, ABC Television.