Paul Alter
Director, Producer, and TV Host in Chicago, Illinois
American television director Paul Alter was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 11, 1922. In 1950, way before this veteran TV game-show director and producer went to work in television he used to study piano with Teddy Wilson from the Benny Goodman Quartet. Learning from the best, Alter turned out to be a talented musician. Then after many years spent as a TV director and producer, he finally used his talent and composed the 1969 theme music for To Tell the Truth. Paul Alter graduated from NYU and the Yale School of Drama. He is best known as a producer and director of TV game shows such as "I've Got a Secret", "To Tell the Truth", "What's My Line", "Password", "Family Feud" and "The Price is Right", "Man Against Crime", "Playhouse 90", "Perry Como Show", Member of ASCAP, DGA.
In 1993, Paul Alter was producer at CBS when filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co, and gained some serious notice and fame. Before filing the lawsuit, Alter asked Disney Company for a letter of apology, but they refused and the case went to trial. In his noteworthy lawsuit, the television producer claimed that that there were too many similarities between his 12-page-long sketch written in the late 1970s and submitted to Disney, and the movie “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid,” which they released in 1992. After considering all 17 areas of similarities, the jury sided with Paul Alter, and he was awarded with $300,000 in damages.
Paul Alter directed both versions for the hit show “The Price Is Right” which since its debut aired more than 8,000 episodes, and is therefore considered as one of the longest-running network series in United States television history. From 1986 to 2000, he served as the show’s director and producer. In 1996, he won a Daytime Emmy for “The Price Is Right”, which in 2007 was named “the greatest game show of all time". This TV veteran also directed the original version of ABC’s Family Feud which ran from 1976 to 1985. When the show was revived in 1988 he returned and directed that version as well. Paul Alter won his first Daytime Emmy for “Family Feud” in 1982. Although he has