Lin Bolen
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Lin Bolen | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 21, 1941 |
| Occupation(s) | Vice President of Daytime Programming, NBC (1972-1978) Television Producer |
| Years active | 1972-present |
| Spouse | Paul Wendkos (?-2009) (his death) |
Lin Bolen, born March 21, 1941 in Benton, Illinois, is an American television executive with a long-tenured career. Bolen is most noted for her role as the NBC Daytime Television Programming Vice President, a position she held from 1972 until 1978. In this role, Bolen was responsible for creating and ending several game shows and expanding the episode duration of several soap operas.
NBC career
Bolen took the position of Vice President of Daytime Programming at NBC during the first quarter of 1972 in an attempt to increase viewership of NBC's daytime programming. Although NBC was airing several successful game shows (such as Hollywood Squares, Concentration and Jeopardy!) and soap operas at the time, Bolen attempted to increase ratings. In late 1972, Bolen ended Concentration's fifteen-year run and replaced it with the Heatter-Quigley game show Baffle. However, Baffle failed to attract viewers away from CBS's new game show, The $10,000 Pyramid, and was canceled on March 29, 1974.
After the cancellation of Baffle, Bolen also decided to end the eleven-year run of Jeopardy!. However, Merv Griffin, the creator of Jeopardy!, informed Bolen that the show still had one year left on the contract. To compensate, Wheel of Fortune, another of Griffin's creations, replaced Jeopardy! on January 6, 1975.
In 1976, Bolen created the game show Stumpers!. Premiering on October 4 of that year, hosted by Allen Ludden and produced exclusively by Bolen's production company, the show included elements of Password, also hosted by Ludden. The show lasted 13 weeks and was canceled on December 31 of the same year.
In 1978, Bolen's tenure with NBC ended and she was replaced by Fred Silverman sometime after March of that year.
Personal life
After leaving NBC, Bolen married director Paul Wendkos. They remained married until his death on November 12, 2009.