The world has it share of thrill-seekers — skydivers, motocross racers, tightrope walkers — and then there’s Don Mischer.
As the executive producer of tonight’s Primetime Emmy Awards, Mischer is the guy who is walking across that tightrope right now, alternately hoping for that amazing unexpected moment that will make the show truly memorable —and praying that some unexpected occurrence doesn’t ruin the festivities.
“Yes, I worry about earthquakes,” Mischer says with a laugh. “I worry about lights working, I worry about everything. That’s my job.”
But with all the worry comes the sure hand of a man who has orchestrated
so countless memorable moments for people across the world:
Bruce Springsteen’s recent halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII. The Kennedy Center Honors. The 2004 Democratic National Convention. The 2002 Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies in Salt Lake City. The unforgettable halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII featuring Michael Jackson.
Mischer has also produced nine Primetime Emmy Awards, and tonight’s show marks the maestro’s return. Yet his return to the Primetime Emmys comes at an especially important moment in the realm of awards shows.
“My task is to find a way to protect what this event means to the people in the entertainment industry and, at the same time, offer a show that viewers at home will want to tune in for,” he says. “Sometimes that’s a hard road to walk down.”
While Mischer says his first task is to create a show that is true to both the entertainment industry that is being honored tonight and the organization behind the awards, he believes it’s equally important to introduce viewers at home to the kind of high-quality television programming that is being honored.
“I am a child of television, I grew up very much influenced by it, infatuated with it,” he says. “And there’s some really good TV being honored here tonight. But not all of our viewers are necessarily familiar with these shows. So hopefully we can introduce these shows to a broader audience.”
Mischer has spent much of his career working in live television — no, there are no re-takes — which offers the kind of heartstopping thrill that very few people ever experience.
Yet whether he’s producing a twelve-and-a-half-minute halftime show for the Super Bowl or the Primetime Emmy Awards, he says the feeling is the same.
“It’s the same feeling in your stomach when the clock is ticking down,” he says. “I love it. I guess I’m what you would call a stress junkie.”
And how will he know when he’s reached the other side of that impossibly thin tightrope?
“When people walk out of the Nokia Theatre (on 2009 Emmy night) feeling good about this business,” he says, “and because they are at the Primetime Emmy Awards. And this is the most respected award in our industry.”