If you watched music on TV at any point in the last 50+ years, you most likely experienced the work of Don Mischer, who directed and/or produced hundreds of hours of programming, including six Super Bowl halftime shows and variety specials headlined by such icons as Barbra Streisand and Willie Nelson. Mischer, who amassed 15 Primetime Emmys for his work, died on Friday (April 11) in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Mischer produced and directed Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, the star-studded 1983 special on which Michael Jackson introduced his Moonwalk. Mischer also produced and directed a 1985 sequel, Motown Returns to the Apollo. In 1993, he reunited with Jackson when the superstar headlined the Super Bowl halftime show. That performance is credited with elevating the halftime show to its current status as the world’s top platform for a music performer.
Mischer worked on five more Super Bowl halftime shows, headlined by Paul McCartney (2005), The Rolling Stones (2006), Prince (2007), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (2008) and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (2009). The most memorable of these was the show which Prince headlined amid a downpour. It regularly tops lists of the greatest halftime performances of all time.
Mischer directed The Kennedy Center Honors across four decades (1978-86 and 1992-2005). He also produced and/or directed three of the four EGOT-level awards shows — working on three Tonys telecasts, three Oscars telecasts and nine Primetime Emmys telecasts. He never worked on the Grammys, but he served as executive producer of the Billboard Music Awards three times (2011-13).
He produced and directed the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony and served as executive producer of the 2002 Winter Olympics ceremony.
He worked on many superstar specials, including Goldie & Liza Together (1981), where Oscar winners Goldie Hawn and Liza Minnelli memorably teamed up. Others included Willie Nelson: Texas Style (1989), Sonny & Cher: Cher Remembers (1999), Barbra Streisand: Timeless (2000) and James Taylor: One Man Band (2007). He also worked on dance specials headlined by Twyla Tharp, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines, and comedy specials starring Eddie Murphy and Don Rickles.
Mischer worked on many “event” TV specials, keyed to anniversaries or re-openings. Among them: Irving Berlin’s 100th Birthday at Carnegie Hall (1988), Carnegie Hall: Live at 100 (1991), Bob Hope: The First 90 Years (1992), To Life: Israel’s 50th Anniversary Celebration (1998) and National September 11 Memorial & Museum Dedication (2014).
Mischer’s first major credit in TV was directing Great American Dream Machine on PBS (1970-71). That led to directing In Concert, a late-night music series on ABC (1973-75).
Mischer produced the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which led to a rare, if understandable, slip on his part. After John Kerry’s speech accepting the nomination for president, balloons were supposed to drop from the ceiling onto the delegates below. However, the balloons got stuck and did not fall. Mischer lost his temper and let out a string of expletives — which went out live on CNN.
In January 2009, Mischer had a happier experience when he produced and directed We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, which featured performances by Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.
Mischer received 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, a record 10 Directors Guild of America Awards for outstanding directorial achievement, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Peabody Award (for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever). In 2012, he received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America. In 2014, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
In November 2023, Mischer published his memoir :10 Seconds to Air: My Life in the Director’s Chair. Kirkus Reviews called it “a frank, insightful recollection of an accomplished career.”
“Don was simply iconic,” Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the DGA, said in a statement. “His mastery of directing live events was a fast-paced symphony of meticulous planning combined with on-the-spot decision-making that elevated our nation’s greatest cultural events, always capturing the human spirit behind them. … Don’s skill as a director elevated the emotions, excitement and importance of these live worldwide moments, creating lifelong memories for audiences around the world.”
After directing and producing hundreds of hours of live television, Mischer knew what he was doing and felt at peace when a show went live.
“There’s nothing like that feeling that the clock is ticking down and you’re sitting in the truck, and then suddenly it’s time, and everybody gets quiet,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “That’s when I get calm.”
Mischer is survived by his wife, Suzan; four children, Heather, Jennifer, Charlie and Lily; and two grandchildren, Everly and Tallulah.
