Harry Thomason
Encyclopedia
Harry Z. Thomason, is an American
film
and television
producer and director, best known for the television series Designing Women
. Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason
, are close friends of President Bill Clinton
and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
, and played a major role in President Clinton's election campaigns.
, the son of a Southern Baptist deacon. He was a Little Rock, Arkansas
, high school science teacher and football coach. He married and divorced Judy Crump, with whom he has a daughter Stacy.
In 1983, Thomason and his second wife, Linda, were married and formed Mozark Productions
, the vehicle for several successful television series, including Designing Women
, Hearts Afire
, and Evening Shade
. In 2007, they began production on the HBO series 12 Miles of Bad Road
, starring Lily Tomlin
.
Thomason was a close friend of Bill Clinton and produced the glowing biographical film, The Man from Hope, the centerpiece of the 1992 Democratic National Convention
. Thomason and his partner, Darnell Martens, provided charter air service for the Clinton campaign and served as an image consultant.
After Clinton was elected, Thomason became embroiled in the Travelgate scandal. His partner, Martens, reported that he had heard rumors that the White House Travel Office was corrupt and disloyal to the Clintons. This view of the Travel Office was compounded by a series of leaks at the White House
that were unfavorable to the Clintons. Thomason began pressing Hillary Clinton to investigate the travel office. When the financial irregularities were discovered, the White House called in the FBI. The resulting firings generated a great deal of negative press coverage and an investigation of the events surrounding it, including Thomason and Martens' air service.
Thomason served as co-chairman of the 1992 Presidential Inauguration Committee and once again worked as an image consultant at the beginning of the Lewinsky scandal
. Thomason ended up testifying before the Lewinsky Grand Jury
.
In 2004, Thomason produced the film documentary version of The Hunting of the President
from the book by Joe Conason
and Gene Lyons
, about political efforts to discredit and defeat Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Adapted from the article Harry Thomason, from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
producer and director, best known for the television series Designing Women
Designing Women
Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...
. Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason
Linda Bloodworth-Thomason
Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is an American writer and television producer....
, are close friends of President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
, and played a major role in President Clinton's election campaigns.
Biography
Harry Z. Thomason was born in Hampton, ArkansasHampton, Arkansas
Hampton is a city in Calhoun County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,579 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Calhoun County.Hampton is part of the Camden Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, the son of a Southern Baptist deacon. He was a Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
, high school science teacher and football coach. He married and divorced Judy Crump, with whom he has a daughter Stacy.
In 1983, Thomason and his second wife, Linda, were married and formed Mozark Productions
Mozark Productions
Mozark Productions is a production company for TV shows such as Designing Women and Hearts Afire. This production company is the vanity card for creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason....
, the vehicle for several successful television series, including Designing Women
Designing Women
Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...
, Hearts Afire
Hearts Afire
Hearts Afire is a sitcom that aired from September 14, 1992 to February 1, 1995 on CBS. It starred John Ritter and Markie Post, with Post portraying a journalist and Ritter playing a senator's aide....
, and Evening Shade
Evening Shade
Evening Shade was an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from 1990 to 1994. The series starred Burt Reynolds as Wood Newton, an ex-professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who returns to rural Evening Shade, Arkansas to coach a high school football team with a long...
. In 2007, they began production on the HBO series 12 Miles of Bad Road
12 Miles of Bad Road
12 Miles of Bad Road is a television show originally created for HBO centered on a Texas matriarch who must reconcile her booming real estate business and immense wealth with the day-to-day struggles of her dysfunctional family life.-Cast:...
, starring Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
.
Thomason was a close friend of Bill Clinton and produced the glowing biographical film, The Man from Hope, the centerpiece of the 1992 Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
. Thomason and his partner, Darnell Martens, provided charter air service for the Clinton campaign and served as an image consultant.
After Clinton was elected, Thomason became embroiled in the Travelgate scandal. His partner, Martens, reported that he had heard rumors that the White House Travel Office was corrupt and disloyal to the Clintons. This view of the Travel Office was compounded by a series of leaks at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
that were unfavorable to the Clintons. Thomason began pressing Hillary Clinton to investigate the travel office. When the financial irregularities were discovered, the White House called in the FBI. The resulting firings generated a great deal of negative press coverage and an investigation of the events surrounding it, including Thomason and Martens' air service.
Thomason served as co-chairman of the 1992 Presidential Inauguration Committee and once again worked as an image consultant at the beginning of the Lewinsky scandal
Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
. Thomason ended up testifying before the Lewinsky Grand Jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
.
In 2004, Thomason produced the film documentary version of The Hunting of the President
The Hunting of the President
The Hunting of the President is a 2004 English language documentary film about Bill Clinton. Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton appear in archived footage...
from the book by Joe Conason
Joe Conason
Joe Conason is an American journalist, author and political commentator. He writes a column for the weekly New York Observer newspaper, for Salon.com and has written a number of books, including Big Lies , which addresses what he says are myths spread about liberals by conservatives.-Life and...
and Gene Lyons
Gene Lyons
Gene Lyons is a liberal political columnist and co-author with Joe Conason of The Hunting of the President: The 10 Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, a documentary book published in 2000, with a supporting film. The book outlines a purported right wing campaign waged against...
, about political efforts to discredit and defeat Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Television credits
- Designing WomenDesigning WomenDesigning Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...
- Director and Executive Producer - Emeril - Director and Executive Producer
- Evening ShadeEvening ShadeEvening Shade was an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from 1990 to 1994. The series starred Burt Reynolds as Wood Newton, an ex-professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who returns to rural Evening Shade, Arkansas to coach a high school football team with a long...
- Director - Hearts AfireHearts AfireHearts Afire is a sitcom that aired from September 14, 1992 to February 1, 1995 on CBS. It starred John Ritter and Markie Post, with Post portraying a journalist and Ritter playing a senator's aide....
- Writer, Director, Executive Producer - Lime Street - Executive Producer
- The Fall GuyThe Fall GuyThe Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...
- Writer - Women of the HouseWomen of the HouseWomen of the House is an American situation comedy television series. It is a spin-off of Designing Women and stars Delta Burke, who had reconciled with producers after a bitter, highly publicized, off-screen battle.- Premise :...
- Director, Producer, Executive Producer
Motion picture credits
- A Shining Season - Producer
- Encounter with the UnknownEncounter with the Unknown- Cast :*Rod Serling as Narrator *Robert Ginnaven as Father Duane*Gary Brockette as Frank Cameron*John Leslie as Randy Powell*Tom Haywood as Dave Terrell*Fran Franklin as Mrs. Davis*James N. Harrell as Brother Taylor*John Cissne as Johnny Davis...
- Writer, Director - Revenge of Bigfoot - Director, Producer
- So Sad About Gloria - Director, Producer
- The Blue and the GrayThe Blue and the GrayThe Blue and the Gray is a television miniseries that first aired on CBS in three installments on November 14, November 16, and November 17, 1982. Set during the American Civil War, the series starred John Hammond, Stacy Keach, Lloyd Bridges, and Gregory Peck as President Abraham Lincoln...
- Producer - The Day it Came to Earth - Director, Executive Producer
- The Designing Women Reunion - Director
- The Great Lester Boggs - Director
- The Man From Hope - Director
- To Find My Son - Producer
- The Hunting of the PresidentThe Hunting of the PresidentThe Hunting of the President is a 2004 English language documentary film about Bill Clinton. Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton appear in archived footage...
- Producer - The Last Ride (2011) - Director, Producer
Quotes
- "When you're in the political realm, you become a public figure, and anything is fair."
Adapted from the article Harry Thomason, from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
GNU Free Documentation License
The GNU Free Documentation License is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights to copy, redistribute, and modify a work and requires all copies and...
.