Richard Dominick
Encyclopedia
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
Domestic Television Distribution's The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show is a syndicated television tabloid talk show hosted by Jerry Springer, a former politician, broadcast in the United States and other countries...
for almost 18 years. Dominick also served in the same capacity on The Steve Wilkos Show
The Steve Wilkos Show
The Steve Wilkos Show is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Steve Wilkos. The show debuted on September 10, 2007, two months after Wilkos' departure as director of security on The Jerry Springer Show.-History:...
for its first season, as well as the truTV police series Bait Car
Bait Car
Bait Car is an American television series airing on the truTV network. The show depicts would-be car thieves caught in the act of auto theft. Police target criminals with a high-tech bait car, rigged with hidden cameras and radio trackers...
. He now produces (and created) another popular truTV series, Hardcore Pawn
Hardcore Pawn
Hardcore Pawn is an American documentary reality television series produced by RDF USA and Richard Dominick Productions for truTV about the day-to-day operations of American Jewelry and Loan, a family-owned pawn shop on Greenfield Road between 8 Mile Road and the John C...
.
Early life and career
Dominick began his career as the artistic director of the New Jersey Public Theater. While there, he also created, wrote and performed in the Comedy Workshop, a group that innovated late night weekend comedy presentations.Journalism
His next career move was into journalism for the Weekly World NewsWeekly World News
The Weekly World News was a supermarket tabloid published in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical. Its characteristic black-and-white covers have become...
and The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
where he reported on stories like "Toaster
Toaster
The toaster is typically a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast multiple types of bread products. A typical modern two-slice toaster draws anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes...
Possessed by the Devil' and "Howdy Doody
Howdy Doody
Howdy Doody is an American children's television program that was created and produced by E. Roger Muir and telecast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's television programming and set the pattern for many similar shows...
Dummy comes alive and saves drowning Man." With his unique perspective, Dominick made seven appearances on Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
to discuss his unusual assignments.
Transition to television
Versed in writing, reporting and directing, Dominick soon made the transition into television with The Wilton North ReportThe Wilton North Report
The Wilton North Report was Fox's second attempt at a regular late-night show, replacing The Late Show. The series premiered on December 11, 1987 and ended four weeks later, on January 8, 1988....
, a short-lived late night comedy program for Fox. Later, he served as a producer for a 1990 syndicated revival of the TV series House Party
Art Linkletter's House Party
House Party is an American radio daytime variety/talk show that aired on CBS Radio and on ABC Radio from January 15, 1945 to October 13, 1967...
, which was hosted by future Fox and Friends co-host Steve Doocy
Steve Doocy
Stephen James "Steve" Doocy is an American network-television personality on the Fox News Channel, journalist, and a best selling author.-Early life:...
. Dominick was also the sole writer for ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's Sports Emmy Awards, broadcast live in May 1991 and hosted by Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
alumni, comedian Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
.
Dominick also contributed comedy material as a freelance writer to Jay Leno
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...
. Other jobs have included writing for The Jenny Jones Show
The Jenny Jones Show
The Jenny Jones Show is an American syndicated daytime tabloid talk show that was hosted by comedian/actress/singer Jenny Jones. It was produced by Telepictures and was distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution...
and serving as supervising producer of Not Just News, a syndicated children's news program that aired during the 1991-92 season. Dominick has also made his mark as a freelance writer for such publications as National Lampoon
National Lampoon
National Lampoon was both a ground-breaking American humor magazine and also a wide range of productions directly associated with that magazine. The magazine ran from 1970 to 1998, and was originally a spinoff of the Harvard Lampoon....
, Cracked
Cracked
Cracked was an American humor magazine. Founded in 1958, Cracked proved to be the most durable of the many publications to be launched in the wake of Mad magazine....
and Penthouse
Penthouse (magazine)
Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
where, on assignment in 1990, he traveled the entire United States in search of Elvis.
The Jerry Springer Show
In 1991, Dominick joined The Jerry Springer ShowThe Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show is a syndicated television tabloid talk show hosted by Jerry Springer, a former politician, broadcast in the United States and other countries...
and became the show's executive producer three years later, following the departure of original producer. Around this time, Springer was on the verge of being cancelled, prompting Dominick to take drastic action with regards to the show's format. He turned the world of TV talk shows upside down by taking the show out of the hands of experts and allowing ordinary people to come on stage and offer a slice of their lives - something they never had a chance to do before. He demanded his producers "make the show interesting with the sound off" and encouraged the show's controversial themes and topics, which led to the show's success and turned Jerry Springer himself into a pop culture icon. In 1998, Springer had made it to the top, knocking Oprah out of the top spot for 57 straight weeks. This led to Dominick being named one of 1998's "Marketing 100" by Advertising Age
Advertising Age
Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...
magazine. He was quoted in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
as saying "If you want to save the whales, call Oprah. If you're dating a whale, call us." Dominick is also responsible for the sound effects that are often heard on the show.
Dominick was also one of the Executive Producers for Springer's 1998 film Ringmaster
Ringmaster (film)
Ringmaster is a 1998 American comedy-drama film starring Jerry Springer playing himself as Jerry Farrelly, host of a show similar to his own, in this case called simply Jerry. There are three ongoing plots in the film...
.
The Springer Hustle
In 2006, Dominick teamed with VH1VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
to create a behind-the-scenes show, following the craziness that is The Jerry Springer Show. It debuted to good ratings, but was canceled after one season. Dominick dropped the show after finding it was too much on his heavy producing load.
The Steve Wilkos Show
In September 2007, former Springer bodyguard Steve WilkosSteve Wilkos
Steven John "Steve" Wilkos is an American television personality, a former U.S. Marine and officer with the Chicago police. He currently hosts his own talk show, The Steve Wilkos Show, but is best known as the former director of security on The Jerry Springer Show...
started his own show, taking on predators and bad parents. Richard Dominick was mainly responsible for the creation of the show and served as the show's Executive Producer for the first season.
Departure from Springer and Wilkos
On September 3, 2008, Dominick announced he was leaving both The Jerry Springer Show as well as The Steve Wilkos Show, to pursue other television offers as well as continue to grow his production company.In 2010, Dominick's production company and truTV launched the reality series Hardcore Pawn which turned out to be truTV's largest debut to date and was seen that evening by over 2,000,000 viewers. The first season ran for eight episodes. The second season began December 28, 2010 and pulled in 2.2 million viewers that first evening and was number one against all other cable entertainment networks in Adults 18-49 and number one in male demos. The second season premiere was so impressive that truTV immediately ordered a third season of Hardcore Pawn which began airing in mid February 2011. Hardcore Pawn is now in it's Fifth Season. Richard Dominick Productions also has several shows due to premiere in 2012/2013.