Channel 3 alumnist, Jonathan Murray, is taking Hollywood by storm and is credited with beginning this whole modern reality television craze that has taken over our television screens in recent years.Murray was one of the creative geniuses here at WKYC-TV who worked as a producer in the news department and was instrumental in developing the successful "Cleveland Challenge" series where Cleveland was compared to other cities.
His work was always excellent according to those who worked with him, including WKYC's Scott Newell, who remembers him well. Scott says it was fairly easy to see he was going to be a production star just by watching his work here at WKYC.
Scott recalls Murray was impressed by the PBS Series, "An American Family," first broadcast by PBS in 1973. In that series, the Loud family allowed cameras to document their everyday life for seven months, becoming perhaps the first "reality show" ever. From there, Murray would go on to co-create "The Real World" as a real-life soap opera...and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, he is Chairman and President of Bunim-Murray Productions.
According to his biography, Murray, has created and executive produced more than 50 seasons and close to 2000 hours of the industry's most innovative, unscripted entertainment television, as well as its first unscripted feature film. His local tv stints include spending six years at WLUK-TV, WXIA-TV and WKYC-TV in news, station management and programming at WOKR-TV.
He then worked with the television rep firm HRP, Inc. where he helped local stations buy and schedule their syndicated programming. In 1991, Murray and Mary Ellis Bunim pitched their idea for an unscripted drama series to MTV executives over breakfast. MTV bought the show before lunch time, and the landmark success of Bunim-Murray Productions was underway. The innovative series merged Bunim's experience in scripted dramas with Murray's documentary and news expertise and it broke all the rules of television production. The Real World quickly became part of the cultural DNA of young people the world over and continues to thrive.
Throughout the 1990's Murray and Bunim grew their production operation from a two person shop into an industry powerhouse. Over the years, the partners created and executive produced an incredible array of entertainment including The Real World, Road Rules, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, The Simple Life, The Real Cancun, Starting Over, Making the Band, and Love Cruise.
Even after the pasing of Mary-Ellis Bunim to cancer in 2004, Murray continues to lead the company they founded together to new heights. Today as Chairman and President of Bunim-Murray Productions, Murray guides the creative process that has distinguished the company's shows since the early 1990s.
In 2004, the company produced projects for cable, syndication and primetime including the 15th season of The Real World (MTV), the premiere season of The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest For the Best (FOX), the second season of Starting Over (syndicated by NBC Universal), and the second and third installments of The Simple Life (FOX). The company also began production on The Scholar (ABC) and announced a partnership with Baywatch co-creator Gregory Bonann to produce Point Dume, a scripted drama series set in the Southern California beach community of the same name.
Murray graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
For more information on Jonathan and his company and the shows he has created, you can visit Bunim/Murray Productions and their website: CLICK HERE
