Edward Bleier was a former Warner Bros. executive and past president who introduced Looney Tunes to television, and who later helped pioneer cable television services and special interest channels.
- Died: October 17, 2023 (Who else died on October 17?)
- Details of death: Died in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 94.
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Edward Bleier’s legacy
Bleier’s first interactions with the airwaves took place in high school, when he was a young correspondent for WNEW radio’s “high school hour” in New York City. While attending Syracuse University, he continued his work in media, serving as a copy boy for ABC, writing for local radio stations, and reporting for such papers as the Long Island Press and Syracuse Herald Journal. He later dropped out of college with his friend, William Safire, who later became a celebrated political columnist and presidential speechwriter. Safire went into writing while Bleier went to work for DuMont Television Network and Channel 5 in New York.
Bleier later moved to ABC and spent a decade there, before joining Warner Bros. Entertainment in 1968. There, he took an interest in “Looney Tunes.” At the time, the animated shorts were only in movie theaters, but Bleier saw their potential in the home market. He pushed to have “Looney Toons” edited for television, and soon Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and others were in households across the U.S. on Saturday mornings. He later worked with Stephen Spielberg to create all-new animated shows and films, including “Tiny Toons,” “Animaniacs,” and “Freakazoid!”
Bleier spent 35 years at Warner Bros. His efforts helped bring cable television out of its niche and into the mainstream and popularize pay-per-view events and special interest cable networks. He oversaw the division that developed channels like Nickelodeon, MTV, and The Movie Channel (TMC), and worked with such premium channels as HBO to get them onto nationwide cable networks. Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture is named in his honor.
Tributes to Edward Bleier
Full obituary: The New York Times
