Robert Anderson
A Brief Biography
Growing up Longview, Washington, Bob Anderson expected to follow the career path of his father, a newspaperman. However he veered off into the broadcasting dodge as a teenage disc-jockey and never fully recovered.
After graduating from Washington State University, he skated the professional thin ice of radio and television studios of the 1950’s – writer, newscaster, program host–Portland, Oregon / New York City / Anchorage, Alaska / San Francisco. In between, Bob served a couple of Army years making Signal Corps films.
At the decade’s end, exhausted from a year’s captivity as a frenetic rock’n’roll disc jockey, Bob took a Mexican sojourn. He returned in 1961 to join San Francisco’s NBC station as writer-producer of documentaries. His work attracted national media attention and Bob collected his first Emmy and Peabody Awards as well as accolades from international film festivals.
In the late 1960s Bob broke away from KRON-TV to become a roving freelance writer/producer/director. During the next decade he traveled extensively – Chile, Saudi Arabia, Borneo, China, Mexico, Holland -- making documentary films for NBC, Disney, the National Science Foundation, and others.
During the early 1980s San Francisco’s ABC-owned station became his professional home. There he created the innovative docudrama series The American West, two highly honored WWII historical series, and a score of other programs. Bob’s final film, Day of Infamy, was broadcast on the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
He lives in San Francisco on the flanks of Telegraph Hill.
So, why does this blog find him so compelling? At the end of his bio, Andy appends a warning: “Be forewarned – I am not nearly as straightforward and honorable a chap as this bio might lead one to believe.”
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