My name is Herbie J Pilato, and I am the author of Glamour, Gidgets and the Girl Next Door: Television’s Iconic Women from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, which was just published by Taylor Trade Publishing/Rowman & Littlefield.

My other books include, The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery, Twitch Upon a Star, The Bionic Book, Life Story – The Book of Life Goes On, The Kung Fu Book of Caine, The Kung Fu Book of Wisdom, and NBC & ME: My Life As A Page In A Book.

My first book, The Bewitched Book was published by Dell in 1992 (and later revised as Bewitched Forever by Summit Publishing/Tapestry Press in 1996/2001/2004).

I’ve also written for various magazines such as Sci-Fi Entertainment, Sci-Fi Universe, and Starlog, and contribute to a number of websites like Jack Myers’ MediaVillage.com, and Larry Brody’s TVWriter.net (the latter for which I serve as a Contributing Editor).

I grew up in Rochester, New York, in a red brick house across the street from where now stands Frontier Field, and up the block from Eastman Kodak’s global main office. My mother, Frances Turri, and my father, Pompeii, had ten siblings each and, as a result, I was raised within a big, loving extended Italian family from whom I learned the true priorities in life, and to respect all people.

I attended Catholic schools in Rochester, including St. Peter and Paul’s, St. Augustine’s, St. Anthony of Padua’s, and Aquinas Institute High School. I went on to earn a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Theatre, and became a Visiting Student in TV and Film at U.C.L.A.

I served my Internship in Television at NBC-TV in Burbank, California, where I worked on Wheel of Fortune, The Golden Girls, five Bob Hope Specials, An All-Star Salute to President ‘Dutch’ Reagan, The Democratic Convention, and The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, among many other TV shows and specials.

As an actor, I’ve appeared on TV soaps like General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful, and on stage in plays like “Stagedoor,” and “Pfeiffer’s People.” I’ve also directed live stage productions such as Leonard Malfi’s “Birdbath,” Christopher Frye’s “A Phoenix Too Frequent,” among others.

I have also served as a writer, director, producer, consultant, and cultural commentator on various TV shows, including Bewitched: The E! True Hollywood Story (which became that network’s 7^th highest-rated E! True Hollywood Story in history), A&E’s Biography, TLC’s Behind the Fame specials on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, as well as Bravo hit five-part series, The 100 Greatest TV Characters, and Syfy’s short-lived but heralded Sciography series, and more. I’ve worked, too on a number of DVDs for Warner Bros., Sony, and NBCUniversal, and appeared on hundreds of radio shows.

In 2010, I founded The Classic TV Preservation Society, a formal 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the positive family influence of classic television shows. A core function of the CTVPS is the TV & Self-Esteem Seminars that I bring to schools, colleges, and community, business and senior centers around the country.

The CTVPS Mission Statement is as follows:

The purpose of The Classic TV Preservation Society is to educate individuals, community, arts/media, business and academic organizations and institutions on the social significance and positive influence of classic television programming, with specific regard to family values, diversity in the work place, and mutual respect for all people of every cultural background and heritage, gender, race and creed.

The CTVPS Board of Directors includes actresses Lydia Cornell (Too Close For Comfort) and Kathy Garver (Family Affair), world peace advocate and performance artist Thomas Warfield (of PeaceArt, International), disability actors advocate Vince Staskel (of Able Pathways and With TV), Dr. James J. Kolb (of Hofstra University), and Ed Spielman, creator of the classic TV series, Kung Fu, which helped to introduce mainstream America to the Asian culture, just as President Nixon was holding historic talks with China’s Chairman Mao).

In 2013, I founded Television, Ink., a production company geared toward family-oriented TV, film and literary projects.

Into this mix, I am author a number of popular health, fitness motivational blogs, such as Living the A-Life – with Herbie J Pilato, and Your Happy Health – with Herbie J Pilato.

For more information about me, my work or my books, please log on to my main blog, or any one of the following links:

Google+ – TVWriter – LinkedIn – Goodreads

Herbie J Pilato’s “Classic TV Corner” column at MediaVillage

BearManor Media

The Twitch Upon A Star Blog

The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery Blog

The Classic TV Female “Characters of Interest” column at TWJ Magazine

The Classic TV Preservation Society

Television, Ink

Pop-Culture Consultants

MyPeace.TV

Living You’re A-Life

Your Happy Health

The Turri Pilato Family Blog

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Barnes & Noble

Amazon:

USA – UK – Canada – Australia