Barry Diller was born on February 2nd, 1942, in San Francisco, California, and grew up in Beverly Hills. His first steps up the corporate ladder began at the William Morris Agency, where he worked in the mailroom.

Landing a job in ABC's programming department in 1966, Diller impressed the higher-ups enough to be promoted to vice-president in charge of feature films and program development in 1969. Under his direction, ABC's Movie of the Week premiered in the fall of 1969, and would become the most popular movie series on television, and raise ABC's status.

Instead of filling the show with the traditional made-for-television movies, Diller commissioned social problem films -- docudramas, which targeted young, urban audiences -- their stories taken from cur ..[Full version]