Dick Carter, producer and director of WTTW arts programming, dies

Chicago Tribune

20-05-2025

Dick Carter was a prolific producer and director for WTTW-Ch. 11 who from the 1960s through the '90s oversaw the making of dozens of music and arts programs, some of which aired nationally.
Carter's best-known production was 'Soundstage,' which showcased major musical acts over its 11-year run in the 1970s and '80s. Carter also was an expert at directing dance programs, and he directed and produced telecasts of numerous ballets created by the late Chicago ballerina and choreographer Ruth Page.
'He could work in dance and music and opera and 'Soundstage,' but he could even make a talking-head show like 'Chicago Tonight' or 'Chicago Week in Review' exciting,' said longtime WTTW producer Jamie Ceaser.
Carter, 85, died of complications from prostate cancer April 11 at his home in Palm Springs, California, said his husband, John MacMillan. He moved to Palm Springs in 2000.
Born in Flint, Michigan, Carter grew up in nearby East Lansing. He played the organ and initially considered being a music major at Michigan State University before receiving a degree in broadcasting.
Carter worked first for PBS station KTCA-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he directed dance and opera programs. He joined WTTW in 1967 where early on, he directed station fundraising programs such as 'Stars for Eleven.'
Carter also oversaw Channel 11-produced programs that were nationally distributed. One of his earliest WTTW productions was directing 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie,' the puppet-and-adult show produced in Chicago from 1947 until 1957 on two local network stations. In the late 1960s, WTTW revived the show, which was popular with children and adults, and distributed it nationally under the direction of Carter, who had started watching the show at age 11.
Carter was executive producer of WTTW's 'Chicago Festival,' an award-winning series in the late 1960s and early 1970s that provided a local showcase for all segments of the arts. Carter also directed segments of 'Chicago Festival,' including dance programs.
In 1968, WTTW won its first National Educational Television award for its 'Chicago Festival' broadcast of the comic ballet 'Coppelia,' by the Illinois Ballet Company. Carter won an award for directing that telecast.
In a 1971 Tribune interview, Carter acknowledged the innate challenges of directing dance on TV.
'Ballet is always choreographed for the stage,' Carter said. 'Shots would be so wide that people wouldn't see what's going on. We change a good deal of the choreography, having the dancers move diagonally back and forth in the camera instead of across the stage.'
In 1978, Carter produced and directed an opera version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale 'Hansel and Gretel,' and a telecast of Page's ballet 'Frankie and Johnny.'
In 1982, Carter produced and directed a one-hour production of Page's ballet of 'The Merry Widow.' The program cost WTTW $275,000 to hire a cast and build scenery, and the production, which aired in 1984, won a national Peabody award.
Carter also directed a TV version of Page's 1961 work, 'Die Fledermaus,' for WTTW in 1986.
Carter's work for the station extended beyond dance programs. In 1974, Channel 11 gained the rights to four silent films starring Greta Garbo. Carter scored the films with musical soundtracks that he composed.
Carter's participation in the nationally distributed 'Soundstage' program began toward the end of its first season, in 1975. Carter ultimately directed more than 60 episodes of 'Soundstage,' by his own count, according to a 2000 Tribune article about his career, and he was part of the program until its sign-off in 1985.
One of Carter's most memorable 'Soundstage' episodes was a 1979 salute to jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. In a 1985 Tribune interview, Carter called the episode 'a high point of my career,' and added that jazz pianist and bandleader Count Basie, who had appeared in the broadcast as well, came into the control room during the show and would tap Carter's shoulder with glee in time to Fitzgerald's singing.
'Even in the '70s, we never lip synched,' Carter told the Tribune. 'We had lots of time for each act. So we let performers do what they did best. And we made it real.'
'Despite low budgets, Carter gave the program a clean and professional look, with quick switching reverse angle and crowd reaction shots,' the Tribune wrote in 1985.
Versatile, Carter could direct any kind of broadcast. He directed some episodes of the WTTW-founded national movie review show 'Sneak Previews,' and he also directed the news and public affairs programs 'Chicago Tonight' and 'Chicago Week in Review.'
Carter also directed 'As We See It,' a 1979 series on school desegregation, and he produced and directed a show about the Hubbard Street Dance Company in 1981. Later, WTTW produced some original drama programming, and station bosses tapped Carter to direct a drama show, 'Jesse and the Bandit Queen,' a televised adaptation of a David Freeman play that was taped in 1986 and aired in 1988. And in 1987, he directed 'Remembering Bing,' a documentary about entertainer Bing Crosby.
'He was great at what he did, and he could get totally frustrated when things didn't go right,' recalled producer Tom Weinberg, who created WTTW's 'Image Union' program. 'He knew what he was doing in a major way. Nobody was as involved as he was.'
Carter continued directing pledge drives for WTTW, including a notable one filmed at the Chicago Theatre in 1988 titled 'A Grand Night,' which featured Shirley Jones, the Hubbard Street Dance Company and many other acts. He directed the station's 1989 broadcast of the Ollie Awards, which honored quality children's programs across the nation.
In 1991, Carter co-produced and co-directed a WTTW program about blues singer Koko Taylor, titled 'Queen of the Blues.' And in 1994, he directed 'Remembering Chicago,' an historic look at Chicago featuring Irv Kupcinet, Studs Terkel, Bill Gleason and Chuck Schaden.
Carter directed episodes of a short-lived 'Soundstage' reboot called 'Center Stage,' a live concert television series that aired from 1993 until 1994 and that was an unprecedented co-production agreement between WTTW and cable's VH-1.
Until his final years at WTTW, Carter produced and directed telecasts of the Golden Apple Foundation's Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Carter retired from WTTW at the start of 2000 and moved to California.
He also is survived by a brother, John.
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