Paley Center Seminars

The Paley Center Seminars is an exclusive video collection of interviews with celebrities, television crews, and distinguished panels. It includes 300 filmed seminars from the acclaimed series held by The Paley Center for Media (formerly The Museum of Television & Radio) in New York and Los Angeles. These lively discussions feature the leading names in media discussing the creative process, contemporary issues in production, and issues such as the impact of the media on contemporary society. Topics covered range from presidential advertising campaigns to reality shows, from the writing process of “The Wire” and “Heroes” to Madeline Albright and Henry Kissinger on the media and foreign policy.

The completed archive will include more than 310 hours of video, with new content added each year in regular updates. This first release includes more than 75 hours of recordings, and includes seminars on movie editing, women in television drama, and representations of gay and lesbian characters, together with panel discussions with the cast and crew of both current hit shows (“Lost,” “House,” “24,” and “South Park”) and television classics such as “M*A*S*H” and “Columbo.”

Although television is the main focus of the collection, many of the seminars were based around documentaries, and so include extensive discussion of the topics covered by those documentaries, be that literature, cinema, music, opera, radio, politics, history or current events.

High-profile participants include J.J. Abrams, Madeleine Albright, Alan Alda, Robert Altman, Glenn Close, Stephen Colbert, Larry David, Tina Fey, Sally Field, Matt Groening, Holly Hunter, Garrison Keillor, Henry Kissinger, Michael Moore, Michael Palin, Thelma Schoonmaker, Aaron Sorkin, Jon Stewart, Joel Surnow, Kiefer Sutherland, Gore Vidal and Kurt Vonnegut.

About the Paley Center for Media

The Paley Center for Media, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, leads the discussion about the cultural, creative, and social significance of television, radio, and emerging platforms for the professional community and media-interested public. Each year, the Paley Center hosts dozens of live seminars covering news, public affairs and documentaries, performing arts, children's programming, sports, comedy and variety shows, and commercial advertising. The events feature influential newsmakers, world leaders, politicians, journalists, scholars, writers, directors, actors and other creators. Drawing upon its curatorial expertise, an international collection, and close relationships with the leaders of the media community, the Paley Center examines the intersections between media and society. The general public can access the collection and participate in programs that explore and celebrate the creativity, the innovations, the personalities, and the leaders who are shaping media.

Previously known as The Museum of Television & Radio, the Paley Center was founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, a pioneering innovator in the industry. For more information, please visit www.paleycenter.org.