Ed Wiseman was born in Brooklyn. When he was 5 his family had the urge to move South. They crossed the newly built Verrazano Narrows Bridge and settled in Staten Island.
SI was the outer borough — a sanctuary for swamps and old cemeteries. The year Ed arrived, the mosquito was named the official Borough Bird.
It was in this new suburban frontier that Ed learned the basic skills of life: how to build a tree fort, where to cross the wetlands, the way to throw a dirt bomb with accuracy, and most importantly, how to play stickball, stoopball and skully (with bottle caps.)
Back then, Staten Island was an oasis for Brooklyn expatriates. A little blue collar flavor with a lot of white collar icing. Dads worked till 4:30 or 5 took the ferry or crossed the V-Z and were home by 5:30pm. Imagine that.
Back then Ed wasn't into the movies. He saw his first Disney film when he was 22. But he was creative. He invented games, created shows and hung around friends and relatives as they made their Super 8 films.
It must have rubbed off. After public elementary and private high school Ed landed at NYU film school. He didn't wear ripped jeans or spike his hair or talk "arty." He liked baseball and even believed in God.
It was becoming obvious to some professors that beneath Ed's blue collar style lurked some serious talent. They arranged for him fly to LA to work the summer for Alan Landsburg Productions on the final season of "In Search Of..." hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Ed researched and P.A.'d.
At the end of the summer of '81, People's Express flew Ed back to NY for under $100. He started work on a new pilot for PBS called Reading Rainbow. This children series was the first to forsake cartoon characters, puppets and other gimmicks to capture kids attention — and succeed.
Hosted by LeVar Burton (yes, there is some weird Star Trek host connection running around here) the program became Ed's training ground.
After a few years assisting, he was directing and producing. Since Reading Rainbow's format called for the mixing of genres, Ed would be directing documentary stories on some days and then narrative scenes, music videos or animation on others.
And then the Emmy's started rolling in.
Ed won Outstanding Direction for a Children's Series three years in a row. Then RR started a winning streak of Emmys for Outstanding Children's Series and Emmys in almost every other category.
During this time, Ed also worked on other projects — pilots, home and educational video series and corporate projects for Lancit Media Productions.
In 1994 Ed helped launch The Puzzle Place series for PBS. This program was for pre-schoolers and had a ton of puppets. Ed stayed in NY and headed the unit that produced all the location stories.
Ed kept it real. He shot documentary and blended it with the narrative. He put the puppets in the real world and challenged the puppeteers to stretch. The goal — to suspend belief.
His direction worked. Variety called Ed's scenes the best crafted moments of the series seamlessly woven throughout the program (paraphrasing...but you get the gist.)
After 3 seasons of Puzzle Place, Ed stretched began developing and directing material for CD-ROMs for KinderActive.
Ed went on his own and formed Moving Pictures in 1995. MPI partnered with Playground 11 Productions to form Rocket Science Entertainment, developing and producing for Cablevision's Metro Channel, Good Housekeeping and Mediacom/Grey Worldwide.
RSE produced What's It Really Like and Keeping It Wild two doc series for national syndication.
Martha Stewart asked RSE to co-produce her 1999 Holiday Special for CBS. It was Martha's first co-production — a major departure from corporate policy (alright, hold the jokes.) The partnership turned out well — the special pulled in Martha's best ratings. It also kicked off her IPO. The rest is history.
Through MP and RSE, Ed produced projects for DISC KIDS, CTW, COURT, AMC, WE, CNBC, Food Network, PBS and Syndication. He also developed and produced the first health related video series for the Internet: HealthSCOUT iTV.
In 2002 Moving Pictures formed a strategic alliance with RCN Entertainment.
Ed helped create What's Going On? — a documentary series in partnership with United Nations for SHOWTIME. WGO focused on kids in crisis around the world. Each doc was hosted and narrated by a different celebrity and explored the problem from the kids POV. Ed was the supervising producer of the series.
The docs were praised by the Hollywood Reporter for it's solid storytelling, unique pace and contemporary style.
Ed continued his work with RCNE on other projects including the creation of the iT channel for RCN cable.
Recently, RCNE was acquired by On Screen Entertainment and Ed continues his relationship with the company.
6 Emmys and over 20 nominations later Ed is still doing what he likes to do. He makes programs that have substance and tells stories from the inside out. Compelling human drama. The kind of stuff that that makes his kids proud.
Speaking of kids, he enjoys spending a lot of time with his two daughters, Danielle and Juliette, ages 8 and 5. And, yes, he works a lot with his wife Orly Wiseman — the Co-President of On Screen Entertainment.