Russell Morash

Russell Morash (February 11, 1936 – June 19, 2024) was an American television producer and director. Morash's many educational television programs such as The French Chef, The Victory Garden, MIT Science Reporter, This Old House, and The New Yankee Workshop, were produced through WGBH and aired on PBS.

His work earned fourteen Emmy awards, and he was the 2014 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys.

Early life
Morash was born on February 11, 1936, in Lexington, Massachusetts. He grew up in Lexington. Morash's father was a builder. In 1957, Morash graduated from the Boston University College of Fine Arts.

Career
Morash started his entertainment career as a cameraman for Boston public-television station WGBH-TV. In 1961, as a cameraman, Morash met Julia Child when she appeared on a WGBH program called I've Been Reading, while promoting her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Viewers flooded the station with calls and letters asking to see more. The French Chef premiered on WGBH in 1962 and then was distributed nationally by American Public Television. Morash began directing The French Chef in 1963. They worked together on other cooking shows for more than thirty years.

Morash's theater-inspired directorial style, and the technology of the day, required that the staff and host—all collected in a makeshift studio cobbled together with equipment that had escaped a massive station fire—would shoot each episode in one take. It established an in-the-moment template for a new kind of public television show that Morash took with him to launch other series, such as This Old House and The Victory Garden.

The Victory Garden and This Old House spinoff series The New Yankee Workshop were filmed in Morash's own backyard in Massachusetts.

Filmography

 * 1955 MIT Science Reporter – Director, producer
 * 1962–1966 The French Chef – Director, producer

Personal life
Morash's wife was Marian Morash, a James Beard Award-winning chef who also appeared on Julia Child's cooking show, appeared on The Victory Garden and edited The Victory Garden Cookbook.

WGBH announced that Russell died on June 20, 2024, leaving behind a legacy as the founding "commanding father" of the how-to genre of educational television. He was 88.

Recognition
Morash's work earned 14 Emmy awards, including 11 for Outstanding Director of a Service Show, and in 2014 the Daytime Emmys Lifetime Achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in 2018.

He was a fellow of the National Association of Garden Writers and the 2005 recipient of the George Robert White Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

Portrayals
Fran Kranz plays Morash in the 2022 HBO Max series Julia with Sarah Lancashire.