User:Bstarin/sandbox

Bruce J Starin
Although  Bruce J Starin began his career as a First Officer of Entertainment on cruise ships, he quickly expanded his work experiences to include producing, writing and show runner for game, talk, variety and live shows throughout the United States and internationally. His published works include “Does The Crew Sleep On Board?” and “What Time Is The Midnight Buffet?” both hysterically funny exposes of what goes on behind the scenes on the luxury liners cruising the world’s oceans. The books also include his experiences as a “Fly Away Producer” being sent to install or service television formats worldwide. Internationally, Starin has produced “Wheel Of Fortune” in Vilnius, Lithuania for Paramount, a reality project in Mumbai, India for Sony International, “The Gong Show” in Jakarta, Indonesia for Sony, “Ciao Darwin” for Distraction in both Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Belgrade, Serbia, a Spanish language version of “The Newlywed Game” (“Los Recien Casados”) for Fremantle TV, and “The Singing Bee” – again in Jakarta, as well as in Brussels, Belgium, and Reykjavik, Iceland for Zeal and The Phil Gurin Company. Most recently he produced “Every Second Counts” in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and “Hollywood Squares” for Televisa in Mexico City, for CBS International Studios.

He created “Formation Television Consultants” a new company specializing in producing television product world wide, marketing international formats in the United States and through out the world, and supplying technical television and literary expertise to networks and production companies internationally.

This venture is just the latest in a long line of game show and entertainment programming Starin has been involved in creating and producing. Starin has produced several of the most popular game shows of all time. He has worked as a producer/writer on televised programs such as “Let’s Make A Deal”, “The Dating Game”, “Love Connection”, “Supermarket Sweep”, “Break the Bank”, “The Newlywed Game”, and many others. When it comes to live programming Starin has created and produced live stage versions of “Wheel of Fortune” through out the United States and Canada as well as an extended run at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas for Sony Pictures Television. He has also produced “Family Feud” and the “Price Is Right” as live stage shows in Atlantic City for the Bally’s Casino chain, and Fremantle TV.

Starin’s hard work has been rewarded, earning him several awards including two Cable Ace awards for “Supermarket Sweep”, an Emmy Award Nomination for “Let’s Make A Deal”, and a Media Access Award for “The Dating Game”.  The programs Starin has worked on have also consistently ranked in the Neilson ratings top ten for syndicated shows. While game shows are the backbone of Starin’s career, his experience is not limited to that genre. He has also worked as a producer on a series of successful talk, magazine and variety shows, including “Mike and Maty”, “The Richard Bey Show”, and “Mania”, a weekly magazine show for World Wrestling Entertainment. He has also been involved in other specials including NBC’s “Super Bloopers & New Practical Jokes”, Fox’s “Malibu Beach Dance Party”, and executive produced seven interactive talk shows, featuring daytime variety, late night variety, news and entertainment on AMERICA’S TALKING, an interactive talk cable network, currently  MSNBC,  an offshoot of CNBC.

In addition FTC has supervised the re-versioning of African programming for a new American cable entity, “The Africa Channel”, supplied production bibles or game questions for stations in Manila, Philippines and Sofia, Bulgaria – and more recently produced a biographical documentary, “Dikembe’s Dream: A Hospital for Kinshasa” which follows the creation of a state of the art hospital in the Congolese home town of NBA All Star Dikembe Mutombo.

Starin’s company serves as exclusive agent for Spain’s ZZJ  formats in the US, Asia and Africa, Dori Media’s Telenovelas worldwide, BBC Worldwide’s formats in Asia, WTFN, Australia, internationally, and ATM Grupa, Poland, worldwide, as well as many other international entities. Starin also represents the production libraries worldwide of Wink Martindale, Bob Eubanks and other game show icons from the United States.

Starin has also created over fifty production bibles for such diverse international companies including Discovery International, Tokyo Broadcasting System,  Keshet, Israel, Startimes, China, Alo Media, Vietnam, WTFN, Australia, Film.UA, Ukraine, CJE&M, Korea, ATM Grupa, Poland, Herve Hubert, France, Sterling Television, Northern Ireland, NHK Television, Japan and many more.

FTC has also brokered assorted television formats from India, Spain, Australia, and Japan for American companies, Granada (ITC) America, Shine Reveille, and Triage Television.

In addition to his work as a producer, writer and cruise director, Bruce serves on the Board of Directors of the Variety Club, The Children’s Charity, and holds a Bachelors Degree, Cum Laude from Emerson College in Boston, a Masters Degree in Playwrighting from the University of Miami, and has credits toward his Ph.D. in Classical Drama from The University of London, Westfield, England.

Starin also prides himself on the ability to ask “Where’s the bathroom?” in more than seven languages – unfortunately that’s about all he can say – and invariably the answer always comes back in English. The point is, at least he makes the effort.

Bruce and his family live in North Hollywood, California