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Peter has double Hollywood Royalty in my book. First, I became a fan of Peter’s mom, Elinor Donahue, from The Andy Griffith Show and then through reruns of Father Knows Best. Second, I love so many of the classic sitcoms that his father Harry Akerman produced.
As Pater and I talked on the phone he said let me just send you some background info for quick references. So here are Peter’s notes…
Background:
Dad – Harry Ackerman was an Executive at CBS back in the day. He did a lot there, including help develop for production, “I Love Lucy,” and helped create an early draft of what became radio’s “Gunsmoke.” Later he became a producer – Executive Producer of “Bewitched,” “Hazel,” “Dennis the Menace,” “Gidget,” “The Flying Nun,” and more.
Mom is actress Elinor Donahue. She performed in vaudeville and on radio at a young age, got a contract at MGM where she was in some movies, and later became known to households as “Betty (nicknamed ‘Princess’)” in “Father Knows Best.” After that series, she went onto “The Andy Griffith Show” for a season but left it to marry my dad and begin a family. I was the first of their three boys together.
Me – I got the acting bug, and more than my brothers, I fell in love with the business. I went whenever I could to a set where she (or my dad’s shows) were filming. For while I became an actor (nothing of note), and later got into the production side of the business, spending five years working freelance, mostly as a production assistant, on a lot of tv commercials and a lot of music videos, where I worked with many famous people (and once even stood in for Stephen Tyler of Aerosmith), with the rest of the band, during a song run through on a music video. Later worked in television, on shows and in the main tv department at Warner Bros, where I served as an office assistant. My final job was “Assistant to the Line Producer on “Friends” for two early seasons. Married and with children I felt another calling which years later had me serving as an Episcopal Priest, which is what I do now, choosing to live and work on the east coast.
It was fun to hear stories of his life as a kid on so many of his parents’ tv sets. He even wrote a book “Mom, Dad, Me and Classic TV”. But he had to use his middle initial because there is another Peter Ackerman out there in the biz. So if you’re looking for Peter’s book on the internet, Google Peter K. Ackerman!