Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Names Hall of Fame Inductees

ATAS to Welcome Dan Burke, Tom Murphy, Sherwood Schwartz, Merv Griffin, Larry Gelbart, Bea Arthur

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/17/2008 1:52:00 PM

Former CapCities/ABC executive duo Dan Burke and Tom Murphy joined some iconic TV personalities from in front of and behind the camera in being named Thursday to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

Also tapped as inductees for the class of 2008 were Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch creator Sherwood Schwartz; late talk host and game-show impresario Merv Griffin; M*A*S*H co-creator and Sid Caesar scribe Larry Gelbart; and then there's Maude, or, more precisely, Bea Arthur, who played the anything-but-compromising feminist icon on the seminal 1970s Norman Lear sitcom.

Candidates are submitted to the Hall of Fame selection committee by Television Academy members and the entertainment industry. Currently, the committee comprises Mark Itkin, chairman of the Television Academy Hall of Fame selection committee, as well as Fred Silverman, Brian Graden, Mike Darnell, Courtney Cox-Arquette and Anne Sweeney.

There will be an induction ceremony, but the time and place have yet to be determined.