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Ken Papagan
My Career Origin Story: Television Producer--- Ken Papagan (9/28/26/)
Tony Tringhese asked me to tell about ‘How I got to California’ and ‘What gave me the nerve to think I could be a producer.’ What I have to say about that is that for many, me included, Youngstown is a center of gravity. It had a lure to keep me anchored there: family, cousins, aunts and uncles, birthdays, love stories, weddings and security; along with lifelong friends who would’ve gladly given me ‘the shirt off their back’ if I needed it. In Y-town everything was familiar and like the Cheers Bar it’s a town where everyone knows your name. I found that comforting. For me to blast off from this gravitational pull I knew I needed to generate a great deal of acceleration. Here’s my story…
My family was middle-class but I thought we were poor. I say this because my parents were always “pinching pennies” and my dad worked in the steel mill while building homes on the side as a General Contractor. I didn’t know he was making good money. At an early age my mother told me that I was “ambitious.” I answered, “What’s that?” and she said, “Always wanting to do better.” Oddly, my immediate response was, “Doesn’t that mean I’ll never be happy?”
The youngest of 3 boys, I attended St. Edward’s as did my brother, Harry. He followed our oldest brother, Alex, to go off to Ohio State as I did also several years later. Then, I realized what all of the “penny-pinching” that my parents were doing was really about: it was to put us all through college because they could not afford to go themselves. This fact I suppose, instilled a drive in me to succeed (a term I redefine recurrently.)
At Ursuline, I was shy but in the arrogance of my youth wanted to grow up to be a famous photographer and told my oldest brother who worked in New York City. His immediate response was, “Then, you’re going to have to move to New York to be a success at that.” The thought of leaving Youngstown terrified me but I never forgot that advice. My best buddy at UHS was Jimmy Cummings and we used to aspire together that we wanted to “just happen to” make a “good living” doing something that we loved so much we would have done it anyway without the money. By the time I started Ohio State, I was pretty proficient in my craft and was starting to make money with my camera. But during my sophomore year I moved back to Youngstown because I missed my girlfriend too much and then she broke up with me.
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KP at YSU - 1972
Back in Y-town, I attended YSU and ended up with a degree in Philosophy (of all things). Catholic school had prompted so many metaphysical questions that I found myself taking one Philosophy class after another until I had so many credits that my Advisor suggested that I just graduate with that degree so I could move on to Grad School. I was shooting pictures on the side by then and used my portfolio to earn a Fellowship to get my M.A. degree in Photography and Cinema back at Ohio State because I thought what I really wanted to do was make movies.
At film school I soon realized a couple of things…it was really hard to break into the movies in Hollywood; television was more open to outsiders than the movie business; and, that the direct path there was not from Ohio but possibly NYC. My brother’s early advice was beginning to ring true. So, I added TV production classes to my curriculum and wondered how I could get to New York. As luck would have it, in 1977, Warner Brothers was starting an historic experimental TV operation in Columbus, Ohio which was the first Interactive Television system in the world, called QUBE. One of my classmates at OSU, Robin Brown (also from Y-town), scored an Internship at QUBE and got me an interview and things have never slowed down since.
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KP at WABC-TV, NYC – 1979
At QUBE we had to create about 8 hours of live interactive television programming 5 days a week. We were all in our 20’s and we never worked a week less than 70 hours (for only $150/week!) But we didn’t care about the money. We loved what we did. Everyone had a job on a scheduled TV program (I was first a prop master on a kid’s game show) but we all could pitch any idea to management for a pilot program, get a time slot and gather up a staff from the pool of us workers to produce the show. One of my bosses, Nyhl Henson, thought I had talent and became a sort of mentor. In the span of two years, I did just about every above-the-line job on a TV set including: Talent, Stage Manager, Writer, Director and Producer. I was generating a “Reel!” And, because QUBE was such a pioneering project, reporters and celebrities from all over the world came to see what we were doing and I was beginning to make some contacts in L.A. and New York. Every vacation, I would fly to Los Angeles to try and meet with anyone in the “business” I could find so I could learn how an outsider could break into Hollywood. When in L.A. I would stay with Joe Pizzulo who had left Youngstown years before to get into the recording industry. After a few of these trips I learned that there was no pattern; everyone had a different story of how they got in. So, in my mind that meant I had a chance.
One time when I came back to Y-town I was visiting a girl and her mother asked me what I intended to do for a living. Innocently, I told her I was going to be a television producer in Hollywood which immediately caused her to laugh uncontrollably right in my face. “You have a one in a million chance at that!” I took a beat and said, “what makes you think I couldn’t be that one in a million?” I think that emotional reaction drove me the most for many years; it was like reaching escape velocity. I was breaking away from the gravitational pull of Youngstown and there was no turning back.
One day at QUBE, I heard about a job opening as an Associate Producer on a talk show in NYC. (It turned out to be only a Production Assistant job, the lowest position on a show but it was an opportunity.) I gathered up my Resume and my Reel, borrowed Robin Brown’s car, and took off for New York. I interviewed at ABC and was offered the job on the spot and with that, I moved to New York full-time.
KP at QUBE on Flippo’s Magic Circus - 1978
When I got to NYC, I was still relatively naive but soon adapted to the aggressive environment seeing it as just like Youngstown only bigger, (a lot bigger)! I was at ABC less than a year and unhappy having no authority. The Youngstown in me was coming out. Fortunately, my old boss at QUBE, Nyhl, was now in NYC himself. Warner brought him there to take the Children’s Channel we produced at QUBE and put it on “the bird” (satellite) to beam to every cable system across America like Ted Turner did with TBS and Time Inc. had done with HBO. Nyhl talked me into coming back to Warner but this time at the headquarters in New York. I took the job. Soon after, Warner changed the name of the Children’s Channel to Nickelodeon (because it was the only name that cleared the Legal Department) and we launched the network. Months later, American Express acquired half of Warner Cable and we launched The Movie Channel and later MTV. I became the first head of Television Production for all 3 cable TV networks.
A few years later that same boss took a job at Oak Media Development in Southern California running a national pay television satellite network with TV stations in LA, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, and Dallas. This time he offered to double my salary to come with him and become head of Development and Production which meant I had both Financial and Creative responsibility to greenlight and produce original productions for our network: ON TV. That was my ticket to Hollywood! During the next 5 years I Executive Produced championship boxing pay-per-views, Broadway show telecasts, comedy programs, many television music specials and series including The Righteous Brothers, James Brown and B.B. King, Chuck Berry and Tina Turner along with the first Pay-Per-View televised concert in history in 1981: The Rolling Stones Live.
KP pictured in The Hollywood Reporter - 1983
As I reflect back on my life, particularly on this earlier time, I have many stories that just come up when something triggers a memory. One story that has remained a favorite was during our work with The Rolling Stones. We had just signed the deal to broadcast a live performance PPV of the Tattoo You tour. Representing “the money,” I was invited to fly out and join the tour on the road to meet the band. A few days later I was on a plane to D.C. and went to the show. In the dead of Winter I arrived at the concert at the precise time they had given me and was greeted at the door by the Line Producer, adorned with an all-access pass, then led into the arena where the show had already begun.
On that tour the stage set had 3 gigantic ramps that extended hundreds of feet out into the audience about 10 feet above the screaming fans. Two of the ramps extended off of stage right and stage left respectively and the third one extended from the center of the stage directly out into the audience about 500 feet and terminated 20 or 30 feet up in the air right in front of the scaffolding that was erected to hold the sound mixing consoles. During the performance Mick Jagger would randomly prance his way out on to the ramps singing all the way while he contorted. The crowd roared. As we burrowed our way through the SRO throngs of fans, I was escorted to the scaffolding with the sound crew perched atop. It was expected that I would climb up the ladder inside and make my way to the top, and I did.
As I ascended, I heard the familiar opening to the song Jumpin’ Jack Flash. When I got to the top, the Producer had me stand right in the center in front of the sound mixing boards. Just then, Mick started up the center ramp from the stage below dancing as he sang, “I was born in a crossfire hurricane…” The song continued with that familiar melody and Mick just kept dancing his way up to the end of the ramp all the way to the top of the scaffolding where I was standing. There he was in the spotlight literally 2 feet in front of me 30 feet above the standing fans singing to the 26,000 fans above and behind me. I could see his eye liner make-up, …up close. It was like a private concert for me, but not really. He never made eye contact. But there I was… I had become a television producer from Hollywood before I turned 30. I was pretty full of myself but eventually my comeuppance arrived, but that’s another story for another time…
KP & Brenda– 2014
Since then, I have had many ups and downs in my career. I have had successes and failures, and tallied lots of victories and regrets. What a ride! But if I had to do it all over again, I’d still do it – but I’d like to think, better! I was blessed with a wonderful son, divorced once, engaged twice and re-invented my career at least 3 or 4 times to remain employed in show business. Twelve years ago, I met the love of my life, Brenda, and life has finally settled down and we are very happy. Who knew it would take this long to grow up?
Along the way I’ve met thousands of terribly interesting people, forged lifelong friendships but never forgot the people who always meant the most to me: my family and my friends from Youngstown. The hard work ethic and bonds that I formed while growing up there and attending Ursuline remain as my homing beacon that reminds me where I come from. And, today I can still count 3 of my best friends (all here in SoCal) as Jimmy, Robin and Joe, all northside Youngstown boys who made rocket rides of their own.
KP, Adam & MoMo – 1999
Nyhl Henson, Robin Brown, Jim Cummings, KP, & Joe Pizzulo - 2003
KP, Brenda & Adam - 2019
Piper, KP & Brenda - 2024
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