Award-Winning Producer/Director Don Mischer Dead at 85 He directed Olympic Opening Ceremonies and Super Bowl Halftime Shows By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, April 21, 2025 - 12:30 pm
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Don Mischer, an award-winning producer and director who changed the way that everything from awards shows to Olympic Opening Ceremonies, Super Bowl Halftime Shows, and more were directed, died on April 11 at the age of 85.
In a 2008 interview, Don Mischer advised aspiring directors to make sure that you have perseverance. I think it's the most important quality you can have in making a go of it in this business.
Mischer was honored with 15 Emmy Awards, a record 10 Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, two NAACP Image Awards, a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, and the 2012 Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America. As a member of the Directors Guild of America, he served three terms on the National Board and, in 2019, received the DGA's Lifetime Achievement Award for Television, only the fourth such award ever given. On Dec. 11, 2014, Mischer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Among his most famous sports-related shows was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Opening Ceremony featuring Muhammad Ali, the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics Opening Ceremony, and the Super Bowl Halftime Shows from 2005 to 2010, including Prince's memorable performance in the rain at Super Bowl XLI in Miami.
Mischer was born in San Antonio, TX, on March 5, 1940, the son of Lillian and Elmer Mischer. After graduating from Douglas MacArthur High School in San Antonio, he completed his education at the University of Texas Austin and graduated with a BA degree in 1961 and a master's degree in sociology and political science in 1963. Mischer's work took him to Washington, DC, where he worked with the U.S. Information Agency and Oscar-winning documentarian Charles Guggenheim.
In 1971, he joined WNET, the public-TV station in New York City, to direct the second season of The Great American Dream Machine, an irreverent mix of short comic films, satirical sketches, investigative journalism, and musical acts. The show didn't last, but it was a first step in a journey in which, the following year, he became director of ABC's In Concert series. That, in turn, led to longer-term roles as director of The Kennedy Center Honors for CBS and other specials, including the famous Motown 25 special in 1983, which featured Michael Jackson moonwalking for the first time on national TV.
Mischer's memoir recalls that performance and his calling Prince on his walkie-talkie to tell him that the rain was falling very hard as the performance was about to begin. Prince, he said, responded, Can you make it rain harder?
Wrote Mischer, He clearly saw the downpour as a personal challenge. It wasn't going to stop him. I said, OK, go for it.' (Mischer discussed the halftime performance, the Olympics Opening Ceremony, and more in this video from his memorable keynote presentation at SVG's LiveTV:LA event at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City in 2015).
Mischer's many other credits included directing President Barack Obama's inaugural celebration at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009 and the 9/11 Memorial Museum Dedication in 2014.
The Television Academy Foundation ran some quotes from an interview with Mischer in 2008, including his advice for aspiring producers.
Number one, care about what you're doing, he said. Don't take the job lightly; really exhaust your options, in terms of different ways to create something, different ways to tell a story, and different ways to create an event or stage a musical number. Explore them and make sure that you have perseverance. I think it's the most important quality you can have in making a go of it in this business. You'll find you'll have to be thick-skinned at times because, no matter what you do or how good you do it, there are going to be times in which you make mistakes. And when you do, it will be pointed out in the press, and you'll have to deal with it with your fellow professionals in the business and just learn to accept those things, not look backward, and go on to the next project.
As for directing, Mischer said to work with directors that you respect, who have respect in the business, and try and learn from them.
Learn the things they do right and learn their bad habits as well, he said. And try and work with more than one, try and work with several of them, and you'll begin to absorb the things that work the best, and then you can kind of make those your own, ultimately, when you sit in a director's chair.
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Award-Winning Producer/Director Don Mischer Dead at 85 He directed Olympic Opening Ceremonies and Super Bowl Halftime Shows By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
