Michael Francis:  

I was probably known in High School as a musician. I continued that in college, at both USC and Cal State Los Angeles, where I majored in music composition. At Cal State LA I led the Jazz Band and Pep Band and was the first undergraduate to get a degree in composition. I was also active during college playing Hollywood recording sessions, most notably for Hanna Barbera cartoons, shows like "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop", "Dastardly and Muttly", and the original "Scooby Doo". I then got the chance to write music on a couple others, "The Harlem Globetrotters" and Josey and the "Pussy Cats". After College, or rather, while working on my masters, I was offered a job at ABC Television, in their Guest Services department, and took it. And thanks to that job, I got the opportunity to write music for the "Merv Griffin Show" (1974-75). At the same time I had my own 20-piece big band that played all around the LA area. I moved out of playing music into writing, then producing, and in the late 70's to early 80's produced records for my own company, Powerhouse Productions. But the "business" of music was not what I liked, and eventually got out of it. All the while I was still working at ABC TV, where I worked on shows like "Happy Days", "Laverne and Shirley", "Barney Miller", "Let's Make A Deal", "Family Feud" and "Welcome Back Kotter". But my main shows were the Academy Awards and the Emmy Awards. Fast forward to 1997, and Disney has bought ABC and is slmming down the company, and my department gets axed. The next week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hires me as a supervisor on the Academy Awards...Expand for more