TV producer Alvin Cooperman dead at 83

Posted:
Aug 12, 2006

Alvin Cooperman, a producer of the 1977 Christmas special The Fourth King, died Friday at 83.

Cooperman died of complications from a severe case of shingles, his wife Marilyn, told the New York Times in Saturday's editions.

Featuring the voices of Ted Ross, Laurie Beechman, Arnold Stang, Bob McFadden and Ed Clein, The Fourth King aired only once on NBC. Cooperman wrote the story along with Seymour Reit and also wrote the lyrics.

An executive at the Shubert Organization, Cooperman owned over a a dozen New York theaters.

At age 16, Brooklyn-born Cooperman started working for the Shubert Organization Inc. as an office boy. He attended New York University in the evenings, but left at 16 became the older students were intimidating him. Eventually, he received a journalism degree from NYU, his wife said.

In 1951, he became as a production manager for NBC. There, he produced several series in the 1950s and 1960s, including Shirley Temple's Storybook (later known as The Shirley Temple Show), The Untouchables and Tate.

Returning to the Shubert Organization, he booked shows for the 22 theaters that the firm then had in New York City and elsewhere. These included Love, Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret.

In 1967, NBC rehired him as vice-president of special programs. He was was named executive vice-president and director at Madison Square Garden the following year.

In October 1969, Cooperman founded the Madison Square Garden Network -- one of the first regional sports networks of its kind -- to carry events there.

Besides his wife, Alvin Cooperman is survived by daughters Margot Ford Cooperman of Manhattan, Audrey Cooperman of Manhattan and Karen Puro of Los Angeles; sister Lillian Cantor of Atlantic Beach, New York; and one grandson.