Bob Finkel
American television director and producer (1918-2012)
Robert S. Finkel (March 25, 1918 – April 30, 2012) was an American producer and director. Finkel has notable credits on the TV shows The Eddie Fisher Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show and The Andy Williams Show. Finkel also produced multiple broadcasts of the People's Choice Awards, the Oscars and the Emmy Awards. He also produced the televised comeback concert for singer Elvis Presley in 1968, the highest rated television show for the week of broadcast, and the highest rated television special of the year.
Early life
Robert S. Finkel was born on March 25, 1918, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only son of William and Esther Finkel. Finkel had two sisters; Margery and Sally. His father owned several nickelodeon movie theaters in and around Philadelphia. He graduated from the Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama. After college, Finkel secured several odd jobs including dancing in the Keith Circuit, being the resident director of the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and as director and lighting manager at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Company.
Finkel enlisted and served in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. He was stationed in Burma.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bob Finkel” is american television director and producer (1918-2012). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Finkel, American and television, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american television director and producer (1918-2012)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19845152. VIAF identifies the subject as 14590163. The Library of Congress control number is no2008120377. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 2012 and 1968.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bob Finkel”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bob Finkel primary sources, Bob Finkel archive and Finkel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bob Finkel”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bob Finkel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.