Aaron Spelling is one of television's most prolific and successful producers of dramatic series and made-for­ television films: by 2001, he had more than 182 television-production credits. Spelling began his career as a successful student playwright at Southern Methodist University, where he won the Eugene O'Neill Award for original one-act plays in 1947 and 1948. After graduating in 1950 and spending a few years directing plays in the Dallas, Texas, area, and then trying less than successfully to make his way on Broadway, Spelling moved to Hollywood. There he initially found work as an actor and later as a scriptwriter for such anthology and episodic series as Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, Playhouse 90, Wagon Train, and The Jane Wyman Theater. Within a few years, Spelling had become a producer at Four Star Studio Productions, where he created The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962-63), Burke's Law (1963-66), and Honey West (1965-66) and helped develop The Smothers Brothers Show (1967-75).

     Spelling's first really successful series, The Mod Squad ( 1968-73), was produced after he left Four Star and formed a partnership with Danny Thomas. During its five-year run, Mod Squad earned six Emmy Award nominations, including one for Outstanding Dramatic Series for the 1969-70 season. In 1972, Spelling formed a new partnership with Leonard Goldberg. which lasted until 1977 and produced such hits as The Rookies (1972-76), Starsky and Hutch (1972-76), and Charlie’s Angels (1976-81). Spelling's string of series featuring both wealthy crime fighters and regular cops continued in the 1980s with Hart to Hart (1979-84), Matt Houston (1982-85), Strike Force (1981-82). T.J. Hooker (1982-87), and McGruder and Loud (1985).

     Spelling also ventured into new genres with his innovative, hour-long comedy, The Love Boat (1977-86) and the prime-time serial Dynasty (1981-89). Reminiscent of the 1960s anthology comedy, Love, American Style, each episode of Spelling's The Love Boat turned the three separate comedy stories into three intertwined storylines. Intercutting three separate plots in short scenes that recapitulated and advanced each  storyline plot was a brilliant strategy that enabled the series to appeal to different sets of viewers, each of whom might be attracted to a particular plotline, within a format that was admirably suited to the fragmented and distracted way that most people view television. Another Spelling innovation that first appeared in The Love Boat was the ritualized introductory sequence that formally presented the multiple plots in each week's episode as well as the series' main characters.

     In 1980s television, Spelling was king. In 1984, Spelling's seven series on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) accounted for one-third of the network's prime-time schedule, leading some critics to nickname ABC "Aaron's Broadcasting Company." Spelling's 18-year exclusive production deal with ABC ended in 1988, but his ability to create hit series did not. In the 1990s, he introduced the hit prime-time series Beverly Hills 90210 ( 1990-2000) and Melrose Place ( 1992-99), for FOX, and his first daytime soap opera venture, Sunset Beach ( 1997-99), for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

     Among the recurring thematic features that have characterized Spelling's productions over the years are socially relevant issues, such as the disaffected mili­tant youth of the 1960s; institutional discrimination against women, racism, and homophobia; altruistic capitalism; conspicuous consumption and valorization of the wealthy; the optimistic, moralistic maxims that people can be both economically and morally successful; good ultimately triumphs over evil; the grass often looks greener but rarely is; and the affirmation of both the "caring company" work family (e.g., in Hotel) and the traditional kinship family. Stylistically, his productions have included high-key lighting, gratuitous displays of women's bodies, heavily orchestrated musical themes, lavish sets, and what Spelling himself thinks is the most important element in television: "style and attention to detail." Two Spelling series that stand out as anomalous among this auteur's prime-time and movie ventures are Family (ABC, 1976-80) and 7th Heaven (The WB, 1996- ). Spelling and Mike Nichols co produced Family, a weekly hour-long drama, which many consider to be Spelling's best work. During the four years that this serious portrayal of an upper-middle­ class suburban family was in its first run, it won four Emmy Awards for the lead performers and was twice nominated for Outstanding Drama Series. 7th Heaven, a wholesome drama about a Protestant minister, his wife, and their seven children living together in an American suburb, also has received numerous awards, including the Kids Choice Award, the Teen Choice Award, TV Guide Awards, the Entertainment Indus­ try's Prism Award, the Media Project's Shine Award, and the Viewer's Choice Award. 

     "Innovator," "overachiever," "spin doctor," "angel," "king of pap," "ratings engineer," "TV's glitzmeister," "winner of six National Association for the Advance­ment of Colored People Image Awards": these are some of the labels Spelling's critics and admirers have used to describe this prolific, successful producer. One title that certainly describes the undeniable impact Spelling has left on four decades of television is that of television auteur.