Biography (TV series)
Biography is a documentary television program. Originally produced by CBS and hosted by Mike Wallace, the A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987. The series has featured biographies on such people as Elvis Presley, Plácido Domingo, Pope John Paul II, Enrico Caruso, Diego Rivera, Mao Zedong, and Queen Elizabeth II. The program ended up profiling enough figures, that in 1999 A&E spun the program off into an entire network, The Biography Channel.
Initially, most of the episodes featrued the life stories of historical figures or present political or social leaders. After a few years, however, the show began producing episodes on figures from pop culture. This move away from purely intellectual subject matter has been criticized by some.
At one point, the show aired up to six times weekly in primetime, but recently has been cut back to only once a week, usually on Friday nights.
Two of the main narrators have been Neil Ross and Jack Perkins.
The Canadian television comedy series Liocracy was a parody of Biography. That program, in fact, was originally titled Liography until the producers of Biography threatened an intellectual property infringement lawsuit.