Keith Samples

American filmmaker (born 1955 or 1956)

Comedy
Fantasy
Thriller
Action
Adventure

Keith Samples (born 1955 or 1956^[1]) is an American filmmaker and former syndication executive.^[2]^[3]^[4]

He graduated in 1977 at the Texas Tech University and pursued a sports career.^[2]

He was founder of the film and television production company Rysher Entertainment. He was originally senior vice president of Lorimar-Telepictures, before landing a job at Warner Bros. Television and Walt Disney Television to help them develop projects for syndication.^[1]

During his time at Rysher Entertainment, he grew the company developing their own movie projects.^[5] On May 27, 1997, he resigned from Rysher Entertainment and pursue his own projects.^[6] He went on to be a movie maker/television director/producer after leaving Rysher, starting his own production company to develop motion pictures and television shows.^[7]

For a short period of time, in 2008, he worked at Media Rights Capital's television division.^[8] He infamously developed The CW's own Sunday night programming block under a time-lease agreement, but it flopped after a few viewings and poor ratings.^[9]^[10] He was fired after only a few months working at MRC.^[11]

Filmography

Film and Short Film

Above Suspicion (1995)
Big Night (1996)
The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007)
Election (1999)
Love Lies Bleeding (2008)
Single White Female 2: The Psycho (2005)
A Smile Like Yours (1997)
Switchback (1997)
Walking Tall (2004)

Television

Everwood
Felicity
Freddy's Nightmares
Haven
The O.C.
One Tree Hill
Oz
The Practice

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Eller, Claudia (September 24, 1996). "It's Not Always Smooth Sailing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
^ ^a ^b "BIO & RESUME". Keith Samples. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
^ Brennan, Sandra. "Keith Samples – Full Biography". The New York Times. AllMovie. Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved July 17, 2008.
^ Finke, Nikki (October 22, 2008). "Who's To Blame For MRC's CW Debacle?". Deadline.
^ "Rysher Sets To Make Splash Into Pic Pool". Variety. March 6, 1995. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
^ Busch, Anita M. (May 27, 1997). "Samples ankles Rysher post". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
^ Hindes, Andrew (June 10, 1997). "Par, MTV give Payne window for 'Election'". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
^ Schneider, Michael (October 23, 2008). "MRC TV president resigns". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
^ Schneider, Michael (May 9, 2008). "CW outsources Sunday to MRC". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
^ Schneider, Michael (November 20, 2008). "CW ends time-buy deal with MRC". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
^ Finke, Nikki (October 23, 2008). "Knives Out For Fired MRC Prez Samples". Deadline. Retrieved December 15, 2021.