‘Good Morning America’ Legend Dead at 90: RIP to Woody Fraser

Legendary American television producer and director Woody Fraser, who created ABC’s Good Morning America, has died. Fraser passed away at the age of 90 on Saturday, Dec. 21, his daughter Stacy confirmed to Variety. Fraser’s cause of death was not disclosed.

Born Nov. 16, 1934, in Cincinnati, Fraser began his career in television in 1960 as a director for NBC. That same year, he met Mike Douglas, and the pair went on to pioneer the co-host format when they co-created The Mike Douglas Show. That series became one of the longest-running and most successful talk shows in TV history, airing for over 4,000 episodes from 1961 until 1982.

With the early success of The Mike Douglas Show, Fraser quickly became one of the most in-demand producers of the mid-’60s and early-’70s. From 1966 until 1973, he oversaw 32.5 hours of TV programming every week, with airings of The Mike Douglas Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Della Reese Show, The Bill Russell Show, and Kid Talk, Deadline reported.

In 1982, he won a Daytime Emmy for his work on The Richard Simmons Show, and earned numerous other nominations throughout his 50-year career, including for The Dick Cavett Show, What Would You Do?, The Family Challenge, and Good Morning America, the long-running ABC morning show for which he served as the show’s first executive producer.

Most recently, Fraser was behind the 2012 revival of Home & Family on the Hallmark Channel, and also helped launch CNBC’s McEnroe and Fox News’ Huckabee, featuring former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Paying tribute to Fraser online, Huckabee called him a “legend,” writing, “Woody Fraser was EP of my @FoxNews TV show & a TV pioneer. He was creator of many TV shows over 7 decades.”

Fraser’s long-time collaborator and fellow producer E.V. Di Massa Jr. wrote on Facebook, “My mentor and a true producing genius Woody Fraser passed. So many memories. Here we are accepting the Mike Douglas Lifetime Award at the Emmys..may God hold him until we have our next production meeting in heaven.”

In addition to his extensive TV career, Fraser was a staunch supporter of Stand Up to Cancer, co-founded by his late wife, Noreen Fraser, who passed away following a battle with breast cancer in 2017. He is survived by his eight children and three grandchildren.