Robert Israel

by Kevin Zimmerman

Article re-printed Courtesy of Howard Levitt ©1995 BMI

Bob Israel is, by his own admission, "a unique kind of duck." A well-regarded musician, producer and composer in his own right, Israel is also a full-time businessman and entrepreneur, heading Score Productions, the company he founded in 1963 as a creative center devoted to television scoring.

"I was determined to create a class act as far as Score was concerned," he says. "I wanted to bring excellence to television music. I've tried pretty damned hard and, even if the subject matter was less than inspiring at times, for the most part, I've succeeded."

Along with Israel's own talents, Score has nurtured an impressive list of other composers, including George Benson, Dick Hyman, Arthur Rubinstein, Milt Hinton and Michel Camilo.

"I always look for originality," says Israel, "and by that, I mean a sound that is unique to that one artist."

Currently, Score employs 12 people on both coasts, and is responsible for the music to over 70 episodes of network and syndicated television each week. Among its most recognizable melodies are the umbrella theme for the entire ABC news network, "ABC's World News Tonight"; three hours of scoring plus anoriginal theme for CNN Headline News; and themes and scores for a host of game shows and daytime dramas, including "Family Feud," "The Price Is Right," "One Life To Live," "All My Children" and "Loving."

The New York City native's musical gifts were evident early on: He was already studying piano and performing at recitals by the age of five. Later, classes at Juilliard and Columbia Graduate School further cemented his abilities.

Israel also credits the post-World War II explosion of jazz as a key factor in his development.

"When I was a teenager, I spent an enormous amount of time club-hopping," he recalls. "I was exposed to people who today are considered classics: Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Billie Holiday. Seeing and hearing these people had a tremendous influence on me creatively."

Following a stint as a production assistant at Musicraft Records (whose roster included Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme), Israel started his own label, Heritage Records, at the ripe old age of 21. "It was an adventurous thing to do," he understates with a laugh. He produced over 250 albums in a variety of styles, with particular attention paid to a series featuring popular theatrical songwriters like Alan Jay Lerner, Ira Gershwin and Harold Rome performing their own songs.

"To this day, when I talk about that label and what I did, I can still feel the excitement," Israel says. "It was making a statement and preserving something for other generations."

Heritage was eventually sold in the late 1950s and Israel got married - "So I had to start to be sensible," he chuckles. He went to work for MGM Records trying to develop a revolutionary new format: the cassette tape. This was followed by a job even more important in his own development as a businessman, producing records for SESAC.

"Before that I really knew nothing about how you made income in music, really, from the use of music, about logging, rates, all of that," he says.

Without fully realizing it, Israel was setting the stage for the novel creative/business mix that would become the cornerstone of his career. A chance meeting in Central Park with producer Alfred Levy - who, with David Susskind, ran independent television production company Talent Associates, Ltd. - turned into the seeds of Score.

For $60 a week, Israel found himself taking a crash course in television production as Levy's assistant, working with scripts and film editing in addition to the usual "Man Friday" rigors. "After I'd been there for a short time, Al said, 'You're a musician. How can we benefit from what you do?'" Israel remembers. Recalling what he'd learned about the lucrative possibilities of music publishing, Israel convinced Levy to form an independent music production entity, "where we could gain revenue through the use of our own copyrights and start to develop writers, including myself."

The new music publishing and production company, run by Israel, allied itself with BMI. "We created a lot of copyrights, because we had an enormous amount of shows," he remembers. "At one point we were doing 50 specials a year, which was an outrageous pace, very crazy but also a lot of fun."

Talent Associates' productions during this period included "East Side West Side" with George C. Scott, "Mr. Broadway" with Craig Stevens, and the seminal cop series "N.Y.P.D.," with Israel hiring composers like Dave Brubeck, Kenyon Hopkins and Robert Prince for scoring.

Despite the flush of success, by the early '60s Israel felt it was time to move on. The opportunity arose in 1963, when he was commissioned by NBC to create the music for a pilot called "House Of Hope."

"They had a budget of $260 for the music," he recalls. "But the pilot sold to NBC, went on the air, and became a show called 'The Doctors,' which ran for 18 years."

This achievement allowed Israel to set up Score Productions, retaining Talent Associates as a client. "One thing led to another, and we started to get a lot of work," he says, "but at the time it was a crap shoot."

The new company quickly established itself as a reputable organization, scoring such '60s TV landmarks as "Death Of A Salesman" with Lee J. Cobb and "Harvey" with James Stewart. A profitable relationship soon followed with game show titan Mark Goodson, and later key associations were formed with ABC and CNN - all of which continue to this day.

"A lot of this work is based on trust," Israel avers. "When you've worked with somebody and they know you, after a while you develop a kind of shorthand with them."

Such was the case with Goodson. "He used to come over here to listen to a live piano, or we'd go to his place where the piano was always out of tune," he says dryly. After a few brainstorming sessions, Israel recalls, "He'd say, 'Don't play me the one you think I won't like first; play me the one you think I will like first.'"

Israel says it's no coincidence that his best-known pieces come from game shows and news programs. "I have a natural gift for succinct, quotable melodies, which suits those genres perfectly," he says. "'World News Tonight' is probably the most recognized and known news theme in the world. That was a result of a really strong rapport that I developed with ABC producer Roger Goodman."

Israel's business side comes out when discussing difficulties arising at some cable outlets. "Many of the cable production companies are really operating on a shoestring, and they have no money for music. The licensing of this end of the business has been an ongoing problem for the performing rights societies. I think they will win, eventually, but during the process creative people are being hurt badly; rights are being grabbed up by these producers; performances are not properly logged, and creative people are not receiving their just due."

Meanwhile, the pace never lets up at Score. The firm currently has eight arrangers and orchestrators working on 165 arrangements totaling two hours of music for CNN Headline News. "Most people don't realize that there are so many events happening every day, and they need variations and moods and textures," he explains.

Score also just completed work on 30 programs for NTV, the new Turner-owned network launching in Germany, and is scoring five animation projects for Ralph Bakshi and Hanna-Barbera, "Zootoons," as well as three as-yet-untitled half-hour animated pilots for HBO.

But Israel's restless spirit is looking beyond scoring. The company has recently launched a production arm, Score Media Productions, on the west coast. SMP has secured the rights to "a very famous property" for an animated series that Israel is reluctant to divulge. "We're very excited about that," he says, "and, incidentally, we do the music as well."

If there's one thing Israel has learned in his years in show business, he says, it's that, "The stuff we do comes out of our guts. Even under commercial pressure, it's gotta come from somewhere. If it's good it's not hammered out; it's felt."

Kevin Zimmerman is a New York-based freelance writer who has written for Variety, Musician and Spy.