Television producer Aaron Spelling dies

Aaron Spelling, whose knack for tapping into the public's taste for light entertainment made him both the most prolific and one of the wealthiest producers in television history, died Friday evening. He was 83.

Mr. Spelling died at his mansion in Los Angeles of complications from a stroke he suffered Sunday. . His wife, Candy, and son, Randy, were at his bedside.

Although seldom a darling of critics, Mr. Spelling was associated with a dizzying roster of commercial successes, including such long-running series as "Dynasty," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "Charlie's Angels," "Melrose Place," "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "7th Heaven."

With more than 5,000 hours of TV and more than 70 series bearing his name, as well as dozens of made-for-TV movies and a smattering of feature films, Mr. Spelling was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the most prolific TV producer of all time.

A soft-spoken Texan who started his Hollywood career as an actor, Mr. Spelling was such a major supplier of programs to ABC in the 1970s that the network was only half-jokingly nicknamed "Aaron's Broadcasting Company."

Mr. Spelling's roster of hits also made him one of Hollywood's richest denizens, with a fortune estimated in the mid-1990s at more than $300 million. His wealth was underscored by the 56,000-square-foot, 123-room mansion — complete with a bowling alley and indoor skating rink — that he built on Bing Crosby's former estate and dubbed "The Manor."

Despite his reputation as a purveyor of fluff and what the producer himself called "mind candy," Mr. Spelling's career also included several tonier projects. They included the Emmy-winning TV movies "Day One" (about the first atom bomb) and "And the Band Played On" (dealing with the AIDS epidemic) in 1989 and 1993, respectively, as well as the Emmy-nominated dramatic series "Family" in the late 1970s.

Still, he will always be most closely associated with opulent prime-time soap operas and light dramas rife with action and beautiful women, which in the days of "Charlie's Angels" spawned the term "jiggle TV."

Mr. Spelling conceded that he would never please his critics but took exception to descriptions of his programs as "schlock," which he saw as an elitist attitude. By the late 1980s, Mr. Spelling's brand of fanciful, escapist entertainment appeared to have been replaced by grittier, more realistic dramas such as "Hill Street Blues" and "thirtysomething." When "Dynasty" — a lavish serial that some characterized as television's embodiment of national excess during the Reagan years — was canceled in 1989, he was left without a show on ABC for the first time in nearly two decades. Those years also yielded some of Mr. Spelling's more spectacular flops, among them "Nightingales," an NBC series about nurses.

Mr. Spelling quickly renewed himself, however, with "Beverly Hills, 90210," which premiered on the then-fledgling Fox network in 1990 and blossomed into a breakthrough hit.

Mr. Spelling's personal quirks were almost as legendary as his career. A frail man, he refused to fly, got around in a chauffeur-driven limousine or by train and held court in his massive office, where a butler would serve his lunch.

Married to actress Carolyn Jones in the 1950s (the two divorced in 1964), Mr. Spelling married his second wife, Candy, a hand model and interior decorator, in 1968. In addition to his wife of 38 years, his son and his daughter, Tori, Mr. Spelling is survived by a brother, Daniel.