Russell Morash (February 11, 1936 – June 20, 2024) was an American television producer and director. Morash's many educational television programs such as The French Chef, The Victory Garden, MIT Science Reporter,This Old House, and The New Yankee Workshop, were produced through WGBH and air on PBS.
Morash was born on February 11, 1936.[1] He grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. Morash's father was a builder.[2] In 1957, Morash graduated from the Boston University College of Fine Arts.[3]
Morash started his entertainment career as a cameraman for Boston public-television station WGBH-TV.[4] In 1961, as a cameraman, Morash met Julia Child when she appeared on a WGBH program called I've Been Reading, while promoting her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Viewers flooded the station with calls and letters asking to see more. The French Chef premiered on WGBH in 1962 and then was distributed nationally by American Public Television.[5] Morash began directing The French Chef in 1963.[2][4][6] They worked together on other cooking shows for more than thirty years.[6]
Morash's theater-inspired directorial style, and the technology of the day, required that the staff and host—all collected in a makeshift studio cobbled together with equipment that had escaped a massive station fire—would shoot each episode in one take. It established an in-the-moment template for a new kind of public television show that Morash took with him to launch other series, such as This Old House and The Victory Garden.[7]
The Victory Garden and This Old House spinoff series The New Yankee Workshop were filmed in Morash's own backyard in Massachusetts.[6]
Morash's wife was Marian Morash, a James Beard Award-winning chef who also appeared on Julia Child's cooking show, appeared on The Victory Garden and edited The Victory Garden Cookbook.[2] [10][3]
WGBH announced that Russell died on June 20, 2024, leaving behind a legacy as the founding "commanding father" of the how-to genre of educational television.[11]
Fran Kranz plays Morash in the 2022 HBO Max series Julia with Sarah Lancashire.[12]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmy Awards 2014 |
Succeeded by |
Awards for Russell Morash
| |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
| International |
|
|---|---|
| National |
|
