Producer/Director

MICHAEL L. ROSE
Proucer/Director

Storytelling has been producer Michael Rose’s passion since his college days when he started his own political commentary magazine and channeled his interests into film. His first film at the UCLA film school prompted an on-going research and advocacy effort that closed a nuclear reactor, halted the resumption of the ocean disposal of nuclear waste, and stopped a California valley from becoming a nuclear waste dump.

Today Rose heads his boutique production company – Michael Rose Productions, Inc. – specializing in programming for television. He has written, directed and produced more than 100 specials and documentaries on a wide-range of issues and topics. Clearly though, it was his passion for cars that sparked a number of award-winning documentaries and the two series for which he is best known – the 30-part documentary on the history of the car, Automobiles, and his series Ultimate Autos, both of which have become staples of the US cable outlet, The History Channel.

Not bad for a man who spent his teen years in Malibu, California, splitting his time between surfing and working at the local gas station. Pumping gas was a dream job for Rose, who was fascinated with Fords, Chevys and every conceivable exotic car of the time driven by movie stars, producers, directors, musicians and the other wealthy folk who lived in that Shangri La by the sea.

His father, Robert, fueled Rose’s automotive passion at an early age. A journalist and editor of the Chicago Daily News, the elder Rose took Michael to the Chicago Auto Show and soon the young man could identify the make, model and year of almost any vehicle on the road. Then Dad gave Michael a cloth-bound book with a yellow Mercer Raceabout on the cover. “The book was all about classic cars and I was amazed such things existed,” Rose said. “I always wanted to know more about these wondrous things – and now I do.”

His infatuation for cars grew. Rose often begged his father to interview his automotive heroes. “I got him to talk to people like car builder and racer, Carroll Shelby and the king of the Kustom car world, George Barris,” Rose said. “Of course, each time he did, he brought me an autographed photo. It was great.” Rose also devoured all of the car magazines of the day – Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Motor Trend – and consumed his spare time with books. Today, reading remains one of the cornerstones of his pre-production research.

Rose also interviews primary sources if possible, talking to people who know the subject, work in a factory or somehow have a direct relationship to the story he’s going to tell. “I talk to anyone and everyone who might have an interesting twist or insight,” Rose said.

While his interest in cars started as a boy, Rose’s fascination with automotive history grew during his 10-year stint as a writer/producer for General Motors. Between directing a wide-range of projects for GM – from small focused programs to multi-million dollar auto show extravaganzas – the company asked Rose to prepare a history of GM for its president. The CEO had to deliver a speech to his fellow Fortune 100 leaders at a a Business Roundtable. He wanted to wow the crowd and tapped Rose for the assignment. During his research, Rose not only discovered the interesting inventions, scientists and colorful characters in GM’s past, he also uncovered its incredible archive of films, photos and documents. It was a treasure trove and he was hooked.

Determined to share this wealth of historical material with the public Rose formed his own documentary production company in 1995. Since its inception, Michael Rose Productions, Inc. has produced a series of highly successful programs. They include: Classic Cars, a documentary on the classic era of American motoring hosted and narrated by Edward Herrmann, and Dream Machines, a four-part series on the history of Hot Rods, Dream Cars, Sports Cars and Harley-Davidson, and the 30 part series, Automobiles, all for the History Channel. His company also produces Hot Rod TV and several other specials a year. His main focus is, Great Cars that is seen on PBS stations across the United States and throughout the world on other broadcast and cable outlets. This series allows Rose to tap into all of his interests and reach an educated audience. “PBS is about pandering to the lowest common denominator.” Said Rose. “They care about more than just distracting 18 year olds with music videos.” PBS is the right place to be.

Rose’s work has won numerous awards over the years, including a local Emmy, two Cine Golden Eagles, the Automotive Historians’ E.P. Ingersoll Award, several educational film awards, and his films have screened at international film festivals. His production company is always developing new projects and he’s always looking for dramatic new stories.

“I like to produce compelling stories about great characters, “ Rose said. “Such as people who tried to make a difference -- people who encountered tremendous obstacles and worked like hell to overcome them. I’m attracted to underdogs, heroes, and outcasts that are unique and don’t fit into the corporate mold.” Rose is also a theatre and art gallery junkie, but when Rose is not traveling he still spends time at the beach. “I was a daily surfer growing up in Malibu, then lost the habit after 15 years in Michigan,” he admitted, “but I’ve fixed up a board this year and am back in the water again.” Of course, this has led to another car project, a one-hour film about the inventor of the Dune Buggy.

“I just see the world through the frame of a windshield I guess,” said Rose, “ anyone who loves cars can understand.”

Managing Director

Carol L. King
Managing Director

Not the one who write songs and sings (her name is spelled Carole). This Carol King was born in Detroit, can’t sing (well, on occasion she’s been known to belt out a medley of her hit – a rendition of Janis Joplin’s Mercedes-Benz), which confirms that she does love cars. As a person who is vertically-challenged (5’2” high), she prefers driving small, fast cars. Who doesn’t? While she’s not an auto connoisseur, she does appreciate the design and engineering of a classic Packard, a stately Rolls-Royce and even the old Dodge Matador station wagon with the nifty push button automatic transmission that her dad owned. Sentiment over reason on that one.After a career in politics, activism and general rabble-rousing, she started working with her husband, Michael Rose, in his production company when they moved from Michigan to California in 1996 in their Chevy Lumina Minivan – a great vehicle to take cross-country. They were one of the few who actually would admit to liking that Dustbuster auto. Since then, she’s been in and around great, and not so great, cars as a driver, passenger, back seat driver and critic. She never gets tired of the subject but she does get depressed at the precipitous decline of the American automobile industry on which so many people rely for their livelihood. But that’s another story.

She also produced a documentary about the Women’s Movement in Michigan, “Passing the Torch,” which has been aired on PBS stations and is being used in schools and libraries across the state.

 

Our Narrator

Reg Abbiss
Journalist/Broadcaster

BBC News reporter and anchor, Reg Abbiss, a Yorkshireman with a mischievous sense of humor, determined as a teenager that he wanted to be a reporter, and during journalism studies willingly suffered leg pulling as the only young man in a class of 20 girls trying to reach a shorthand speed of 140 words a minute!

Armed with his 140 wpm and college study in law and business, he reported rugby matches for a weekly paper which offered him a full-time job as a reporter. At 21 he started a news agency, covering northern England for national papers and wire services and four years later joined BBC News in London as a reporter.

Television and radio assignments during 12 years at the BBC ranged from war in Vietnam and covering an earthquake and typhoon in Tokyo to violent political demonstrations in London, and reporting from oil rigs on the North Slope of Alaska. He filed stories from Germany, France, Scandinavia, Italy, Canada and Hong Kong, and between times interviewed Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, Richard Nixon, Robert Kennedy and a few Prime Ministers.

After general reporting, he specialized in business coverage during a turbulent time in British politics, anchoring general election and financial broadcasts. He reported several nights a week on BBC TV News, was correspondent and presenter of the television series Made in Britain, and a frequent reporter on the BBC World Service.

He left the BBC to direct communications for British Telecom before joining Rolls-Royce Motor Cars International to help persuade wealthy Americans that life was incomplete without the most luxurious of all British products. Based in the US he was the company’s media strategist and spokesman for North America and the Pacific Rim. One of his notable TV interview quotes: “Rolls-Royce is not so much in the car industry, as in the mobile Rembrandt business.”

A “poacher-turned-gamekeeper, who couldn’t resist the fun of poaching again,” Reg returned to journalism in 1996, with the Speedvision TV Network co-anchoring and reporting Aviation News throughout its three year run and also presented AutoWeek. He reported and anchored news and feature programs from the Farnborough and Paris International Air Shows with Apollo 12 commander, Pete Conrad, and wrote and presented two acclaimed series for the flagship Speedvision News RaceWeek program “The Business of Auto Racing” and “The Safety of Racing.”

Our Music

We're lucky enough to use the services of the best music group in Los Angeles, Alan Ett/Media City Sound.

They are responsible for all of the music in our series.