Judy Crichton

Judy Crichton (November 25, 1929 – October 14, 2007 [1]) was an American television news and documentary producer.

As a teenager she assisted her father with the first television coverage of a presidential election in 1944. Crichton later worked for DuMont Television Network as a researcher, writer, and associate producer of the game show What's the Story?, featuring Jimmy Cannon, and Harriet Van Horne. She was a producer for I've Got A Secret from 1952 - 1968. During this period, she wrote and produced a radio series for Betty Furness called Dimensions of a Woman's World.

Crichton was the principal organizer and producer of New York City's first Earth Day in April 1970. In 1971, she and Chester Feldman produced a documentary of the making of the Broadway cast album of Company. In 1974, she became the first woman producer for CBS Reports , and won three Emmy Awards for "The Nuclear Battlefield".

Crichton moved to ABC News to work as a producer and writer for ABC Close-Up, won a DuPont Award for Oh, Tell the World What Happened, and a Christopher Award for Close-Up's piece on Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1986, she led the first Western journalism team to report from Angola since its revolution in 1975; the reports aired on Nightline and ABC World News Tonight.

Crichton was the executive producer of American Experience from 1987-1996. During her tenure, the series won 6 Peabody Awards; 2 DuPont Award Awards); 5 Writers Guild Awards; 5 OAH Awards; and 7 Emmy Awards. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal by then-President Bill Clinton in 2000.