You can read more about the award here:
http://emmyonline.com/day_42nd_creative_arts_announcementI've had the pleasure of knowing Mike for several years and can say that aside from being a true pioneer in the business who's worked alongside many of "the greats," Mike is a true gentleman and great teacher who continues to contribute to the industry to this day.
Yes, it's true that without Mike we would not have had video of the famous Kitchen Debate. As one of the RCA tech team sent to Moscow to run the color TV exhibit at a 1959 exhibition, Mike made the fateful decision to "roll tape" when Nixon and Khrushchev came by the booth...then got a colleague to fly the tape to Helsinki before the Soviets knew what had happened.
After Mike got back from Moscow, he was hired by Mark Goodson and began work on Play Your Hunch, then became one of Goodson's "go-to" directors through the 1960s. In the late '60s, Mike directed other producers' work including The Generation Gap, Sale of the Century (1960s version with Jack Kelly and Joe Garagiola) before joining up with Bob Stewart, first on Three On a Match, and most famously on the Pyramid series.
When the industry mostly moved to Hollywood in the late '70s, Mike stayed behind in New York and took on the role of a consultant, frequently uncredited, to cable packagers and to European broadcasters.
