Norm Prescott

Life and career

Born to a Polish Jewish family in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, his birth name was Norman Zachary Pransky. His father Edward was a tailor and a shirt-maker. A graduate of Boston Latin School and Boston University, he began his career as a disc jockey. His first radio job, c. 1947, was at WHEB in Portsmouth NH. In 1948 he joined WHDH, and in October 1950, he became program director at station WORL. He briefly worked in New York at WNEW, before relocating to WBZ radio in late 1955; in 1956, he became one of the "Live Five" after WBZ dropped its syndicated NBC programming and went on the air with live disc jockeys. In the summer of 1959, he left radio and went to work for Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures Corporation, serving as vice president of music, merchandising and post-production. He, Scheimer, and Hal Sutherland formed Filmation in 1963.

Other professional work

Prescott also produced and directed the 1973 animated film Treasure Island and produced and wrote 1974's Journey Back to Oz, which featured Liza Minnelli as the voice of Dorothy (Ms. Minnelli is the daughter of Judy Garland, who portrayed that same character in MGM's 1939 live-action film).

Filmation produced the popular Star Trek animated series in 1973. Prescott also was producer for The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Space Sentinels, The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle (he also voiced Theodore H. Bear in the show's Quacula episodes), Sport Billy, The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, and Blackstar.