Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DALLAS (AP) — Robert A. Wilson, father of actors Luke, Owen and Andrew Wilson, and a landmark public television station executive who introduced "Monty Python's Flying Circus" to its first American audience, has died in Dallas. He was 76.
Luke Wilson told The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/2pj197k ) that his father died Friday after years of fighting Alzheimer's disease.
Bob Wilson was placed in charge of Dallas public television station KERA in 1967. He hired Dallas Times Herald city editor Jim Lehrer, put him in charge of the station's public affairs programming and created a nightly news program called "Newsroom" with Lehrer as anchor. Lehrer went on to anchor "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" for PBS.
In 1974, Bob Wilson decided KERA would be the first American station to air "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
___
Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
