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Dr. Ted Baehr is an
award-winning producer, writer, director, radio & TV personality, and
scholar. With all these accomplishments, his one job is helping to redeem
the values of the media while educating audiences on how to use
discernment in selecting their entertainment.
Dr. Baehr is the Chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission,
a non-profit organization committed to educating the entertainment
industry and the general public of the media’s impact on its audiences.
He also serves as the publisher of
MOVIEGUIDE ® : A Family Guide to Entertainment based on biblical values,
and he writes a syndicated column for 29 publications nationwide.
Baehr’s radio and TV programs, "
MOVIEGUIDE®: A Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment," is
syndicated nationally and internationally.
Utilizing eighteen years of research in evaluating the impact of the media
on both children and adults, Dr. Baehr has been featured on numerous shows
such as Oprah, CNN, Geraldo, Entertainment Tonight, The 700 Club, and the
Morton Downey, Jr. Show. His opinions, critiques and insights are featured
in major newspapers and magazines throughout the United States including
USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Hollywood
Reporter, and U. S. News and World Report.
Dr. Baehr lectures, teaches and preaches throughout the world. He has
lectured at The House of Lords of The Parliament of The U.K., taught at
the Bombay Communication Institute, lectured at Dartmouth College,
University of Virginia and at U.C.L.A.
Dr. Baehr’s books include THE MEDIA-WISE FAMILY {Chariot Victor},
GETTING THE WORD OUT {Harper and Row}, THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY GUIDE TO
MOVIES AND VIDEO (Volumes 1 and 2) {Wolgemuth and Hyatt}, and HOLLYWOOD'S
REEL OF FORTUNE: A WINNING STRATEGY TO REDEEM THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
{Coral Ridge Ministries}. He is also a contributing author to RELIGION AND
PRIME TIME TELEVISION {Praeger}.
Dr. Baehr is past president of the Episcopal Radio-Television Foundation,
an organization that won an Emmy Award for Best Animated Special:
"The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the
Wardrobe," aired as a CBS special during his tenure and was watched
by more than 37 million viewers. Dr. Baehr was nominated for an Emmy Award
for the PBS Series, "Perspectives: War and Peace," in which Ted
served as the executive producer and host.
Dr. Baehr has received five Angel Awards from Excellence in Media, a
Chicago Intercom Silver Plaque, the prestigious Wilbur Award, two awards
from the Southern California Motion Picture Council, The President’s
Award from ICVA/ICCM, the coveted Religious Heritage of America Faith and
Freedom Award, and the Covenant Award from the Radio Television Commission
of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1982, Dr. Baehr received
international recognition for his work as Executive Producer of "The
Power" Exhibit at the World’s Fair, which was a combined effort of
15 denominations working together.
Presently, Ted serves on the board or board of advisors of more than 20
organizations, including the Religious Heritage of America, National
Religious Broadcasters, the American Theater of Actors, and the
Theological Summit Conference. He is a member of the United Seniors
Association and an active member of the National Academy of Television
Arts and Sciences and the Press Club.
Ted Baehr was born in 1946, the son of Robert "Tex" Allen/AKA
Theodore Baehr and Evelyn Peirce, both successful stage, screen, and
television actors. Growing up in New York, Ted followed in his parent’s
footsteps, performing in commercials, movies, television, and stage.
After studying abroad at the University of Munich, Germany; Cambridge
University, England; and Bordeaux and Toulouse Universities in France, he
graduated with high distinction in Comparative Literature and as a Rufus
Choate Scholar from Dartmouth College. He then received his Juris Doctor
from New York University School of Law, where he served as the editor of
the New York Law School Newspaper.
It wasn’t until 1975 that Baehr’s life turned. While Ted was financing
independent movies for Canon Films, a friend suggested that he read the
Bible, which changed his perspective both professionally and personally.
Baehr decided to attend seminary at the Institute of Theology at the
Cathedral of St. John The Divine. He accepted a position as the Director
of the Television Center at the City University in New York, and started
the Good News Communications Ministry. He also established the Episcopal
‘Communicate’ Workshops.
During his tenure at the University, Baehr worked closely on
communications with academia, researching the impact of the media in
education. The subject became a primary topic at the Annenberg Conference
on Communication at Temple University, where Baehr received national
recognition.
He was elected President of the Episcopal Radio & Television
Foundation in 1979 and began conceptualizing what would later become the
Christian Film and Television Commission.
In 1983, while serving on the Communications Board of the National Council
of Churches and the National Religious Broadcasters, Baehr met George
Heimrich. Heimrich was director of the Protestant Film Office in the 1950s
and 1960s. Inspired by George Heimrich, Ted began contacting prominent
members of the industry, and in 1986, formed the Christian Film and
Television Commission. Ted did research and is now working on a book on
the subject. Heimrich donated his Protestant Film Office files to the
Christian Film and Television Commission where they now reside.
Since then, the Christian Film and Television Commission has served as a
liaison, working with studio executives in understanding the needs and
concerns of the general public for wholesome, family entertainment.
In 1985, noting a need to help advise parents (he is a husband and father
of four children) and people concerned about morality in movies, Ted began
publishing MOVIEGUIDE®, a biweekly magazine which reviews all movies from
a biblical perspective. MOVIEGUIDE® is a reliable guide to moviegoers in
helping them choose the good and reject the bad. MOVIEGUIDE’s very
accurate content ratings, notes not only sex, violence and profanity, but
also worldview and other important criteria.
From the detailed information that MOVIEGUIDE® is unique in gathering,
Dr. Baehr prepares his "Report To The Entertainment Industry,"
an insightful box office analysis of the vast moral American audience.
Information on negative or positive content, Biblical or anti-Biblical
themes, increase or decrease of sex or violence, and over twenty other
indicators is carefully tabulated and compared with box-office receipts
for several years. Based on this empirical data, Dr. Baehr has been able
to prove to Hollywood executives that the American public prefers
wholesome, worthwhile, moral movies, and it would benefit these executives
to support the production of more good movies.
Along with the yearly "Report To The Entertainment Industry,"
Dr. Baehr selects the ten best family friendly and the ten best morally
edifying mature audience films of the year. Producers, directors, writers,
and distribution companies associated with these movies are awarded
plaques of recognition at an annual awards ceremony in Hollywood. Dr.
Baehr also presents the coveted $25,000 Epiphany Prizes for the Most
Inspiring Movies and Television Programs. These are cash prizes granted by
the Templeton Foundation for movies and television programs which help
people to know and understand God and His love.
By updating a guideline known as the Motion Picture and Television
Production Code, the organization has secured support and signatures from
more than one million individuals. Now armed with more than fifty years of
statistical information, twenty years of research and support from leaders
in the entertainment industry, Dr. Theodore Baehr is doing more than
watching the world change - - he is using the media to change the media.
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