Early life and work[edit]

Berman was born to a Jewish family^[1][2] and raised in New York City. He attended college at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, receiving a degree in English and film production in 1967.^[3] He first considered acting as a career, but decided not to pursue it because of the high degree of difficulty in gaining success. Starting a career as an independent film producer, director, and writer, he made documentaries and industrial films. Among his clients were the United Nations and the United States Information Agency. By 1977, he had traveled to over 90 countries making films for these organizations.^[4]


From 1977 to 1982, he was the senior producer of PBS' The Big Blue Marble, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Series. Between 1982 and 1984, he was an independent producer, working on projects that included HBO's What on Earth and PBS' The Primal Mind.^[5] Berman joined Paramount in 1984 as the director of current programming, overseeing series such as Cheers and Family Ties. He was also executive director of dramatic programming, overseeing series such as the miniseries Space and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) series MacGyver. He was promoted in 1986 to vice-president of long-form and special projects at Paramount Network Television.^[6]