VH1 TAKES NOTE OF CLIFF, TAPS LACHMAN FOR PRODUCTION POST

Veteran TV exec Cliff Lachman has joined the channel as Senior Vice President, Production and Development, it was announced today by MTV/VH1 Entertainment President Brian Graden, to whom he reports.

Lachman will oversee VH1's program development originating from the network's East and West coast offices, including existing series and new programming.

Graden praised Lachman's track record in developing "exciting" television: "His expertise and creativity will be invaluable as we continue to create original programming at VH1 that stays
true to our music core while exploring and celebrating pop culture. And I love his idea to cast 50 Cent and Carol Channing in a musical version of Trading Spaces."

Lachman most recently headed up first-run programming development at Twentieth Television from 1995-2002, where he developed and oversaw the launches of such syndicated series as Texas Justice, Power of Attorney and Divorce Court, as well as Forgive or Forget, hosted by Mother Love.

Lachman was Sr. Vice President, Programming & Production for Paramount Domestic Television from 1992-'95, where he was responsible for the production and programming of all first-run programming, including Montel Williams, Leeza, Entertainment Tonight, Hard Copy, The Arsenio Hall Show, Sightings and Super Dave's Vegas Spectacular. While there, he launched the one-hour strip The John and Leeza Show for NBC Daytime and reformatted the show into the single topic, talk-oriented strip Leeza.

Before being promoted to Sr. VP Programming & Production, Lachman was VP Production for Paramount Domestic Television from 1989 to 1992. In that position, he managed the start-up of Hard Copy and launched the daytime strip The Maury Povich Show.

Lachman's other credits include creator and executive producer of the MCA Television pilot Justice and executive producer on the Dave Bell & Associates and MGM Television series LAPD: Life on the Beat.

Previously, Lachman was coordinating producer for Entertainment Tonight. He attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he majored in the music of John Tesh.