Sandy Frank

Sundel Frank was born on July 11, 1929, in Mount Kisco, New York, the son of Moses and Ida Frank. He grew up in Mount Kisco and was known throughout his life as Sandy. He arrived in New York City in 1949, at the age of 20, determined to work in the film business.

In 1949 Frank came to New York City from Mount Kisco to complete a two year film school course at New York University, working at the same time as a part time booker and sales trainee at Paramount Pictures.

At Paramount Frank kept records and made contacts with local distributors around the New York metropolitan area. At 21 he sold Pantomime Quiz, hosted by Mike Stokey, to NBC, where it aired in 1952. He joined Guild Films as a sales executive in 1952 and NBC in 1956, then became senior vice president of worldwide sales at the Wrather Corporation, owner of Lassie and The Lone Ranger.

In the fall of 1964 he launched Sandy Frank Program Sales, renamed Sandy Frank Film Syndication in 1975 and later Sandy Frank Entertainment. Early hits were You Asked For It and Lassie, alongside a strip of travel adventure series such as America, High and Wild, Across the Seven Seas, The Traveler and American West. In 1970 he guaranteed one million dollars to acquire Bill Cosby's first off network show.

The 1971 prime time access rule created demand for first run programming, and Frank filled it with game shows and variety. The Parent Game set a syndication sales record of 125 markets in 100 days in 1972, and The New Treasure Hunt, The Bobby Vinton Show and Name That Tune ran in prime access in the same season. He also handled The Dating Game, The $1.98 Beauty Show, Face the Music and Lee Mendelson's Superstar Specials.

In 1977 he discovered Gatchaman at MIP-TV and reworked it into Battle of the Planets (1978). His company also held rights to and dubbed Daiei monster films including the Gamera series, plus features such as Time of the Apes and Mighty Jack. With Columbia Pictures he financed 150 episodes of Lie Detector, and he later said that pulling it opened prime access slots that went to Wheel of Fortune. In 2000 NATPE featured him in its video The Legends of Syndication, and from 2011 he formed alliances with companies including The Asylum and Sony while continuing to pitch formats into his eighties.

Frank told VideoAge that his first marriage lasted six months. He remained friends with his former wife Susan Chandler, the mother of his only child, his daughter Alexandra. A New York Daily News report later described a dispute with his new wife Brenda, a former model. In 2014 he sued former fiancee Patricia Berg, a Palm Beach socialite, for the return of a 7.23 carat engagement ring he said he gave her in 2009. He lived for many years on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and in later life spent most of his time in Sarasota, Florida. Colleagues described him as health conscious, a germophobe who travelled with medicines, and generous with friends in need.

Frank described himself as a proud American Jew and called meeting Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin the highlight of his career; he said he was in Sadat's limousine when the Egyptian leader announced his 1977 visit to Israel. In business he lived by three rules: never pitch to someone who cannot give you an order, never pitch a program over the phone, and be well researched in the market you are pitching.

Frank is remembered as one of the pioneers of independent first run syndication in the United States and as a key figure in bringing Japanese animation and monster films to American viewers. Battle of the Planets introduced a generation of children to anime, and his English versions of Gamera and other films found a second life through Mystery Science Theater 3000. Industry veterans credited him with an early, research driven approach to selling programs to stations.

Frank was featured by NATPE in its 2000 video The Legends of Syndication and was named a VideoAge International TV Distribution Hall of Fame honoree in 2016. Broadcasting and Cable profiled him as a syndication pioneer in January 2015.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 mocked several of the Japanese films his company distributed, including Gamera titles, Time of the Apes, Fugitive Alien and Mighty Jack, and its cast performed "The Sandy Frank Song" in his honour. The opening credit "Sandy Frank presents" on Battle of the Planets was familiar to viewers in the late 1970s and 1980s. In his later years he recorded a long career interview released as a Blu-ray extra.

In 2011 Sandy Frank Productions sued Michigan officials after a film tax credit was denied for a show he described as a reality series about making a game show; a federal judge dismissed the case on January 4, 2012. In 2014 he sued his former fiancee Patricia Berg over a $305,000 engagement ring, and the same year format developer Stephen Radosh sued him and his company over royalties and credits for international versions of Name That Tune. The 1983 Sadat miniseries he set in motion angered the Egyptian government, which objected to the casting of Louis Gossett Jr. and banned sales of Coca-Cola, then Columbia's parent company.

Sandy Frank died on October 20, 2026, at the age of 97. An obituary listing was posted by King David Chapels, and news of his death spread among fans and on Wikipedia on October 29, 2026. The place and cause of death were not made public.