February 27, 1998
Directors Guild of America President Jack Shea and Awards Committee Chairperson Howard Storm today announced that Robert E. Vitarelli will be the recipient of the 1997 DGA Life Achievement Award in News and Craig A. Janoff will receive the 1997 DGA Life Achievement Award in Sports. Vitarelli and Janoff will be presented with their awards at the 50th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 7, 1998 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and Windows on the World in New York.
In his distinguished television news career, Robert E. Vitarelli has directed film, videotape and live television productions in over twenty five countries. He directed the first videotape coverage of a US President (Eisenhower) traveling abroad as far east as India in 1959, the first launching of an American (Alan Shephard) into space in 1961, the first continuous TV coverage of a running story (the 1964 Civil Rights Hearings – 607 hours, 4 minutes, 47 seconds) and the first live coverage of a US President's (Nixon) trip to the People's Republic of China in 1972.
In addition, Vitarelli has directed the coverage of five Presidential Inaugural ceremonies, six political conventions, and funeral services of Robert Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower. Now a freelance television Producer/Director, he spent over three decades in the CBS News Washington Bureau, directing shows such as Face the Nation, the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, CBS This Morning, Nightwatch and 60 Minutes Point/Counterpoint.
Craig A. Janoff has been a television sports director for twenty three years. His directing career includes such notable events as the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics, the 1984 Summer Olympics, NCAA Basketball and Football (1986-89), Monday Night Baseball, Baseball League Championship Series and World Series (1987, 1989), Triple Crown Horseracing (1986-89, 1996-present) and the Rose Bowl (1997).
Janoff has been the director of ABC's Monday Night Football since 1988 and directed the television coverage of the Super Bowl in 1991 and 1995. He has won ten Emmy awards, including one for journalism for his coverage of the earthquake that rocked the 1989 World Series, and one for technical achievement for his use of the "Helmet Cam" during football games.