Raised by his widowed mother, Masini started working after school at age 10 in a Tootsie Roll factory to help support the family after his father died.

Operation Prime Time was launched in May 1977, with Testimony of Two Men, a six-hour series based on Taylor Caldwell’s best-selling novel, debuting on 93 stations.

Among the early executives to sign on were Frank Price of Universal Television, who offered the Caldwell novel, and Archa Knowlton, media-services director for General Foods.

[1][2][3][5] Operation Prime Time specials include many Emmy Award nominees and several Emmy winners, such as Ingrid Bergman in A Woman Called Golda, about Israeli Prime minister Golda Meir; Alec Guinness in Smiley’s People; Louis Gossett Jr. in Sadat, a 1983 miniseries on Egyptian President Anwar Sadat; Robert Blake in Blood Feud, about Jimmy Hoffa and Robert F. Kennedy; and Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance.

His programs won more than 35 Emmy Awards and include the long-running shows Entertainment Tonight; Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous; Fame, Fortune and Romance;[8] Solid Gold; and Star Search.

They have been credited with persuading the producers of Baywatch and Pacific Blue to film in Hawaii, and they brought the Miss Universe 1998 Pageant to the Stan Sheriff Arena, along with delegations and news media from 85 countries.