Sylvester "Pat" Weaver (born 1908) was responsible for some of the most innovative and entertaining programming on both radio and television. He saw radio through its infancy and then moved on to television. Weaver was the creative force behind Fred Allen's popular radio show Town Hall Tonight in the 1930s. As an executive with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the 1950s, he created such enduring programs as the Today show and the Tonight show.

Pat Weaver was born in Los Angeles on December 21, 1908, one of four children of Sylvester L. Weaver and Isabel Dixon Weaver. Weaver's father was a successful roofing manufacturer. As a young man, Weaver worked in his father's Los Angeles sales office and New York business office, but he did not enjoy the business.

In 1926, his father enrolled him at Dartmouth, despite Weaver's desire to attend Stanford. By the end of his freshman year, Weaver...