PAT MITCHELL, FMR. PRES., CNN PRODUCTIONS: I have had the opportunity to do some absolutely fabulous projects at CNN and CNN Productions, but probably I would have to list "COLD WAR" as among the most challenging, as well as the most rewarding projects. How many times do you get to create 24 hours of television and see it broadcast all over the world? You begin a project like the "COLD WAR" with a lot of research and a lot of experts. We assembled a team under the direction of Sir Jeremy Isaacs, a world-renowned documentarian. The first thing Jeremy and I did was assemble a group of historians, historians from nearly every country. We wanted all of the parties whose lives were impacted and whose country's history was changed by the Cold War to be represented in this project. We knew we had to interview close to 600 world leaders, or at least that was our goal, and we ended up with 597. "COLD WAR" took 3 1/2 years from start to finish. We took the time we needed to tell the story right and to tell it from a global perspective. When you have worked on something that long, there is a particular kind of thrill when you finally see it go out and you know that it is going out to potentially one billion people.
CNN 20: Pat Mitchell, Cold War Series