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Biography is a documentary television show. It was first a half-hour film series for CBS that was made by David Wolper and hosted by Mike Wallace from 1961 to 1964. Later, the A&E Network started showing it again, and they've been making new episodes since 1987. In the older version, there were historical figures like Helen Keller and Mark Twain, as well as long-dead entertainers like Will Rogers and John Barrymore. The A&E series has focused on Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Plácido Domingo, Freddie Mercury, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Eric Clapton, Pope John Paul II, Gene Tierney, Selena, Diego Rivera, Mao Zedong, and Queen Elizabeth II, as well as fictional characters like The Phantom, Superman, Hamlet, Betty Boop, and Santa Claus. The show ended up profiling so many people that in 1999, A&E turned it into a whole network called The Biography Channel. At first, most of the episodes focused on the lives of historical figures or current political or social leaders. People including William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Enrico Caruso, and Eva Peron were highlighted. After a few years, however, the show started making episodes about people from pop culture, such as Britney Spears, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, and Marilyn Manson. Some people have said that this move away from purely intellectual topics is a bad thing.