Linda Ellerbee first achieved recognition as a national political reporter, then as the Emmy award-winning anchor of NBC News Overnight and ABC’s Our World. After leaving the networks, Ellerbee and Tessem began Lucky Duck in 1987 by producing episodes of Smithsonian World for PBS. In 1992, after producing several children’s specials for Nickelodeon, the idea for a weekly news magazine show for kids was born. “I wanted a show that encouraged kids to think and to question,” Ellerbee said. Nick News, now in its twentieth year, has won every award traditionally associated with adult programming, including three Peabody Awards (plus a personal one for Ellerbee and Nick News’ coverage of the Clinton investigation), a duPont Columbia Award and seven Emmys, including the 2009 Emmy for Coming Home: When Parents Return From War. Also in 2009, Nick News received the Edward R. Murrow Award for best Network News Documentary, making history as the first-ever kids’ television program to receive this prestigious award.

Ellerbee and Tessem began to expand the company by producing primetime specials for broadcast and cable networks. The ABC special The Other Epidemic: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Breast Cancer and the Lifetime special Ms. Smith Goes to Washington were both produced in 1993. Smart Sex, an MTV special involving relationships and AIDS followed in 1994. Those specials brought more critical and ratings success to Lucky Duck, and from 1997 to 1999, the number of primetime specials produced by the company soared. These included: All Star Moms (a Mother’s Day special) for CBS; Uncommon Americans, a series of specials for A&E; Shoot the Clock (about women balancing their time) for Lifetime, Addicted for HBO, No Money, Mo’ Problems (focusing on twenty-somethings and money) for MTV, Life Afterlife (about communicating with the dead) for HBO, Kennedy Weddings, Royal Weddings and Greatest Hollywood Weddings for Lifetime. And to date, Lucky Duck has produced more than 40 Intimate Portraits for Lifetime Television.

In 2000, Lucky Duck became one of the largest providers of programming for MSNBC, producing episodes of Headliners & Legends with Matt Lauer and five primetime documentaries. Lucky Duck also produced an A&E two-hour special on the oldest living conjoined sisters: Face To Face: The Story of the Schappell Sisters, which was nominated for Best Feature Documentary by the International Documentary Association. And Linda Ellerbee branched out into children’s books with the publication of Get Real, a series of eight novels written for middle school kids, published by HarperCollins and Avon Books. Ellerbee’s two previous books, And So It Goes and Move On, were both bestsellers. Ellerbee’s newest book, Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table, was released in May, 2005.

In 2001, Lucky Duck premiered The American Wedding, a two-hour special for A&E and continued its Weddings of a Lifetime series for Lifetime Television with Million Dollar Weddings and Brides of all Ages. In 2002, Lucky Duck premiered When I Was A Girl, for WE: Women’s Entertainment. The series went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Series. In 2003, Lucky Duck created and produced They Started On Soaps a primetime special for SOAPnet. That special was followed by five more installments for SOAPnet. In 2004, Feeding the Beast: the 24-hour News Revolution premiered on TRIO. Also in 2004, TV Movie Superstars: Women You Love premiered on Lifetime as part of the network's 20th anniversary celebration. In 2004, Lucky Duck produced Inside TV Land: Primetime Politics a humorous look at politics through the lens of primetime sitcoms and variety shows, and in 2005, Lucky Duck produced the acclaimed TV Land special Tickled Pink, a nostalgic and hilarious look back at primetime comedies the gay community has loved over the past 40 years.

In 2005, Lucky Duck added two more networks to its roster buy producing several specials for LOGO, the gay and lesbian network and a weekly series for Animal Planet. Quintessentially Queer Cinema and The OUT 100, two primetime specials for LOGO, helped launch the new channel in its first year. And The Animal Planet Report, a weekly news show about animals was added to Animal Planet’s primetime schedule.

“If Lucky Duck Productions has a mission for the future, is a simple one,” Ellerbee says. “We make first-rate television, and we’re going to keep on making first-rate television, because we have an advantage. We love what we do. And we’re good at it!”