Quinn Martin (May 22, 1922 - September 6, 1987 ), born Irwin Cohn, blank">Quinn Martin at NNDB. was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one program running in prime time for 21 straight years (from 1959 to 1980), an industry record. Quinn Martin at the _Museum of Broadcast Communications. Note: Aaron Spelling holds the Guinness Book of World Records for Most Prolific TV Drama Producer, having produced more than 3,800 hours of television programming.

A 1949 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Martin started his career in television as a film editor at MGM, but by the mid-1950's had become an executive producer for Desilu Studios. His first wife, Madelyn Pugh Davis, was one half of the writing team behind Desilu's classic, I Love Lucy.

In 1960, Martin established his own production company, QM Productions. He sold it in 1978 and worked as an adjunct professor at the University of California, San Diego's Warren College, where he also endowed a chair in Drama. He also established a scholarship for theater arts and communications students at Santa Clara University.

During the early 1970s QM Productions through its owner Quinn Martin dominated the action adventure television series genre. At one time QM produced more hours of network television programs per week than any other independent production company. Pe rhaps one of Martin's most lasting contributions to the genre was developing and perfecting the formula for the one hour television drama-- the number of acts, the number of "beats" of action per act and the ability to end the act on a cliffhanger for the commercial break thereby assuring that the audience would stay tuned through the commercial.