John “J.B.” Moranville, a veteran TV producer whose credits range from Dynasty and Vega$ to the CW’s upcoming Archie Comics-based drama Riverdale, died Saturday. Sources confirmed the news to Deadline, but no details were provided.
Moranville was the line producer on Riverdale, which is slated for midseason on the CW. Set in the present day, the series is described as a surprising and subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends that explores the surrealism of small-town life — the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome façade.
Moranville started his career in the late 1970s as an associate producer on NBC’s short-lived quiz show Whodunnit? He followed that with a two-season stint on ABC’s Robert Ulrich drama Vega$ and later was associate producer on more than 100 episodes of the primetime soap Dynasty. That series was an instant hit and went on to spend four seasons in the primetime top 10. It was TV’s most-watched program in the 1984-85 season, Moranville’s last with the ABC series.
His next big series gig was ABC’s MacGyver, serving as associate producer in 1988-89 then graduating to co-producer and finally producer for the series final season on 1991-92. Moranville also co-produced a pair of MacGyver telepics starring Richard Dean Anderson in the mid-’90s.
Moranville later was a producer on such ’90s series as Robin’s Hoods, University Hospital and Profit and was a co-producer or producer for four of Pacific Blue‘s five seasons. In the new millennium, he worked on the series Drive, Crash, Lone Star, Cult, Crisis and Red Band Society.
