Richard S. Kline, an Emmy-nominated producer, and director of news and game shows died Saturday in Connecticut following a long sickness, his wife Annabelle says. He was 79.

Born in New Haven, Kline served in the U.S. Armed force saves in the Sixties before leaving on a career in TV. He began at CBS in New York, functioning as a production supervisor on soap operas and CBS News communicates including coverage of Apollo 9 at Cape Canaveral with Walter Cronkite.

Kline left CBS to become an associate producer on The Dick Cavett Show and Betty White’s Pet Set, and afterward a director, producer and eventually partner at Barry & Enright Productions, which represented considerable authority in game shows. There, all through the Seventies, he directed as well as producing a wide variety of programming, from The Joker’s Wild and The New Tic Tac Dough to and a live international broadcast of the presidential introduction in 1981.

After the production organization’s eponymous Jack Barry died surprisingly in 1984, Kline left and began his shingle, Kline & Friends, Inc., which was behind Break the Bank, Strike It Rich, Win, Lose or Draw, The Marsha Warfield Show and Pictionary, among numerous other variety shows.

En route, Kline collected six Daytime Emmy nominations: for Win, Lose or Draw, outstanding game/audience participation show and excellent directing in a game or audience participation show in 1988 and 1989, and extraordinary game/audience participation show in 1990; and for Pictionary, exceptional audience participation show/game show in 1998.

He is survived by his wife Annabelle; his 15 kids, Staci, Jenifer, Kim, Beau, Jeremy, Jordan, Miguel, Korell, Samantha, Sasha, Logan, Cameron, Tatiana, Amy, and Emily; his sibling, Dr. Larry Kline; and various grandkids, nieces, nephews, and in-laws.