Carlo Bixio was an exquisite and amusing person, sharp and intelligent. A great storyteller as well as a patient listener, an acute and disenchanted observer of the Italian television production scene (from 1993 to 2003 he was the Vice President of the Italian Television Producers Association (APT), returning to the post in 2005).
With Publispei he contributed to some unique seasons of Italian television entertainment, from the Sanremo Festivals in the roaring 80s, to the explosion of TV drama, producing some of Italy’s most successful series: “Un medico in famiglia”, “I Cesaroni”, “Tutti pazzi per amore” and “Lo zio d’America”.
We are using the past tense because Carlo Bixio passed away suddenly on the last day of February at just 69 years of age.
He was in “his” Milan, a city he was always happy to visit, even though he had been a “Roman” for many years.
He was the great grandson of Garibaldi’s famous general and the son of Cesare, one of the fathers of Italian popular music who wrote “Parlami d’amore Mariù”.
He came from a family with a great musical tradition and actually started off in that sector: at Edizioni Musicali Bixio, the family business. Restless and curious, he left the company to manage a theater.
He started producing some of the top Italian musicians of the 60s-70s who wrote famous soundtracks for some of our most important film directors.
This brought him closer to the movie industry: in the 70s he began producing movies like “Djamballa” and “Metti una sera a cena”. He got into television through the Sanremo Festival and his friendship with Pippo Baudo, and started producing TV programs: “Un disco per l’estate”, “Gran Premio” and “Numero Uno”. He subsequently discovered what was to become his true passion: drama.