1985
After a decade of producing award-winning commercials and industrial films, Ross Bagwell, Sr. and his son, Ross Bagwell, Jr., take a huge risk with their Knoxville-based advertising agency, Bagwell Communications, and agree to produce a sitcom for the Nashville Network - a challenge that was unheard of at a time when cable television was in its infancy.
The risk pays off. Bagwell forms Cinetel Productions and goes on to produce 415 episodes of "I-40 Paradise," cable television's first sitcom. Over the next decade, Bagwell grows the company to be one of the largest independent cable production programming facilities in the Southeast.
Cinetel develops and produces programming for A&E, The History Channel, Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Travel Channel, Nickelodeon, and The Nashville Network.