Prior to that Kaplan was the creator and executive producer of the ABC News magazine , '' Primetime Live '' from 1989 to 1994 . The program became one of the leading news magazines on television , regularly finishing in the top ten of all programs in his final three years there . The trademark of '' Primetime Live '' became investigative journalism with award-winning broadcasts focusing on child care , racism in the United States , slavery in the Caribbean , unsanitary and dishonest food handling by the major grocery chain Food Lion and the abuse of patients seeking pap smears and mammograms . '' Primetime Live '' also distinguished itself in its on-the-scene live coverage of such landmark news events as the Gulf War , the historic opening of the Berlin Wall , the 1989 San Francisco earthquake and the 1992 Los Angeles riots . In 1990 , he produced exclusive tour of the White House and the Kremlin for '' Primetime Live '' , and later produced ABC 's exclusive coverage of the final days of Mikhail Gorbachev ’s presidency . At the same time he produced '' Primetime Live '' , Kaplan was one of the producers and on-scene coordinators of the ABC News coverage of the Gulf War from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait . In September 1991 , he was the executive producer of the historic ABC News Town Meeting in which Soviet leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin appeared together live from the Kremlin , to answer questions from Americans viewing in studios in cities across America . Prior to joining '' Primetime Live '' , Kaplan created and was executive producer of '' Capital to Capital '' , a series of programs which marked the first live exchanges between members of Congress and high-ranking officials at the Kremlin . He was also the executive producer of '' Viewpoint '' , the ABC News forum for criticism and analysis of broadcast journalism and of '' The Koppel Report ''
1989 San Francisco earthquake
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
Rick Kaplan