Disney CEO Bob Iger's new book reflects time as company's chief executive

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- In his newly released book, "The Ride of a Lifetime," Bob Iger reflects upon his 15 years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a 22-year old Iger used to make sure ABC soap opera sets were properly lit.

But since taking over as Disney CEO in 2005, we've watched Iger collect companies with high-quality content as if they were infinity stones.

Bob Iger's impressive e-ticket ride of a lifetime started at a small TV station back east. On "Good Morning America," we watched an old clip of Iger delivering the weather in Ithaca, New York so we asked him why he didn't pursue a career in TV news.

The Disney CEO responded, "I wanted that very much. In fact, I wanted to be a TV anchorman when I was in high school. But when I tried my hand or my face, however you want to put it, on-air, at a small station in upstate New York, I looked at the output and thought, 'There's no way I'm ever getting to Walter Cronkite's seat.'"

Iger's new book reveals insight into the mega-deals he brokered as Disney went out and bought Pixar for $7.4 billion, Marvel for $4.2 billion, Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion and 20th Century Fox for $71.3 billion.

We asked Iger, "Before you even started any of the negotiations, did you already envision the Pixar themes, the expanded Star Wars attractions and even Marvel universe at our theme parks? Or we're you primarily focused on the movies and programming the deals would bring?"

He answered, "Well when I got the job, I wanted to put most of our resources into great creativity, whether that was creativity in television or creativity in motion pictures or creativity in our theme park." Iger added, "I thought in a world where there's so much more choice, brands would matter and quality would matter."

Legendary ABC Wide World of Sports producer Roone Arledge once told Iger something which still applied today, "Innovate or die."

Iger believed the company needed to embrace technology to position itself for the future.

The new Disney Plus app will offer all of the companies' combined programming and will launch in November. Iger said, "We have great confidence it's the right product at the right time and will serve the interests of the company for a long time."

The 68-year old Iger expects to retire in December of 2021 but still had some unfinished business to tend to. He laughed as he explained, "I still wouldn't mind sitting in an anchor chair every once in a while but I don't think that's going to happen."

Bob Iger is the boss so don't count that out.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of this station.