Iger seems certain of Tarses, certain of the future. ''Jamie thinks I'm her boyfriend,'' Iger later told a friend. A new ad appears. The newest ABC star-to-be, Jenna Elfman, from ''Dharma and Greg,'' wanders by and embraces Tarses. Perhaps he is right, the show isn't really as good as she imagines. FRIENDS executive Jamie Tarses has died at just 56 after reportedly suffering from complications following a cardiac event. It's all new.' They have three children. Robert Iger, who had also recommended Tarses, was supportive of the choice. Last year, Eisner, who is very hard to please, beat Harbert up about his chosen shows. The Tarses family said donations can be made in her honor to the Young Storytellers project. Whether or not the charges were true, Tarses' timing smacked of opportunism. Less than 24 hours after dining with her parents and Morton, Tarses got the news that Bloomberg was being brought in above her. ABC has very few 8 P.M. hits, and without 8 P.M. hits to hook a viewer for the evening, a network cannot succeed in the ratings. '' After leaving ABC, Tarses worked on several other series over the years, including Happy Endings and most recently Amazon's The Wilds. Be competitive, but don't be arrogant. ''Why were you watching CBS?'' Tarses and her staff arrive on May 10 for a series of crucial meetings. When Tarses was hired by ABC, at an estimated salary of $2 million a year for five years, ABC had a rather vague identity: rural- and family-oriented in the half-hour comedies (''Roseanne'') and tougher and more adventurous in the hourlong dramas (''N.Y.P.D. By far, the most important aspect of any network executive's job is developing shows for the fall lineup. As a well-reputed producer and TV executive, Jamie Tarses has a beautifully written biography on Wikipedia. I love television, I really do.. She is said to have provided him with the idea, claiming that she had been sexually harassed by Don Ohlmeyer, NBC's West Coast president. She graduated from Massachusetts Williams College in 1985 with a degree in theater, and quickly scored a low-profile job as an assistant on Saturday Night Live, followed by a stint as casting director for Lorimar Productions. But their job descriptions overlapped, and in January of this year Harbert decided to exercise his six-month option. In 1998, ABC hosted more than 100 television critics and entertainment journalists from across the United States at a promotional event in Pasadena, California. To ABC, Tarses represented youth and, more important, a key to the secrets of NBC, the No. But the same could be said about any guy in Hollywood especially then and none of them had the added pressure of breaking a glass ceiling., Jamie Tarses, Executive in a Hollywood Rise-and-Fall Story, Dies at 56, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/business/media/jamie-tarses-dead.html. Blue.'' '', The Men in Tarses' Life: Ovitz, Morton and Harbert. she couldn't do the suit part of the job. To some, she was the victim of a misogynistic television industry. Every year, for two weeks in mid-May, the entire Los Angeles television community -- agents, studio heads, producers, network executives, writers, actors, assorted entourages -- fly to New York for the unveiling of the fall schedules. She sounds almost convinced. And she is not wrong to be worried. He also fought for ''Twin Peaks'' and ''N.Y.P.D. When she left ABC following another management shift in 1999, Tarses sounded relieved to be moving on, telling the Los Angeles Times regarding the constant speculation and rumors about behind-the-scenes friction, I just dont want to play anymore. After graduation, in 1985, she spent a year as a production assistant on ''Saturday Night Live'' in New York, then went back to Los Angeles and joined the casting department at Lorimar, working on shows like ''Perfect Strangers.'' Jamie Tarses, the first-ever woman to oversee programming at a major broadcast network, died on Monday, the New York Times reports. It is true that Hollywood can be sexist, and it is difficult to be the first woman anything, and turning around ABC would be a tough job for anybody. With Harbert gone, Tarses was now clearly in charge of the entertainment division -- but she was also, for the first time, without protection nearby. The work is a blast, she told the Los Angeles Times after her departure from ABC in 1999. Her voice trails off. In later roles, she helped grow hit NBC comedies like Friends and Frasier. The role of Jamie Buchman ultimately came down to two people: Hunt and Teri Hatcher. Tarses was a television executive who developed and worked. Tarses was only 32 when she was named president of ABC Entertainment in June 1996. We will miss her greatly. Just two weeks before, the rumor was that Stuart Bloomberg was being brought from New York to supervise Tarses. ''I didn't get Wednesday night at 10, and ABC will be blocked from being a very successful network until they launch another 10 P.M. hit. Unlike Harbert, Tarses lacked management skills. A veteran television executive, Stuart Bloomberg, was installed above Tarses. It was the professional thing to do. Young, striking and powerful, Jamie Tarses has embodied the glamorous face of the media business since she was appointed president of ABC Entertainment three years ago. As an executive and producer, she was a champion for storytellers, having been raised by one of the all-timegreats, Burke said. And sometimes she hates my advice, but it's her division to run. axis, which scores in ratings and thrills the sponsors. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. He talks, but she doesn't seem to hear. Her age, with her status as the first woman to have that prestigious job, resulted in an unusual amount of scrutiny, often negative. ''We're not loud enough about stuff,'' Tarses says, staring at the long list of potential sweeps programming. Jamie Tarses died in Los Angeles on February 1, 2021, at age 56, according to Tarses' family. ''. The charges were leaked to the press, and instantly, to many in the television community, Tarses went from being a rising star to someone who would do anything to get ahead. She had invented a new. Iger now had to convince her to accept essentially the same job she had had at NBC -- No. ''The Laybourne rumors created something of a backlash,'' she says. Morton was reportedly given a two-year, $2-million-a-year production deal, and those in the business were amazed. Prominent members of the TV community, along with members of her own staff, have rattled off their grievances to Iger, and he is starting to worry: maybe Tarses is not the one. The complaints were, immediate and loud: she didn't return phone calls; she didn't encourage her staff; she couldn't figure out how to integrate her sensibility. The cause of death was heart complications from a cardiac event last fall, according to a family statement. Iger looks the part. But she fizzles in epic fashion, brought down by corporate dysfunction, unvarnished sexism, self-sabotage, weaponised industry gossip and scalding news media scrutiny. Jamie Tarses, Executive in a Hollywood Rise-and-Fall Story, Dies at 56She broke barriers as a woman in the TV industry and turned out hit after hit, only to . [20] Later, she had a company called FanFare Productions at Sony Pictures Television. 'Grace Under Fire' isn't performing, and to go naked into both Tuesday and Wednesday night next season really scares me,'' Tarses says. Jamie Tarses, Trailblazing TV Exec, Dies at 56 Sara James Tarses (March 16, 1964 February 1, 2021) was an American television producer and television studio executive. . The family moved to suburban Los Angeles, where her father became a successful sitcom writer (first on The Bob Newhart Show). She was a mentor and friend, and many of us owe so much to her. Jamie had a stroke during the fall of 2020 and died in Los Angeles. Ms. Tarses attended Williams College in Massachusetts, studying play structure and receiving a theater degree in 1985. She had smarts, drive, family connections, money, the mentor everyone wished they had, very good looks, absolutely everything going for her, Mr. Mandel said. She joined NBC in 1987 in the current comedy programming division (shows already on the air), where she monitored scripts for shows such as Cheers and A Different World, starring Lisa Bonet. First the sexual harassment charges; now this. Such was the show business life of Jamie Tarses, who died on Monday in Los Angeles at 56. He was pursuing this plan with Robert Morton, the longtime executive producer of Letterman's show. Co. network. Vicious infighting ensued, what The Wall Street Journal later deemed a case study in dysfunctional corporate relationships.. Once Tarses accepted Ovitz's offer to go to ABC, there was the matter of her existing contract. I want to stand for quality across the board. Tarses was a consultant on another Sorkin show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a 2006 NBC drama set inside a Saturday Night Live-type sketch comedy show. This in reference to Jamie Tarses, a producer on The Wilds who passed away. She climbed the corporate ladder at NBC until 1996. From the first, no one believed that the marriage of Harbert and Tarses would work. So were cable channels. She knows that ABC badly needs a ratings boost -- last week the network nearly sank into fourth place, behind Fox, which has seven fewer hours of prime-time programming each week. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press). Bader still looks surprised. In addition to her brother, Matt, Tarses is survived by her partner, Paddy Aubrey, a chef and restaurateur; their two children, Wyatt and Sloane; her parents; and a sister, Mallory Tarses, a teacher and fiction writer. Her death was confirmed by a family spokeswoman, who said the cause was complications from a cardiac event. She suffered a stroke in the fall and had spent a long period in a coma. ''I don't want to sound silly -- this will be difficult. And still, if they succeed it's something of a losing battle: network viewer erosion is inevitable. Some things are just goofs. Within a few hours of meeting her, I felt like Id known her for years, said longtime friend and collaborator Gabrielle Allan-Greenberg, in the family's statement. It is not a surprise that the producer has accumulated a net worth of multi-million dollars. ''It's a job where you get to say yes or no a lot,'' says Ted Harbert, whom Tarses replaced as president for entertainment at ABC. Still, Jamie Tarses is not just any woman, and the criticisms of her are personal and specific: it is this 33-year-old, this woman, with her mix of insecurity and ambition, confidence and. ''Don't worry. Did Jamie Tarses have a stroke? It is also true that women -- some women -- have succeeded in Hollywood. While still hugely profitable, the big three networks can no longer be complacent and are scrambling for solutions. She runs paranoid scenarios through her mind, over and over. Nicholas writes and edits anywhere between 7 to 9 stories per day on average for PEOPLE, spanning across each vertical the brand covers. Bader tries to convince Tarses that they can promote this last ''Roseanne'' episode, turn it into an event, but Tarses is not buying his pitch. Her last project, The Mysterious Benedict Society, is currently listed as in post-production for the Disney+ streaming service. Three years ago, Jamie Tarses arrived at ABC television as a 32-year-old The article, which pointedly discussed Ms. Tarsess hairstyle and feminine way of sitting, helped color the rest of Ms. Tarsess career. LOS ANGELES A young, female executive arrives in the mens locker room that was broadcast television in the 1990s and snaps a few towels of her own, working with writers to shape juggernaut comedies like Mad About You and Friends. She is so good at spotting hits that she becomes, at 32, the president of entertainment at ABC, the first woman ever to serve as a networks top programmer. ABC badly needed fresh hit shows, and Ms. Tarses, who had worked at NBC, had a reputation for serving up a steady supply especially zeitgeist-tapping sitcoms. Tarses grew up in the business -- her father, Jay Tarses, created, among other groundbreaking shows, ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,'' the first so-called dramedy. michael fishman yankees salary . [12][13][14] She resigned in August 1999 with two years remaining on her contract. A lot of it was pure sexism, said Betsy Thomas, a screenwriter and friend. Jamie Tarses' end, many in the business believe, was written in the beginning -- in how she got her job at ABC. Or silently suffering through another attack. Can't tell me? She ultimately resigned in 1999. She is small and dark and is wearing black pants and a tan blazer, the sleeves of which have been hastily hemmed with safety pins. "Women are emotional,. I've got a billion brain cells. Tarses helped pave the way for female creatives, as she was the first . She doesn't want anyone to know she smokes. ''She forgets that I'm her boss.''. ''If they didn't want me to schedule, they wouldn't have given me the job.''. 4 Jamie Tarses has passed away after a cardiac arrest Credit: GETTY IMAGES But if we fail, I'm sure Iger will not get the blame.''. Not only Jamie Tarses worries. ''Look,'' she says, putting out her cigarette, ''I come to the party not being the most trusting person in the world, but I have to believe in the work. It is an afternoon in early may, near the end of pilot season, the frantic time when TV executives decide on their schedules of shows for the fall, and Jamie Tarses, the 33-year-old president of ABC Entertainment, is driving her Range Rover from her office in Century City to a meeting across town. It should be an easy day, a typical pilot-season day like the ones she had, and was fond of, at NBC. Jamie Tarses answers questions at the Television Critics Assn. Tarses soon after she was appointed president of ABC Entertainment in 1996. 2 in network entertainment -- though with a better title. To some, she was the victim of a misogynistic television industry. My father hated executives, Tarses said. She might try magazines. ", Photo: Greg Doherty/Patrick McMullan via Getty, Richard Belzer, 'Law & Order: SVU' Star, Dead at 78. Networks, especially third-place networks, are impatient. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. .'' Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Women are emotional, and Jamie is particularly emotional, one male agent, speaking anonymously, was quoted as saying. She had smarts, drive, family connections, money, the mentor everyone wished they had, very good looks, absolutely everything going for her, Mr. Mandel said. He had his own problems, receiving sometimes 10, 12 calls a day from Eisner asking about this show or that cost. Amanda Peets portrayal of the character of Jordan McDeere, president of the fictional network where the show airs, was shaped by Tarses and her own experiences as a female executive in a male-dominated business. Tarses had made it through scheduling and then a meeting with the affiliates in Florida. She can't reach him and checks the time. Let her do her job.''. ", "Jamie Tarses Dies: Trailblazing TV Executive & Producer Was 56", "Tarses-Morton Split Blamed for Sitcom Downfall", "Jamie Tarses, Executive in a Hollywood Rise-and-Fall Story, Dies at 56", "Jamie Tarses, first female TV network entertainment head, dies at 56", "Fox Developing Family Comedy 'Bastards' From 'Butter' Scribe", "Amazon Studios Names Full Cast of 'Really' Comedy Pilot From Jay Chandrasekhar and Jamie Tarses", "Milwaukee's new show now called "Backyards and Bullets", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jamie_Tarses&oldid=1134947833, This page was last edited on 21 January 2023, at 17:30. Iger can leave her alone for only so long. She had two children, Wyatt and Sloane, with her partner Paddy Aubrey, an executive chef and restaurant owner. She worries that she has earned few allies inside ABC, which, as her first season with the network reaches its end and she prepares her first fall schedule, is still mired in third place behind NBC and CBS -- mired and sinking. A superstar TV executive, Tarses was instrumental in developing such iconic shows as NBC's Friends and Frasier and reached the pinnacle of the network . As an executive and producer, she was a champion for storytellers, having been raised by one of the all-time greats. The rest of the room is spare -- the chairs and tables are light-pine country-cozy, there are two overstuffed couches covered in pink chintz and there's a very big TV. It's another afternoon in May, and Tarses is trying to deal with the usual array of job-threatening problems. Jamie Tarses, the first woman to run a network entertainment division, died Monday morning due to complications from a cardiac event she suffered last fall. ''You can discuss the pros and cons of every show only so many times, and then you have to render a decision. But Bochco's letter to Iger is a rather typical Hollywood-style power play. ", Betsy Thomas, a friend and collaborator, also shared a statement, noting, "Jamie had such a true love for movies, television, theater, books and ideas that both transcended her work and absolutely inspired it. She asked why, and Iger told her, simply, that she needed the help. Tarses attended Williams College in Massachusetts, studying play structure and receiving a theatre degree in 1985. Jamie Tarses, who broke the glass ceiling for female TV executives as the first woman to run a network entertainment division, passed away this morning from complications stemming from a. With Jamie, it's more like dating.''. Such was the show business life of Jamie Tarses, who died on Monday . At 32 she was named president of entertainment at ABC, the first woman ever to serve as a networks top programmer. ), After graduating from Williams College, she started her career in 1985 as an assistant at "Saturday Night Live" andmoved to NBC Entertainment two years later, where she helped developiconic TV shows including "Friends" and "Mad About You. ''Take this calendar and peruse it,'' Bader says. ''That appeals to every network.'' She fought hard for her shows -- lobbying successfully for ''Friends'' when the network failed to see its potential, picking up ''Third Rock From the Sun'' when ABC didn't put it on the air. He began talking to Ms. Tarses about taking over ABC. We will miss her greatly.. Tarses is survived by her partner, Paddy Aubrey, and their two children. It's the worst trait you can have. Already, perhaps, she sees that whatever shows she signs up, whatever schedule she devises for the fall, things are not going to work out for her at ABC. Not long before Harbert left, Ovitz was fired from Disney after only 14 months. And the final call on many of these things is her call. [2][7][9] In 1991, she passed on her father's pilot about jazz musicians, called Baltimore. Iger knows that turning ABC around will be difficult. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Tom Sizemore puts on brave face in his final red carpet appearance, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dead at 61 after brain aneurysm, Coley Laffoon honors late ex-wife Anne Heche in birthday post to son, Forensic expert doubts homicide claims from Aaron Carters mother. Although popular with writers and producers, Bloomberg can be awkward with more corporate types. '', ''Oh, good,'' Tarses says. She was 56. [5], Tarses graduated from Williams College in 1985[6] with a degree in theater. Disney had just acquired the company for $19 billion from Capital-Cities/ABC, and the Disney people, including its chairman and C.E.O., Michael Eisner, who had once been an executive at ABC, had no real blueprint for how to get the failing network to No. Jay Tarses was born on July 3, 1939 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. During his years as head of Creative Artists Agency, which he built into the most powerful talent agency in Hollywood, Ovitz had mastered the art of extricating clients from long-term contracts and wasn't overly concerned. Tarses had a stroke in the fall of 2020, spent time in a coma, and then died in Los Angeles on February 1, 2021, at age 56 from what a family spokesperson called "complications of a cardiac event". ''You know what looked good?'' During Tarses tenure at ABC, the networks successes included hit sitcom Dharma & Greg, writer-producer Aaron Sorkins Sports Night, The Practice from David E. Kelley and Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, which introduced actor Ryan Reynolds. Blue''). (Photo by Greg Doherty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images). Iger, after all, has his own boss to placate, and Eisner is not happy with how the network is performing. Jamie Tarses, a fast-rising television executive who shepherded hit NBC comedies such as "Friends" and "Frasier" to prime-time success, then spent three tumultuous years at ABC as the first. ''It's been a year and there are still the rumors. She was 56. Disney's original thought had been to give the network a more conspicuously family-oriented identity. Customer Service. Sara James Tarses (March 19, 1964 - February 1, 2021) was an American television producer and television studio executive. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, How NBCs Must See TV risk takers of the 90s are still launching groundbreaking TV. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. ABC badly needed fresh hit shows and Tarses, who had worked at NBC, had a reputation for serving up a steady supply especially zeitgeist-tapping sitcoms. Iger simply didn't have the time to coddle or protect Tarses. True or not, it's history. [2][28] She was a volunteer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. HBO was moving into original programming with shows such as Sex and the City, further diluting the talent pool. Ms. Tarses (pronounced TAR-siss) broke a Hollywood glass ceiling in 1996, when she became president of ABC Entertainment. A young, female executive arrives in the mens locker room that was broadcast television in the 1990s and snaps a few towels of her own, working with writers to shape juggernaut comedies such as Mad About You and Friends. ABC stars were also invited, including a young Ryan Reynolds, then appearing on a sitcom called Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. Roseanne could sing it.'' She accepted, but some of the fizz had gone out of it all. Then, as part of a restructuring, yet another manager, Lloyd Braun, was placed over her in what was essentially a demotion. And nothing will make the decision for you and nobody wants the responsibility, so there's a lot of stalling going on. Others stubbornly viewed her as a callous climber. At NBC she had served up a steady supply of hit sitcoms, including Mad About You, Frasier and Friends.. [15], In 2005, Tarses partnered on a production company called Pariah Productions with producer Gavin Polone. Tarses stares a second, as if to say, What did I do now? She broke barriers as a woman in the TV industry and turned out hit after hit, only to see it all fizzle under a very public spotlight. Still, he says that he plans to stand by her. She seems surprisingly calm discussing this a few days later over dinner at Gabriel's, not far from ABC's offices in New York. a case study in dysfunctional corporate relationships. It doesn't matter. He has the confidence of a man who is accustomed to good fortune. He was busy defending himself. The industry trailblazers family confirmed her passing, Deadline reported. [18][19] Tarses was a consultant for Studio 60. Another meeting is about to begin, so she'll have to attend to this Laybourne mess later. Survivors include her partner, Paddy Aubrey, and their two children. ''Jamie was an excellent developer of shows,'' says Littlefield, her former boss. Iger asked during a conversation about that period. After working as an assistant on NBC's Saturday Night Live, Tarses went on to a role as casting director for Lorimar Productions. But I put her in that job because I believe she has taste that's consistent with what this company would expect and stand for. There are shows that copy the success of other shows (last year, CBS succeeded with spiritual dramas, so ABC ordered ''Nothing Sacred,'' a pilot about an irreverent priest) and those that are TV versions of feature films -- among ABC's pilots are ''The Player,'' and ''Genie,'' seemingly inspired by the Robin Williams character in ''Aladdin.'' Did you encounter any technical issues? The ads seem to discourage viewing; they seem to emphasize why TV is, in fact, bad, and they don't successfully replace ABC's old-fashioned image with anything concrete. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Only 32 when she was recruited by then-Disney executive Michael Ovitz in a move that angered executives at NBC, Tarses received inordinate media attention, including a New York Times magazine profile in which she surprised her bosses by allowing the reporter, Lynn Hirschberg, to unknowingly listen in on her calls with them.