It’s hard to believe now, but it took until 1996 for the broadcast networks to finally hire their first-ever female entertainment president, when ABC recruited Jamie Tarses away from NBC to take the job. There had been a handful of other women in powerful slots, including Lucie Salhany, who was briefly chair of the Fox Broadcasting Co. before launching UPN. But until streaming upended the business, “entertainment president” was the most visible, and arguably the most important, leadership job at a network. And until Tarses, it had been all men.
Tarses’ rise at ABC coincided with the start of my career as a cub reporter, covering the network TV business in Los Angeles, and one of my first duties was to chronicle the tenure of the young trailblazer. But from the start, Tarses was faced with many in Hollywood looking to tear her down — be it rivals jealous of her age, or the sexism that persists today but was still rampant in 1996.
Tarses was the wunderkind who was behind much of NBC’s “Must See TV” success, including “Friends” and “Frasier” — and she came from TV royalty, as her father Jay Tarses is a well-known TV writer (“The Bob Newhart Show,” “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd”). It’s easy to forget now, but Tarses’ rise also fueled the moment that the networks’ chase for young demographics kicked into high gear. Household ratings suddenly didn’t matter anymore, as the “Friends” phenomenon led webheads to focus their efforts on the elusive adults 18-49 bracket. And Tarses was a demo whisperer: ABC, struggling in the ratings, hoped to regain some luster by bringing in a new crop of young-skewing series to the network — especially comedy.
She delivered. 1997 wasn’t much of a successful year for broadcast TV, but the few shows that succeeded included ABC’s “Dharma & Greg” and “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.” Tarses, however, was frequently second-guessed by then-ABC Inc. president Bob Iger — a former ABC Entertainment president himself — and felt stifled by Iger’s insistence to bring in chairmen above her, as if she couldn’t handle the job on her own.
And then there was that infamous New York Times Magazine piece. Just days before ABC’s summer 1997 Television Critics Association press tour, Lynn Hirschberg’s opus “Jamie Tarses’ Fall, As Scheduled,” published. Hirschberg was given free reign at ABC, and what she came back with was unflattering, to say the least. It churned the rumor mill, leading to what may still be the most raucous and crowded press tour executive session in history.
Tarses kept a low profile at the tour until then, avoiding other panels and steering clear of the network’s evening events. When she did make a brief appearance, either to use the restroom or travel to her room, a number of reporters tried to chase her down. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before or after at TCA.
When it finally came time for the exec session, with Tarses and ABC entertainment chairman Stu Bloomberg, the panel itself was mostly calm. Tarses called the media coverage of it all “rather peculiar,” and it was.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety