Brandon Tartikoff
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| Brandon Tartikoff | |
| Born | January 13, 1949 Freeport, New York |
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| Died | August 27, 1997 (aged 48) Los Angeles, California |
Brandon Tartikoff (January 13, 1949 — August 27, 1997) was a popular NBC executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St. Elsewhere, Night Court, Hunter, Highway to Heaven, Matlock, Remington Steele, A Different World, 227 and Empty Nest.
Tartikoff also helped develop Punky Brewster, for which he named the title character after a girl he had a crush on in school. Brandon, the pet dog on Punky Brewster, was named after Tartikoff. He was also involved in the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Beggars and Choosers.
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[edit] Early life and career
Born in Freeport, New York, Tartikoff was a graduate of the Lawrenceville School and Yale University, and started his career at WLS-TV in Chicago, Illinois. While attending Yale, Tartikoff worked as an account executive and sales manager of WNHC-TV in New Haven, Connecticut and Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale, he took a series of jobs in advertising and local television. Tartikoff spent vacations in Los Angeles looking for a job in network television.
His parents were both survivors of the collision of two 747s on Tenerife, Canary Islands in 1977. (Newsweek 3/1977)
[edit] Career at NBC
His big break came when he was hired as a program executive at ABC in 1976. One year later, he moved to NBC (after being hired by Dick Ebersol to direct comedy programming). Tartikoff took over programming duties at NBC from Fred Silverman in 1981. At the age of 30, Tartikoff became the youngest-ever president of NBC's entertainment division.
NBC was in turmoil when Tartikoff took over. A writers' strike was looming, affiliates were defecting and the network had just three prime time shows in the Top 20: Little House on the Prairie, Diff'rent Strokes and Real People). Trouble loomed elsewhere on the schedule. Johnny Carson was reportedly in talks to move his show to ABC. The entire cast and writers of Saturday Night Live left the show, and their replacements had plunged the show into what is still considered its worst period. Fortunately, Tartikoff's new boss was Grant Tinker - the quality driven producer who had built MTM Productions into a powerhouse. The two brought a string of classics to the small screen, some with the most unlikely inspiration.
Tartikoff was impressed by Bill Cosby's stories while guest hosting the Tonight Show, leading him to pursue Cosby's pilot for The Cosby Show.
Once at a meeting, Tartikoff wrote down "MTV Cops" on a napkin and handed it to Michael Mann. The result was Miami Vice.
Johnny Carson broke the news of his retirement in February 1991 to Tartikoff at the Grille in Beverly Hills. For several days only Tartikoff and, at the time, NBC Chairman Bob Wright knew of the planned retirement.
Knight Rider was inspired by a perceived lack of leading men who could act - Tartikoff suggested a talking car could fill in the gaps in any leading man's acting abilities.
During the casting process of Family Ties, Tartikoff was unexcited about getting Michael J. Fox for the role of Alex P. Keaton. However, the show's producer, Gary David Goldberg, insisted until Tartikoff relented. Tartikoff said, "Go ahead if you insist. But I'm telling you, this is not the kind of face you'll ever see on a lunch box". Some years later, after Back to the Future, Michael J. Fox sent Tartikoff a lunch box that had Fox's picture on it with a note inside reading "To Brandon: This is for you to put your crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox." Tartikoff kept the lunch box in his office for the rest of his career.
Tartikoff famously wrote in his memoirs that his biggest professional regret was cancelling the show Buffalo Bill, which he later went on to include in a fantasy "dream schedule" created for a TV Guide article which detailed his idea of "The Greatest Network Ever" – right alongside more conventional classics like I Love Lucy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Cheers.
[edit] Appearances on NBC's shows
During his time at NBC, he made appearances in several of the network's shows. He hosted Saturday Night Live in 1983 and appeared as himself in an episode of Saved by the Bell, where, very tongue-in-cheek, he shortly entertains the notion of a "show about a high school principal and his kids," before scoffing at the idea. During his 1983 appearance on Saturday Night Live, one skit featured Tartikoff in a black leather ensemble, with the words "Be There" spelled out in rhinestones on the back of his jacket. "Be There" was NBC's slogan during the 1983 - 1984 season, a fitting example of clever hidden advertising. He also appeared as himself in episodes of Night Court and ALF, and in the background of one of the final episodes of Cheers. David Leisure also played Tartikoff in an episode of ALF.
[edit] Post-NBC career
He left NBC in 1991, moving to Paramount Pictures to become its chairman. A year later, Brandon left that post to spend more time with his daughter, Calla, who was seriously injured in a car crash near the family's Lake Tahoe home.
In 1994, he made his comeback to national TV with Last Call, a short-lived late-night discussion show he produced. That same year he also produced The Steven Banks Show for PBS. Later that year, he began a brief run as chairman of New World Entertainment. Just prior to his death, Tartikoff served as the chairman of the AOL project "Entertainment Asylum", for which he teamed with internet pioneer Scott Zakarin to build the world's first interactive broadcast studio.
[edit] Death
Tartikoff died on August 27, 1997 at the age of 48 from Hodgkin's Disease, with which he had three separate bouts over 25 years.
The Deep Space Nine episode "A Time to Stand" began with a title card reading "In memory of Brandon Tartikoff". A similar card appeared at the end of the ninth-season premiere, "The Butter Shave", of Seinfeld.
He was interred in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
[edit] Parodies
Tartikoff was parodied in the 1989-1990 CBS series The Famous Teddy Z as network president "Landon Tarmac."
[edit] Wife and Kids
Tartikoff was married with 2 daughters. Wife Lilly Tartikoff and daughter Calla own a restaurant in West LA called Colony Cafe.
[edit] External links
- Brandon Tartikoff at the Internet Movie Database
- Brandon Tartikoff article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- BRANDON AT THE BAT
- News for Brandon Tartikoff
- The Two-Edged Legacy of Brandon Tartikoff
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