Jamie Tarses
Born
Sara James Tarses

(1964-03-16)March 16, 1964
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
DiedFebruary 1, 2021(2021-02-01) (aged 56)
Los Angeles, California, US
Other namesJamie McDermott
Alma materWilliams College
Occupation(s)Producer
Studio executive
Years active1985–2021
Known forFriends
My Boys
Happy Endings
Spouse
Dan McDermott
​
​
(m. 1993; div. 1996)​
PartnerPaddy Aubrey
Children2
Parent(s)Jay Tarses
Rachel Tarses

Sara James Tarses (March 16, 1964 – February 1, 2021) was an American television producer and television studio executive. She was the president of ABC Entertainment from 1996 to 1999, the first woman and one of the youngest people to hold such a post in an American broadcast network.[1]

Early life

Tarses was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of television writer Jay Tarses and Rachel Tarses (née Newdell), on March 19, 1964.[2][3] Her younger sister, Mallory Tarses, is a fiction writer and high school English teacher,[4] and a younger brother, Matt Tarses, is a producer and screenwriter (The Goldbergs, Scrubs, Sports Night).[5]

Tarses graduated from Williams College in 1985[6] with a degree in theater.[7]

Career

Casting director

After graduating from college, Tarses became an assistant to the talent executive on the 1985–1986 season of Saturday Night Live. She then worked as a casting director for Lorimar Productions, filling roles for mid-run Perfect Strangers.[8]

Network executive

In September 1987, Tarses was hired by NBC Productions' Brandon Tartikoff as the manager of creative affairs. She climbed the corporate ladder at NBC until 1996. Here, she helped develop Friends, Mad About You, Frasier, NewsRadio, and Caroline in the City.[2][7][9] In 1991, she passed on her father's pilot about jazz musicians, called Baltimore.[7]

Tarses left NBC in 1996 amidst a significant amount of press coverage.[10][11] From 1996 to 1999, she was president of ABC Entertainment.[12][13][14] She resigned in August 1999 with two years remaining on her contract.[2] At the time of her departure she had one sitcom, one comedy, and one legal drama on ABC's schedule. [15]

Tarses was the subject of what Bill Carter of The New York Times called an "unflattering profile" written by Lynn Hirschberg in The New York Times Magazine in July 1997, in which she "was portrayed as an embattled executive whose competence and professionalism was being questioned in Hollywood show business circles".[13][16][17]

Amanda Peet, who played Jordan McDeere, the head of fictional network NBS on the NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, said her character "is loosely based" on Tarses.[18][19] Tarses was a consultant for Studio 60.

While at ABC, she helped develop and greenlight Dharma & Greg.[15]

Producer

In 2005, Tarses partnered on a production company called Pariah Productions with producer Gavin Polone.[20] Later, she had a company called FanFare Productions at Sony Pictures Television.[21]

Tarses was co-producer of My Boys, a comedy about a female sports reporter starring Jordana Spiro, on TBS cable television network from November 28, 2006, until September 14, 2010.[22] In 2010, she produced several television series, including Mr. Sunshine, Happy Endings, and Franklin & Bash.[23][24][25]

Personal life

Tarses married DreamWorks SKG television executive Dan McDermott in 1993. They divorced in 1996.[26] Tarses also dated Robert Morton, executive producer of Late Show with David Letterman, and Matthew Perry.[7][27][28] She had two children, Wyatt and Sloane, with her partner Paddy Aubrey, an executive chef and restaurant owner.[2]

She served on the board of directors and the advisory board of directors for Young Storytellers, an arts education nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles.[2][29] She was a volunteer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.[2]

Death

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".[25][30]

Filmography

TV series

TV movies

References

Specific

  1. ^ Carter, Bill (August 7, 1996). "At Lunch With: Jamie Tarses – A Soap Opera Ends: Let the Comedies Begin". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnes, Mike (February 1, 2021). "Jamie Tarses, Pioneering Television Executive, Dies at 56". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  3. ^ Wilson, Pamela (1997). Newcomb, Horace (ed.). Jay Tarses. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ISBN 9781884964268. Retrieved January 10, 2015. Online edition at Museum of Broadcast Communications ((cite book)): |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "Faculty and Staff – Upper School » English". capefearacademy.org. Cape Fear Academy. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  5. ^ "Jay Tarses". TCM.com. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  6. ^ "Jamie Tarses". TCM.com. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  7. ^ a b c d Jacobs, A.J. (May 10, 1996). "'Friends' in high places? ABC woos the TV exec behind NBC's Friends and Frasier". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  8. ^ Huff, Richard (May 25, 1997). "Maximum exposure". Daily News. p. 486.
  9. ^ Eller, Claudia; Hofmeister, Sallie (July 29, 1997). "Tabloids' Obsession With the ABC Exec Rewrites the Script : Tarses Saga Redefines Frenzy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  10. ^ Carter, Bill (June 12, 1996). "TV Notes; Executive Upheaval". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  11. ^ Turner, Richard (March 25, 1996). "Old Boys and New Girls". New York. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  12. ^ Pierce, Scott D. (August 31, 1999). "Strange reign of Jamie Tarses at ABC comes to a sudden end". Deseret News. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  13. ^ a b Carter, Bill (July 23, 1997). "Tarses Says She's Staying at ABC". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  14. ^ Carter, Bill (August 27, 1999). "The Media Business; Amid Changes, ABC's Top Programmer Quits". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  15. ^ a b Carter, Bill (August 30, 1999). "TV Executive: Young, Female and Unemployed (Published 1999)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  16. ^ Hirschberg, Lynn (July 13, 1997). "Network Drama at ABC: Jamie Tarses' Fall, as Scheduled". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  17. ^ Bart, Peter (July 23, 1997). "More than meets the eye in Tarses-bashing". Variety. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  18. ^ Amanda Peet segment, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, October 20, 2006. Peet: "I'm the head of network … The role is loosely based on Jamie Tarses…".
  19. ^ de Moraes, Lisa (May 5, 2006). "NBC's 'Saturday Night' Fever: How Many Series About a Sketch Show Can It Run?". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  20. ^ Adalian, Josef (September 21, 2005). "Tarses pacts with Polone". Variety. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  21. ^ Schneider, Michael (September 30, 2010). "Jamie Tarses: Primetime comeback". Variety. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  22. ^ Smith, Lynne (November 24, 2006). "Back in the game". The Los Angeles Times. p. E1. Retrieved February 1, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Gilbert, Matthew (February 9, 2011). "'Mr. Sunshine' can't cut through the clouds". The Boston Globe. p. G3. Retrieved February 1, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Lloyd, Robert (February 9, 2011). "'Endings' is off to a promising start". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 1, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Andreeva, Nellie (February 1, 2021). "Jamie Tarses Dies: Trailblazing TV Executive & Producer Was 56". Deadline. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  26. ^ Carter, Bill (August 18, 1996). "ABC's wunderkind comes out on top". The Press Democrat. p. 33.
  27. ^ Frankel, Daniel (November 10, 1997). "Tarses-Morton Split Blamed for Sitcom Downfall". E! Online. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  28. ^ Perry, Matthew; Kudrow, Lisa (2022). Friends, lovers, and the big terrible thing: a memoir (First U.S. edition, first International ed.). New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-86644-8.
  29. ^ "Board of Directors". youngstorytellers.com. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  30. ^ a b c d Barnes, Brooks (February 1, 2021). "Jamie Tarses, Executive in a Hollywood Rise-and-Fall Story, Dies at 56". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  31. ^ Hirschberg, Lynn (July 13, 1997). "Jamie Tarses' Fall, as Scheduled". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  32. ^ Battaglio, Stephen (February 1, 2021). "Jamie Tarses, first female TV network entertainment head, dies at 56". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  33. ^ Goldberg, Lesley (September 6, 2012). "Fox Developing Family Comedy 'Bastards' From 'Butter' Scribe". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  34. ^ Spangler, Todd (June 20, 2014). "Amazon Studios Names Full Cast of 'Really' Comedy Pilot From Jay Chandrasekhar and Jamie Tarses". Variety. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  35. ^ Goldberg, Lesley (February 7, 2014). "'Happy Endings' Creator's Roommates Comedy Gets Pilot Order at CBS". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  36. ^ "Your Family or Mine". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  37. ^ Adalian, Josef (February 14, 2001). "NBC takes chance on Tarses pilot". Variety. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  38. ^ Terrace 2018, p. 48.
  39. ^ Mediaweek. Vol. 14. ASM Communications. 2004. p. 20. ISBN 9781476672069.
  40. ^ a b Andreeva, Nellie (January 23, 2007). "Solo deals for Polone, Tarses". The Hollywood Reporter. Associated Press. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  41. ^ "Jamie Tarses". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  42. ^ Sherman, Jeff (August 7, 2007). "Milwaukee's new show now called "Backyards and Bullets"". OnMilwaukee. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  43. ^ a b "Jamie Tarses". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  44. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (October 12, 2008). "Fox tapping Waters for 'Eva Adams'". Variety. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  45. ^ Terrace 2018, pp. 93–94.
  46. ^ Goldberg, Lesley (April 2, 2014). "'Happy Endings' Quartet Land Pilot Order at Comedy Central". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 1, 2021.

Bibliography

External links

Business positions Preceded byTed Harbert President of ABC Entertainment 1996–1999 Succeeded bySusan M. Lyne
Presidents of ABC Entertainment
Categories