Brandon Tartikoff Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Brandon Tartikoff
OCCUPATION: Television Producer
BIRTH DATE: January 13, 1949
DEATH DATE: c. August 27, 1997
EDUCATION: Yale University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Freeport, New York
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California

Best Known For

Brandon Tartikoff was the president of NBC Television during its rise to the top from 1980 till 1991.

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Brandon Tartikoff

APA Style

Brandon Tartikoff. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 02:06, May 26, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058.

Harvard Style

Brandon Tartikoff. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058 [Accessed 26 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Brandon Tartikoff." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 26 2013, 02:06 http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058.

MHRA Style

"Brandon Tartikoff," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058 [accessed May 26, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Brandon Tartikoff," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058 (accessed May 26, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Brandon Tartikoff [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 26] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058.

Bluebook Style

Brandon Tartikoff, http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058 (last visited May 26, 2013).

AMA Style

Brandon Tartikoff. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/brandon-tartikoff-9542058. Accessed May 26, 2013.

Synopsis

At the age of 31, Brandon Tartikoff became the youngest president in network history when he was hired to overhaul NBC's lackluster lineup in 1980. Under his leadership, NBC produced such huge hits as The Cosby Show, Cheers, L.A. Law, Family Ties, The Golden Girls, Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice. Toward the end of his tenure, Tartikoff established NBC's dominant Thursday night lineup featuring Seinfeld. He died on August 27, 1997, in Los Angeles, California.

Television Producer: Career at NBC

Born on January 13, 1949, in Freeport, New York, Brandon Tartikoff graduated from Yale University in 1970, and worked in advertising and promotion for ABC affiliates in New Haven, Connecticut and Chicago, Illinois before becoming ABC's director of dramatic development in 1976. Described by friends as an "irrepressible spirit," Tartikoff became the youngest president in network history when he was hired to overhaul NBC's lackluster programming in 1980.

Today, Tartikoff is credited with transforming NBC into a commanding force in network television. Under his leadership, from 1980 to 1991, NBC produced such huge hits as The Cosby Show, Cheers, L.A. Law, Family Ties, Hill Street Blues, The Golden Girls and Miami Vice. Toward the end of histenure, Tartikoff established NBC's dominant Thursday night lineup, featuring Seinfeld. In 1991, he left NBC for a 15-month stint at Paramount, during which the studio released the hugely successful comic film Wayne's World.