Brandon Tartikoff(1949-1997)
- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Brandon Tartikoff was a graduate of Yale University, and started his
career out at WLS-TV in Chicago. He switched jobs to ABC in New York in
the mid-1970s, and moved to NBC in 1977 where he became a programming
executive hired by Dick Ebersol. Tartikoff took over programming duties from
Fred Silverman in 1980. In 1982, Tartikoff had a second recurrence of
Hodgkin's disease, which he was first diagnosed with and beat in the
1970s. Tartikoff was responsible for many programming hits during his
years at the helm of NBC. In 1985, he finally got NBC back up to number
one. He left NBC in 1991, and moved over to Paramount Pictures and
became its chairman. Tartikoff left Paramount eighteen months later to
help care for his daughter, injured in a 1991 car accident. He formed
his own production company in 1995, and died of a third recurrance of
Hodgkin's disease in 1997.
