Back in the fall I received a call from a friend who told me that Jamie Tarses was hospitalized in critical condition. It was a shock. Jamie was one of the key executives of the Must See TV era at NBC and responsible for some of the most iconic comedies of the 90's such as FRIENDS, MAD ABOUT YOU and FRASIER. She passed today.
Jamie was the leader of a group of programming executives that was amazingly deep and remain in the vanguard of industry leaders on all platforms. In wrestling terms she had a rocket strapped to her back and jumped to ABC where she was the first woman and probably one of the youngest executives to head programming at a broadcast network. She broke down barriers but that move was at a cost.
Fortunately, after her run at ABC Jamie transitioned to producing comedies and had several successes.
Although we worked together I was part of the male suits who sort of ran the network from a bit more of a business rather than creative bent. Jamie relied on me to sometimes help her with Don Ohlmeyer. I remember when she and Karey Burke came into my office and played me the Friends theme song. Back then we were trying to cut out the theme songs but the producers wanted it and Jamie and Karey asked if I would go up to Don with them and help get it OK'd. We did.
As iconic as the era was what went on behind the scenes at NBC was pretty wild and dysfunctional and most of it has remained in the vault among all of us. I thought I would share this one story since I think it shows how difficult it was back then for women to succeed in a what was a predominantly male business.
Here it is:
We did not have a lot of senior women executives at NBC. Jamie moved up the food chain and there was another exec who also held a powerful position at the Peacock. Every afternoon we had what was known as the "2:30 Meeting" in Don Ohlmeyer's office and for quite some time it was all men. The daily meeting was to share information (in GE terms QMI) about the business and what was going on inside our building. It was an extremely productive meeting and often featured some of the dysfunction among us all.
Don wanted to add Jamie and another female exec to the group. Problem was they hated each other. Really hated each other.
Don calls me up to his office one day. He would do that often. I would sit there quietly while he puffed away at a Marlboro or two until he was finally ready to talk. He eventually turned to me as said "What are we going to do about Jamie and _______?" I don't know why it was my or anyone's "problem" for that matter but I looked at Don and said "Don, if they had dicks would we be having this conversation?"
That ended it. He heard me and we all went along being dysfunctional and creating a decade of some of the best great (and not so great) TV.
My love to Jamie's family and friends. she was a fearless, strong and vulnerable and gone too soon.
