T 1\11 ' Tyler Moore (MTM) Enterprises, Inc., 1970-81; Chair of the Hoard and Chief Executive Officer, NBC, Bur- Grant Tinker with Wife Mary Tyler Moore

Tinker, Grant

for good taste on television. Tinker joined Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman in calling for more responsible programming during Congressional hearings in 1998, and was an outspoken critic of the genre of "reality % programming" in 2000 and 2001. Tinker has earned a variety of awards celebrating his career in television, including the Producers Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award in television (1991) and induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Television Hall of Fame (1997). SUSAN MCLELAND

See also Dick Van Dyke Show, The; Mary Tyler -t1. Moore Show, The; Moore, Mary Tyler; National Broadcasting Company

Grant Tinker. Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Jan- 111 uary II, 1926. Educated at Dartmouth College. Mar- I' ried: 1) Ruth Byerly (divorced); one daughter and three sons: 2) Mary Tyler Moore, 1963 (divorced, e. 1981). Worked in radio program department, NBC, [l 1949-51; TV department. McCann-Erickson Advertis- ing Agency, 1954-58: Benton and Bowles Advertising

.¡ ; II Agency, 1958-61; vice president of programs, west lilt'I! r: coast. NBC, 1961-66; vice president in charge of programming, west coast, NBC, New York City, 1966-67; 4, 1111 vice president, Universal TV, 1968-69; vice president,

, Twentieth Century -FOX, 1969-70; president, Mary

. .9.. t , ' t 1\11 ' Tyler Moore (MTM) Enterprises, Inc., 1970-81; chair of the hoard and chief executive officer, NBC, Bur- Grant Tinker with wife Mary Tyler Moore. bank, California, 1981-86; independent producer, Courtesy of the Everett Collection Burbank, since 1986; president. GTG Entertainment, Culver City, California, 1986-90. Recipient: Produc- ers Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award in television, 1991; inducted into Academy of Television Arts and eventually cost Tinker his share of MTM, when NBC's Sciences' Television Hall of Fame, 1997. parent company RCA ordered him to sell in the early 1980s. In any case. NBC's turnaround helped shore up Publications the network system in an era when new programming alternatives such as cable and VCRs had begun erod- Tinker in Television: From General Sarnoff ro Gen- ing the once -monolithic network audience. Tinker left eral Electric, with Bud Rukeyser, 1994 NBC in 1986, shortly after it was acquired by General Electric. Further Reading Tinker next tried to repeat the success of MTM En- Auletta, Ken Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost terprises by forming GTG (Grant Tinker -Gannett) En- Their Noy, New York: Random House, 1991 tertainment with the communications giant Gannett, Coe, Steve. "Tinker Writes the Book on Television: Former producer of the syndicated news -magazine USA Today NBC Chairman Looks at 40 Years inside the Magic Box," on TV and the dramatic program W/OU, which aired Broadcasting and Cable (September 5, 1994) for a short time on CBS. The partnership was dissolved "NBC's Tortoise Overtakes the Hares." Broadcasting (Novem- ber 5. 1984) in 1990. Since then, Tinker has written an autobiogra- "With NBC Still Rated No. 3, Grant Tinker Ponders His Own phy, served on the boards of a variety of charitable or- Decisions-And the Audience's" (interview). People Weekly ganizations, and maintained his position as watchdog (May 14, 1984)

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