Corday Given New TV Duties

Barbara Corday, president of Columbia Pictures Television since 1984, will take on the additional duties of overseeing another Coca-Cola television subsidiary, Embassy Communications, beginning in mid-May.

Corday, 42, will serve as president and chief operating officer of Columbia/Embassy Television, overseeing production and development at both units.

The appointment was announced as part of a restructuring by Gary Lieberthal, chairman and chief executive of Columbia/Embassy. Lieberthal said Embassy will focus on comedy programming while Columbia produces dramatic series, movies of the week and mini-series.

Embassy was acquired by Coca-Cola in 1985, along with Tandem Productions and other television and movie properties owned by Norman Lear and A. Jerrold Perenchio.

Glenn Padnick, who has served as Embassy’s president for three years, recently announced plans to form an independent production company at the end of the current television season.