Robert Sarnoff; Former NBC Chief

Robert W. Sarnoff, who helped usher in the era of color television as president of NBC and later succeeded his father as chief executive of the network’s parent company, died Saturday in New York. He was 78.

The cause was cancer, said his spokesman, Joe Clark. Sarnoff had been ill for several months, he added.

The eldest son of Brig. Gen. David Sarnoff, the chairman of the Radio Corporation of America, Robert Sarnoff began his career with NBC as an account executive in 1948. Seven years later, he was elected NBC president and set in motion the transition from black and white television to color.

“We are committed to color and intend to make the transition as fast as possible,” he said upon succeeding Sylvester L. Weaver as network chief.

On April 15, 1956, he dedicated the world’s first “all color” television station, WNBQ-TV in Chicago, an NBC-owned affiliate. Soon afterward, construction plans for the NBC-owned station in Washington, D.C., to specifically broadcast local and network programming in color were unveiled at a cost of $4 million.

During his tenure as network head, Sarnoff was credited with inviting then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Sen. John F. Kennedy to the first televised presidential debates in 1960.

The network also launched its weekend news program “Monitor,” with features, interviews and entertainment. The popular “Bonanza,” the one-hour western saga of the Cartwright boys, debuted in 1959 and ran through 1973.

Under Sarnoff, NBC was a pioneer in racially integrating television. It was the first network to have a program hosted by a black singer, Nat King Cole. In 1965, Bill Cosby became the first black actor with a leading role in an hourlong prime-time series, “I Spy.”

Sarnoff remained president of NBC until 1965, and five years later he succeeded his father as chairman of RCA, the broadcasting corporate giant that David Sarnoff had built.

However, the younger Sarnoff lasted only five years at the helm of RCA. He was ousted by the board of directors in 1975, ending a family reign that had started with his father 45 years earlier.

Born in New York, Sarnoff graduated from Harvard University in 1939. That summer, he worked for the radio division of the New York World’s Fair.

He was a Navy communications officer during World War II, supervising the setup of radio links to many islands in the Pacific in the war against the Japanese.

After the war, he worked briefly in newspapers and magazines before joining NBC in 1948.

Before becoming network president, he supervised some of NBC’s best programs as a director of unit productions. Among the shows he supervised were “Kate Smith Show,” “Your Show of Shows” and “The Colgate Comedy Hour.”

He launched and carried to completion 26 half-hour episodes of a film documentary, “Victory at Sea,” which portrayed a series of World War II operations.

He became an NBC vice president in 1951.

Sarnoff served as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and was a member of the New York Friars Club.

He is survived by his wife, Anna Moffo, an opera singer; three daughters, Rosita, Serena Benenson and Claudia Parrot; and two brothers, Edward and Thomas.

Associated Press contributed to this story.