Tarses’ Tenure Wasn’t as Simple as A-B-C

Television is obsessed with age. Commercials trumpet how to look and feel younger, networks court specific demographics and programs live or die depending on how well they attract them.

KTLA anchor Marta Waller, then 44, alleged in a lawsuit two years ago that her not-so-advanced age led to her demotion. Shows like “Matlock” and “Murder, She Wrote” have faded away, the shelf space they occupied filled by “Friends” and “Dawson’s Creek” clones.

The issue extends to the film industry as well. Gray-haired writers complain their careers and credits count for naught while studios chase screenplays from the latest just-out-of-college phenom. Actresses over 40 decry a lack of roles, and even still-rippling action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone appear to have lost their box-office might.

Age, then, is as good a prism as any through which to examine the tumultuous career of ABC Entertainment President Jamie Tarses, who turned 32 a few months before starting that job in June 1996.

Tarses, who resigned this week, was not the youngest person to hold such a post, or even the first woman to land a major power position at a broadcast network (though she is the first to specifically head an entertainment division).

She is, however, younger than many of those who work in and write about television--which is at least one reason why so many people seem to have rooted for her to fail. Part of the issue is generational: Tarses was merely the first to “arrive” among a group of young executives who have thirsted for more power within the entertainment industry. Such tensions transcend entertainment to any work setting, where the image of some slick 20-something go-getter forging ahead of the pack represents a threat to those above them and provides the rest of us an unsettling measure of our own career progress.

Moreover, older people have good reason to worry about the assumption that it takes an 18-to-34-year-old to connect with that audience, facing a business (and indeed culture) that places such a premium on youth. At NBC, Tarses’ credentials included overseeing development of “Friends,” a mega-hit whose influence has extended beyond TV to music and even hairstyles. ABC, in desperate need of such shows, recruited her to come up with more of them. Almost immediately, Tarses proved fascinating to the press. The circumstances surrounding her arrival brimmed with political intrigue both within ABC and among the networks, with NBC outraged by efforts to extricate Tarses from her contract.

It didn’t hurt, of course, that she was the first network executive in some time who wouldn’t look out of place in the pages of Cosmopolitan. On Thursday, the day she resigned, Tarses was asked why she thought so much attention was showered upon her.

“I was just different than most of them,” she said, referring to the other entertainment chiefs. “I was not particularly old, I was not particularly male, when most of them were.”

In the past year, two other women, Susanne Daniels and Nancy Tellem, have been named to equivalent positions at the WB and CBS, respectively. Tarses suggested that if she had started now, the reaction might have been different.

Yet while Tarses’ gender undoubtedly had something to do with the coverage she’s received, it may have been overstated. Her youth and good looks probably had more to do with it, as evidenced by the response to other women in the entertainment industry.

When Lucie Salhany was named chairman of the Fox network, she initially bristled at questions about infiltrating the “old boys network,” at one point saying, “If there is a boys club, then I’m in it.”

Though not an old boy, Tarses, too, has clearly been part of the club. Her father, Jay, created or co-created such memorable programs as “Buffalo Bill” and “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.” She grew up around television, joined NBC at age 24 and climbed through the ranks to a department-heading position before she was 30.

Like most of her generation, she was perhaps impatient for the next big job. With her bosses locked into long-term contracts, she faced limited opportunity for advancement at NBC when ABC came knocking. For the first time, Generation X was running the show.

Evaluating her tenure at ABC is difficult. Dogged by rumors from the outset, Tarses endured long enough to launch one unabashed hit, the comedy “Dharma & Greg,” and several lesser shows, from “It’s like, you know . . . “ to “Two Guys and a Girl.” None of the dramas developed by her (“The Practice” began with the previous regime) lasted longer than a single season.

Tarses undoubtedly made some mistakes in dealing with certain talent and her corporate bosses, which detractors attributed to a lack of experience. She was “overwhelmed,” “over her head,” asked to do “too much, too soon”--all comments that spoke to her youth, not her gender, and at times emanated from those threatened by it.

After chronic speculation and repeated denials, Tarses has finally left ABC. As noted in the movie “The Player,” when it comes to Hollywood, “The rumors are always true.”

ABC thus finds itself with two men in their 40s, Stu Bloomberg and Lloyd Braun, running its entertainment wing, just as men in their 40s ultimately oversee such decisions at CBS, NBC, Fox and UPN.

Still, the media focus on who’s in charge misses the point. To the average TV viewer, this amounts to little more than back-room chicanery, with zero impact on their lives, so long as the network programming mandate remains the same: Deliver as many young-adult eyeballs as possible to advertisers.

Research tells those media buyers that viewers in the 18-to-49 age bracket have more kids in the house, meaning they buy more stuff and are more likely to purchase certain products many of the largest advertisers sell. In theory, they are less set in their ways than older people as well as more responsive to (and easily swayed by) advertising.

Right or not, those are the rules of the game as presently constituted, and the success of whoever next plants their feet up on Tarses’ desk will hinge on his or her ability to attract viewers born after 1950.

So despite the trees that will be slain dissecting the significance of Tarses’ exit from ABC, her departure won’t affect the programs you see. Indeed, based on television’s priorities, the new boss--exterior packaging notwithstanding--will, inevitably, look like the old boss.