Martin Starger, who as a senior govt at ABC within the Nineteen Seventies helped carry “Completely happy Days,” “Roots,” “Wealthy Man, Poor Man” and different reveals to the small display — and the community nearly to the brink of first place. in prime time – earlier than he started producing movies, most notably Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” he died on Could 31 at his house in Los Angeles. He was 92 years previous.
His demise was confirmed by his niece, Ilene Starger, casting director.
Starger joined ABC within the mid-Sixties and rose to positions of accelerating significance, culminating in his promotion to president of ABC Leisure in 1972.
Leisure mogul Barry Diller, who was one in all his protégés at ABC, described Starger in an e-mail as “the quintessential tv govt of the Nineteen Seventies.” He was, Diller mentioned, the “essence of New York intelligence: easy, subtle and humorous. He was culturally forward of his viewers, however he was pragmatic in his programming decisions, however all the time striving to enhance.”
Starger’s time at ABC was characterised by the community’s lengthy wrestle to climb out of final place in prime time behind CBS and NBC in what was then a three-network universe.
Starger and different executives balanced mid-tier reveals together with “Marcus Welby, M.D.” and “The Six Million Greenback Man” with TV films like “The Missiles of October” (1974), which dramatized the Cuban missile disaster, and prestigious mini-games. -series like “Roots”, based mostly on Alex Haley’s e-book about his household historical past.
“Roots” — which ran for eight consecutive nights in 1977, though it solely aired after Starger left ABC — was a colossal rankings success and received 9 Emmys. It was a part of Starger’s technique to adapt best-selling books such because the novel “QB VII” (1974) by Leon Uris, which developed right into a two-night, six-hour occasion, and the novel “Wealthy Man, Poor Man” by Irwin Shaw. ” (1976), the premise of a nine-part miniseries.
Starger’s tendency to put smarter-than-usual applications on ABC’s schedule led John Carmody, a tv reporter for The Washington Publish, to explain Starger in 1973 as “the mental of the community’s three programming chiefs.”
In the end, Starger needed to discover a strategy to beat NBC and CBS. In 1974, he added 12 new collection to ABC’s schedule to switch unsuccessful ones.
He mentioned that within the battle to achieve floor towards ABC’s rivals, he had three guidelines of engagement: every night time will need to have not less than one returning program; returning applications needed to be robust sufficient to assist new ones; and the community needed to counterprogram CBS and NBC with engaging options.
The plan did not work. ABC completed far behind its rivals.
After three years as president of ABC Leisure, Starger left in 1975 to start out his personal manufacturing firm, with a deal to create applications completely for the community.
Nevertheless, among the programming he left to his successor, Fred Silverman, was accountable for ABC’s rise to first place in prime time within the 1976–77 season. Seven of the ten highest-rated reveals that season aired on ABC, together with “Completely happy Days,” “The Six Million Greenback Man” and “Baretta,” holdovers from Starger’s time there.
John J. O’Connor, TV critic for The New York Instances, took observe. “Paradoxically,” he wrote in 1977, “the premise for ABC’s present programming sample was laid by Martin Starger, who was fired simply earlier than rankings started to rise.” (Some reviews say he was eliminated, others that he resigned to tackle a brand new problem.)
Martin Starger was born on Could 8, 1932, within the Bronx. His father, Isidore, was a leather-based employee who made purses (which have been bought, amongst others, by Eleanor Roosevelt). His mom, Rose (Stamler) Starger, managed the house.
After graduating from the Metropolis Faculty of New York in 1953 with a bachelor’s diploma in movement image strategies, Mr. Starger was drafted into the Military. He served for 2 years within the movement image division of the Sign Corps; for a time he lived in Honolulu, the place he wrote, directed and edited movies.
After his discharge, he joined the promoting company Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (now often known as BBDO) as a projectionist assistant, at a time when companies produced tv applications. He later was an account govt and vice chairman.
He was recruited by ABC and held vice chairman positions on the community earlier than turning into president of ABC Leisure.
When he left ABC, he had a giant undertaking on his palms. Whereas on the community, he agreed to have ABC finance “Nashville” (1975), Robert Altman’s multifaceted drama set towards the backdrop of the nation music business. Starger and Jerry Weintraub served as govt producers on the movie. It was nominated for 5 Oscars and received for finest unique music, “I am Simple”.
A collection Starger created for ABC, “Westside Medical,” a couple of Southern California clinic, ran briefly in 1977.
Over the following twenty years, Starger produced films for theater and television, some in partnership with British leisure mogul Lew Grade and a few for his personal firm, Marstar Productions. The quite a few movies he has produced or govt produced embrace two Muppet movies, “Sophie’s Alternative” (1982), “Masquerade” (1985), “Escape From Sobibor” (1987) and “Love Letters” (1999). .
Starger was the manager producer of “Pleasant Hearth,” a 1979 TV film based mostly on the true story of a pair (performed by Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty) who fought the federal government to uncover the reality concerning the homicide of their son, a soldier throughout the Vietnam Conflict. It received the Emmy Award for Excellent Drama or Comedy Particular, which Starger shared together with his co-producers Fay Kanin, who additionally wrote the script, and Philip Barry Jr.
He has also produced several Broadway shows, together with three within the Nineteen Eighties: “Merrily We Roll Alongside,” the Stephen Sondheim cult flop that closed after 16 performances in 1981 however grew to become successful when it was revived on Broadway final 12 months; “Starlight Specific,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical about steam engines, with actors acting on curler skates; and the comedy “Lend Me a Tenor”.
Mr. Starger’s marriage to Judith Newburg resulted in divorce in 1975, after eight years. No members of the rapid household survive.
One in all Starger’s ardour initiatives was reviving “Omnibus,” the formidable tradition, leisure and knowledge collection hosted by Alistair Cooke that debuted on CBS in 1952 and ran for 9 years. Starger mentioned “Omnibus” impressed him to work within the tv enterprise and that the reminiscence of it led him to amass the rights to revive it on ABC.
“My feeling is that we must always not do an occasional ‘Omnibus’ particular,” he informed The Instances in 1980, shortly earlier than the primary episode aired, “however slightly have one thing of its caliber and high quality in an everyday recurring business. That’s if there may be receptivity. And I believe there might be.”
However there wasn’t. ABC aired just a few episodes till 1981. And Mr. Starger moved on. Two of the movies he produced, “Purple Flag: The Final Recreation,” a army drama, and “The Final Unicorn,” an animated fable, have been quickly to be launched.
