Grant Almerin Tinker (January 11, 1926 – November 28, 2016) was an American television executive who was chairman and CEO of NBC from 1981 to 1986. Additionally, he was a co-founder of MTM Enterprises and a television producer.
Early life
Tinker was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the middle child of Margaret (née Hessin) and Arthur Almerin Tinker.
He had an elder sister, Phyllis (1924–2006), and a younger sister, Joan.
During World War II, Tinker served in the United States Army Air Forces Reserve. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1949.
Career
Shortly after graduation, Tinker joined
NBC as an executive trainee, but left in 1954. In 1961, Tinker rejoined NBC and was the head of West Coast programming, where he was involved in developing
I Spy,
Dr. Kildare,
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,
the original
, and
Get Smart.
Tinker left NBC in 1967 to join Universal Television,
only to quit after two years in order to join 20th Century Fox Television in early 1969.
In late 1969, he and then-wife Mary Tyler Moore formed the television production company MTM Enterprises. Tinker hired
Room 222 writers James L. Brooks and
Allan Burns to create and produce the company's first television series,
The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Due to conflicts with running MTM, he left Fox in 1971.
After leaving NBC, Tinker tried to repeat his success with MTM by forming GTG (Grant Tinker-Gannett Company) Entertainment (formerly T/G Productions), but the business venture failed and the company closed in 1990. The company then partnered with CBS to create a long-term agreement to provide access to the output provided by GTG Entertainment, and it was an exclusive agreement handled between CBS and GTG.
Personal life
Tinker was married three times. In 1950, he married Ruth Byerly, with whom he had three sons and a daughter:
Mark Tinker (b. 1951), Mike (b. 1952), Jodie (b. 1954) and John (b. 1958).
Mark and John are successful television producers. Tinker's marriage to Byerly ended in divorce in 1962.
Later that same year, Tinker married actress Mary Tyler Moore, who died in January 2017, two months after Tinker’s death. This marriage also ended in divorce in 1981, though they had separated in 1979, following a 1973 breakup and reconciliation. Tinker's third marriage was in 2004 to aviator
Brooke Knapp, to whom he remained married until his death in 2016.
Death
Tinker died at his Los Angeles home on November 28, 2016, at age 90.
He is buried at Hillside Cemetery in North Adams, Massachusetts.
Awards and honors
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Tinker was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1997.
-
In 2004, Tinker won a personal Peabody Award "for recognizing, protecting, and fostering creativity of the highest order."
Further reading
External links
