EGN NEWS DESK
Martin Starger, who as a senior government at ABC within the Seventies helped carry “Happy Days,” “Roots,” “Rich Man, Poor Man” and different exhibits to the small display — and the community almost to the brink of No. 1 in prime time — earlier than turning to producing motion pictures, most notably Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” died on May 31 at his house in Los Angeles. He was 92.
His dying was confirmed by his niece, Ilene Starger, a casting director.
Mr. Starger joined ABC within the mid-Sixties and rose to positions of accelerating significance, culminating in his promotion to president of ABC Entertainment in 1972.
The leisure mogul Barry Diller, who was one in all his protégés at ABC, described Mr. Starger in an e-mail as “the quintessential tv government of the Seventies.” He was, Mr. Diller stated, the “essence of N.Y. smarts: suave, refined and humorous. He was culturally forward of his viewers however was pragmatic in his programming selections, however ever striving for higher.”
Mr. Starger’s time at ABC was characterised by the community’s lengthy battle to interrupt out of final place in prime time, behind CBS and NBC, in what was then a three-network universe.
Mr. Starger and different executives balanced middlebrow packages, together with “Marcus Welby, M.D.” and “The Six Million Dollar Man,” with TV motion pictures like “The Missiles of October” (1974), which dramatized the Cuban missile disaster, and prestigious mini-series like “Roots,” based mostly on Alex Haley’s guide about his household historical past.
“Roots” — which ran for eight consecutive nights in 1977, though it didn’t air till after Mr. Starger had left ABC — was a colossal rankings smash and gained 9 Emmys. It was a part of Mr. Starger’s technique to adapt best-selling books like Leon Uris’s novel “QB VII” (1974), which was developed right into a two-night, six-hour occasion, and Irwin Shaw’s novel “Rich Man, Poor Man” (1976), the premise of a nine-part mini-series.
Mr. Starger’s penchant for placing brainier-than-usual packages on ABC’s schedule prompted John Carmody, a tv reporter for The Washington Post, to explain Mr. Starger in 1973 as “the mental of the three community programming chiefs.”
Ultimately, Mr. Starger needed to discover a method to beat NBC and CBS. In 1974, he added 12 new collection to ABC’s schedule to switch unsuccessful ones.
He stated that within the battle to realize floor towards ABC’s rivals, he had three guidelines of engagement: Each evening needed to have a minimum of one returning present; returning exhibits needed to be sturdy sufficient to assist new ones; and the community needed to counterprogram CBS and NBC with interesting options.
The plan didn’t work. ABC completed far behind its rivals.
After three years because the president of ABC Entertainment, Mr. Starger left in 1975 to begin his personal manufacturing firm, with a deal to create packages completely for the community.
Nonetheless, among the programming he left behind for his successor, Fred Silverman, was accountable for ABC’s rise to the highest spot in prime time for the 1976-77 season. Seven of the ten top-rated exhibits that season have been on ABC, together with “Happy Days,” “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Baretta,” holdovers from Mr. Starger’s time there.
John J. O’Connor, a TV critic for The New York Times, took notice. “Ironically,” he wrote in 1977, “the inspiration for ABC’s present programming sample had been laid by Martin Starger, who was dismissed shortly earlier than the rankings started to climb.” (Some reviews stated he was pushed out, others that he resigned to tackle a brand new problem.)
Martin Starger was born on May 8, 1932, within the Bronx. His father, Isidore, was a manufacturing facility leather-based employee who made purses (which have been bought by, amongst others, Eleanor Roosevelt). His mom, Rose (Stamler) Starger, managed the family.
After graduating from the City College of New York in 1953 with a bachelor’s diploma in movement image strategies, Mr. Starger was drafted into the Army. He served for 2 years within the movement image division of the Signal Corps; for a few of that point he was based mostly 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 an assistant projectionist, at a time when companies produced tv exhibits. He was later an account government and vice chairman.
He was recruited to ABC and held vice-presidential positions on the community earlier than changing into the president of ABC Entertainment.
When he left ABC, he had a significant challenge in hand. While on the community, he had agreed to have ABC finance “Nashville” (1975), Robert Altman’s multilayered drama set towards the background of the nation music business. Mr. Starger and Jerry Weintraub have been the movie’s government producers. It was nominated for 5 Oscars and gained for the perfect unique tune, “I’m Easy.”
A collection Mr. Starger created for ABC, “Westside Medical,” a few clinic in Southern California, had a short run in 1977.
For the subsequent twenty years, Mr. Starger produced theatrical and tv movies, some in partnership with the British leisure mogul Lew Grade and a few for his personal firm, Marstar Productions. The quite a few movies on which he was a producer or government producer included two Muppet motion pictures, “Sophie’s Choice” (1982), “Mask” (1985), “Escape From Sobibor” (1987) and “Love Letters” (1999).
Mr. Starger was the manager producer of “Friendly Fire,” 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 study the reality in regards to the killing of their son, a soldier in the course of the Vietnam War. It gained the Emmy Award for excellent drama or comedy particular, which Mr. Starger shared together with his co-producers Fay Kanin, who additionally wrote the script, and Philip Barry Jr.
He additionally produced a number of Broadway exhibits, together with three within the Eighties: “Merrily We Roll Along,” Stephen Sondheim’s cult flop, which closed after 16 performances in 1981 however turned successful when it was revived on Broadway final yr; “Starlight Express,” 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 led to divorce in 1975 after eight years. No rapid relations survive.
One of Mr. Starger’s ardour tasks was resuscitating “Omnibus,” the formidable tradition, leisure and data collection hosted by Alistair Cooke, which premiered on CBS in 1952 and lasted 9 years. Mr. Starger stated that “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 ought to not do an occasional ‘Omnibus’ particular,’” he advised The Times in 1980, shortly earlier than the primary episode aired, “however fairly to have one thing of its caliber and high quality in a daily recurring spot. That’s if there’s receptivity. And I believe there will likely be.”
But there was not. ABC confirmed only some episodes by way of 1981. And Mr. Starger moved on. Two of the movies he produced, “Red Flag: The Ultimate Game,” a army drama, and “The Last Unicorn,” an animated fable, would quickly be launched.
