Brandon Stoddard

Brandon Stoddard (March 31, 1937 – December 22, 2014) was an American television executive. He was president of ABC Entertainment between 1985 and 1989 and head of ABC Productions between 1989 and 1995. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Early life Brandon Stoddard was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on March 31, 1937. His parents were Johnson Stoddard, a lawyer, and Constance Stoddard. He grew up in Southport. He played guitar in a calypso band. He attended Deerfield Academy and graduated from Yale College in 1958. In the summer of 1958, he was a member of a Yale thespian group that toured Europe for two months, which included a month of performances at army bases. He studied at Columbia Law School. he led the network's motion picture division and president of ABC Entertainment from 1985 to 1989. During his tenure as the head of ABC entertainment shows such as Moonlighting, Roseanne, The Wonder Years, and Thirtysomething were created. He was responsible for the creation of TV movies like Friendly Fire and The Day After. He worked to develop the miniseries in American television. Miniseries included The Thorn Birds (1983), The Winds of War (1983), and Amerika. His most successful show was the miniseries Roots based on Alex Haley's novel.

Personal life Stoddard was married twice. His first wife was Alexandra Stoddard, with whom he had two daughters: journalist A. B. Stoddard and Brooke Stoddard. His second wife was Mary Anne Dolan. He died of bladder cancer at Bel-Air, California in 2014.