Charlotte Brown

Charlotte Sue Brown (born October 20, 1943) is an American television producer, writer, director, and showrunner who in 1977 was acclaimed to have become the first woman showrunner of a primetime network television series for her work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show spin-off Rhoda. However, Gertrude Berg, who created The Goldbergs, earned that title almost two decades earlier.

Early life and education Brown was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jewish parents. She grew up in the Fairfax and Pico-Robertson neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California, where her father was a musician and her mother worked in a clerical position at The May Company.

Brown worked on many of Grant Tinker['s MTM Enterprises shows run by writers James L. Brooks and Allan Burns during the early 1970s – shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Partridge Family, Love, American Style and The Bob Newhart Show As a result, Brown became one of the first female showrunners in primetime television history.

Brown said that she based the character of Ida Morgenstern, Rhoda's mother, portrayed by actor Nancy Walker, on her own mother. 1998: Veronica's Closet (TV series) – writer 1998: The Tony Danza Show (TV series) – writer