Grant Tinker

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. the original Star Trek, and Get Smart. 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. MTM produced American sitcoms and drama television series such as Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, and St. Elsewhere. In 1981, Tinker left MTM to become the chairman and CEO of NBC, then the perennial last-place American television network (in terms of Nielsen ratings and profits). During Tinker's tenure in NBC's top position, the network regained ratings and commissioned The Cosby Show, Family Ties, The Golden Girls, Cheers, Night Court, and Hill Street Blues. Tinker left the network in 1986, shortly after its parent company RCA was bought by General Electric.

After leaving NBC, Tinker tried to repeat his success with MTM by forming GTG (Grant Tinker-Gannett) 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. The company had also set up subsidiaries like the syndicated television branch GTG Marketing, its East Coast production arm GTG East and the West Coast production arm GTG West, with the first production being produced by the GTG East branch was a syndicated version of the popular USA Today magazine, USA Today on TV, which was distributed to syndicated markets by the GTG Marketing division.

Personal life Tinker was married three times. In 1950, he married Ruth Byerly, with whom he had three sons and a daughter: Mark (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.

Death Tinker died at his Los Angeles home on November 28, 2016, at age 90.