Former CEO of NBC Grant Tinker Passes Away at Age 90

Deadline reports that former chairman and CEO of NBC Grant Tinker passed away yesterday, Tuesday, November 29th at the age of 90.

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said in a statement: "Grant Tinker was a great man who made an indelible mark on NBC and the history of television that continues to this day. He loved creative people and protected them, while still expertly managing the business. Very few people have been able to achieve such a balance. We try to live up to the standards he set each and every day. Our hearts go out to his family and friends."

Tinker married actress Mary Tyler Moore in 1962, and in 1969 they formed the television production company MTM Enterprises. While creating MTM, 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. MTM produced such popular American sitcoms and drama television series such as Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere.

After his divorce from Moore 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 produced popular shows like 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.

In 1994, Tinker wrote a book with Bud Rukeyser titled Tinker in Television. That same year, he won a personal Peabody Award "for recognizing, protecting, and fostering creativity of the highest order."

Tinker was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1997.

Below, watch Tinker's Peabody Award acceptance speech:

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