Other names Jamie McDermott Role TV Producer Years active 1985-Present Parents Jay Tarses | Relatives Matt Tarses (brother) Name Jamie Tarses Siblings Matt Tarses | |
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Full Name Sara James Tarses Occupation ProducerStudio executive Spouse(s) Dan McDermott (1993-1996) Similar People David Caspe, Matt Tarses, Jay Tarses, Greg Malins, Kevin Falls | ||
Sara James Tarses (born March 19, 1964) is a television producer and former television studio executive. Tarses was the President of ABC Entertainment from 1996 to 1999, the first woman and one of the youngest people to hold such a post in an American broadcast network.
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Early life
Tarses was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of television writer Jay Tarses and Rachel Tarses (née Newdell). She has a younger sister, Mallory Tarses, a fiction writer and high school English teacher, and a younger brother, Matt Tarses, a producer and screenwriter (The Goldbergs, Scrubs, Sports Night).
Tarses graduated from Williams College in 1985. She received a degree in theater.
Casting and production
After graduating from college, Tarses became an Assistant to the Talent Executive on the 1985-1986 season of Saturday Night Live. She then went on to work as a Casting Director for Lorimar Productions.
Network executive
In September 1987, Tarses was hired by NBC Productions' Brandon Tartikoff as Manager, Creative Affairs. Tarses steadily worked in various advancing executive positions at NBC until 1996. At NBC, Tarses helped develop Friends and Mad About You.
In 1991, Tarses passed on her father's pilot about jazz musicians called Baltimore."
She left NBC in 1996 amidst a significant amount of press. From 1996 to 1999, Tarses was President of ABC Entertainment.
Tarses was the subject of a noteworthy "unflattering profile" written by Lynn Hirschberg in the New York Times Magazine in July 1997 in which Tarses "was portrayed as an embattled executive whose competence and professionalism was being questioned in Hollywood show business circles."
Amanda Peet, who played Jordan McDeere, the head of fictional network NBS on NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, has said that her character was "loosely based" on Tarses. A rough draft of the script for Studio 60 had Amanda Peet's character named "Jamie".
Jamie Tarses was a consultant for Studio 60. When she was senior vice president of primetime series for NBC, she had a major role in developing Friends and Wings, which starred Studio 60 actors Matthew Perry and Steven Weber, respectively.
Producing
In 2005, Tarses went into partnership on a production company called Pariah Productions with producer Gavin Polone.
Tarses currently has a production company called FanFare Productions at Sony Pictures Television.
Tarses was co-producer of My Boys, a comedy television show about a female sports reporter starring Jordana Spiro, on TBS cable television network from November 28, 2006 until September 14, 2010. In 2010, Tarses executive produced several television series including Mr. Sunshine, Happy Endings, and Franklin & Bash.
Personal life
Tarses married DreamWorks SKG television executive Dan McDermott in 1993. They divorced in 1996.
Tarses also dated David Letterman's Late Show with David Letterman producer Robert Morton.
She currently serves on the advisory board of directors for Young Storytellers, an arts education nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles.