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Martin Starger, who as a senior government at ABC within the Nineteen Seventies helped deliver “Comfortable Days,” “Roots,” “Wealthy Man, Poor Man” and different exhibits to the small display screen — and the community almost to the brink of No. 1 in prime time — earlier than turning to producing motion pictures, most notably Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” died on Could 31 at his residence in Los Angeles. He was 92.
His dying was confirmed by his niece, Ilene Starger, a casting director.
Mr. Starger joined ABC within the mid-Sixties and rose to positions of accelerating significance, culminating in his promotion to president of ABC Leisure in 1972.
The leisure mogul Barry Diller, who was considered one of his protégés at ABC, described Mr. Starger in an electronic mail as “the quintessential tv government of the Nineteen Seventies.” He was, Mr. Diller mentioned, the “essence of N.Y. smarts: suave, subtle and humorous. He was culturally forward of his viewers however was pragmatic in his programming selections, however ever striving for higher.”
Mr. Starger’s time at ABC was characterised by the community’s lengthy wrestle to interrupt out of final place in prime time, behind CBS and NBC, in what was then a three-network universe.
Mr. Starger and different executives balanced middlebrow applications, together with “Marcus Welby, M.D.” and “The Six Million Greenback Man,” with TV motion pictures like “The Missiles of October” (1974), which dramatized the Cuban missile disaster, and prestigious mini-series like “Roots,” primarily based on Alex Haley’s guide about his household historical past.
“Roots” — which ran for eight consecutive nights in 1977, though it didn’t air till after Mr. Starger had left ABC — was a colossal rankings smash and received 9 Emmys. It was a part of Mr. Starger’s technique to adapt best-selling books like Leon Uris’s novel “QB VII” (1974), which was developed right into a two-night, six-hour occasion, and Irwin Shaw’s novel “Wealthy Man, Poor Man” (1976), the idea of a nine-part mini-series.
Mr. Starger’s penchant for placing brainier-than-usual applications on ABC’s schedule prompted John Carmody, a tv reporter for The Washington Submit, to explain Mr. Starger in 1973 as “the mental of the three community programming chiefs.”
In the end, Mr. Starger needed to discover a solution to beat NBC and CBS. In 1974, he added 12 new collection to ABC’s schedule to exchange unsuccessful ones.
He mentioned that within the battle to achieve floor towards ABC’s rivals, he had three guidelines of engagement: Every night time needed to have not less than one returning present; returning exhibits needed to be robust sufficient to assist new ones; and the community needed to counterprogram CBS and NBC with interesting options.
The plan didn’t work. ABC completed far behind its rivals.
After three years because the president of ABC Leisure, Mr. Starger left in 1975 to begin his personal manufacturing firm, with a deal to create applications solely for the community.
Nonetheless, among the programming he left behind for his successor, Fred Silverman, was answerable for ABC’s rise to the highest spot in prime time for the 1976-77 season. Seven of the ten top-rated exhibits that season had been on ABC, together with “Comfortable Days,” “The Six Million Greenback Man” and “Baretta,” holdovers from Mr. Starger’s time there.
John J. O’Connor, a TV critic for The New York Instances, took observe. “Mockingly,” he wrote in 1977, “the inspiration for ABC’s present programming sample had been laid by Martin Starger, who was dismissed shortly earlier than the rankings started to climb.” (Some stories mentioned he was pushed out, others that he resigned to tackle a brand new problem.)
Martin Starger was born on Could 8, 1932, within the Bronx. His father, Isidore, was a manufacturing unit leather-based employee who made purses (which had been bought by, amongst others, Eleanor Roosevelt). His mom, Rose (Stamler) Starger, managed the family.
After graduating from the Metropolis Faculty of New York in 1953 with a bachelor’s diploma in movement image strategies, Mr. Starger was drafted into the Military. He served for 2 years within the movement image division of the Sign Corps; for a few of that point he was primarily based in Honolulu, the place he wrote, directed and edited movies.
After his discharge, he joined the promoting company Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (now often called BBDO) as an assistant projectionist, at a time when businesses produced tv exhibits. He was later an account government and vice chairman.
He was recruited to ABC and held vice-presidential positions on the community earlier than changing into the president of ABC Leisure.
When he left ABC, he had a serious challenge in hand. Whereas on the community, he had agreed to have ABC finance “Nashville” (1975), Robert Altman’s multilayered drama set towards the background of the nation music trade. Mr. Starger and Jerry Weintraub had been the movie’s government producers. It was nominated for 5 Oscars and received for the most effective unique tune, “I’m Simple.”
A collection Mr. Starger created for ABC, “Westside Medical,” a few clinic in Southern California, had a quick run in 1977.
For the following 20 years, Mr. Starger produced theatrical and tv movies, some in partnership with the British leisure mogul Lew Grade and a few for his personal firm, Marstar Productions. The quite a few movies on which he was a producer or government producer included two Muppet motion pictures, “Sophie’s Alternative” (1982), “Masks” (1985), “Escape From Sobibor” (1987) and “Love Letters” (1999).
Mr. Starger was the chief producer of “Pleasant Fireplace,” a 1979 TV film primarily based on the true story of a pair (performed by Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty) who fought the federal government to study the reality concerning the killing of their son, a soldier in the course of the Vietnam Conflict. It received the Emmy Award for excellent drama or comedy particular, which Mr. Starger shared along with his co-producers Fay Kanin, who additionally wrote the script, and Philip Barry Jr.
He additionally produced a number of Broadway exhibits, together with three within the Eighties: “Merrily We Roll Alongside,” Stephen Sondheim’s cult flop, which closed after 16 performances in 1981 however grew to become a success when it was revived on Broadway final 12 months; “Starlight Categorical,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical about steam engines, with actors acting on curler skates; and the comedy “Lend Me a Tenor.”
Mr. Starger’s marriage to Judith Newburg led to divorce in 1975 after eight years. No fast members of the family survive.
Considered one of Mr. Starger’s ardour tasks was resuscitating “Omnibus,” the bold tradition, leisure and data collection hosted by Alistair Cooke, which premiered on CBS in 1952 and lasted 9 years. Mr. Starger mentioned that “Omnibus” impressed him to work within the tv enterprise, and that the reminiscence of it led him to amass the rights to revive it on ABC.
“My feeling is that we ought to not do an occasional ‘Omnibus’ particular,’” he advised The Instances in 1980, shortly earlier than the primary episode aired, “however slightly to have one thing of its caliber and high quality in an everyday recurring spot. That’s if there’s receptivity. And I feel there might be.”
However there was not. ABC confirmed only some episodes by way of 1981. And Mr. Starger moved on. Two of the movies he produced, “Crimson Flag: The Final Recreation,” a army drama, and “The Final Unicorn,” an animated fable, would quickly be launched.
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