Jamie Kellner, a pioneering media executive who helped expand the world of broadcast television by creating the Fox and WB networks, died Friday. He was 77 years old.
Kellner also oversaw CNN, TNT and TBS as president and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System.
He died at his home in Montecito after a long battle with cancer, according to a family spokesperson.
Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Kellner first made a name for himself at Orion Entertainment Group, where he spearheaded an effort with Lorne Michaels to buy the rights to the original episodes of “Saturday Night Live,” which were cut to 30 minutes. . episodes and sold in distribution.
The lucrative partnership caught the attention of Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller, who in the mid-1980s were planning to launch a new broadcast network to rival the long-established “Big Three”: ABC, NBC and CBS. Kellner became the first president and chief operating officer of Fox Broadcasting Co.
Launched in 1986, Fox was the first new American broadcast television network since ABC in 1948.
Kellner poached a young NBC executive named Garth Ancier to run programming.
In a phone call Sunday, Ancier remembered Kellner as a formidable executive who “not only understood television audiences, but also understood the entire way the television system worked in the United States,” from affiliates to advertisers. Ancier, who also worked with Kellner at the WB, recalled traveling to affiliates around the country, trying to attract them to Fox.
At the time, few industry insiders thought Fox would have much staying power.
“My bosses – [NBC chief executive] Grant Tinker, in particular, believed there would never be a fourth network,” Ancier said. “And they said, 'On top of that, most of those stations they're putting together are UHF,' like it was the plague. It just meant we had to be different from the other networks.”
Kellner helped shape the network's brand identity and turn it into a destination for edgier content, such as the raunchy family comedy “Married… With Children,” a show that initially generated controversy but became a hit Long duration.
“One of the first tests we apply is: would one of the three networks do this? And very often, if the answer is “yes”, then we disqualify it. “There's no reason for us to exist if we're going to do what they've already done,” Kellner told the New York Times in 1986.
Fox attracted younger viewers with shows that challenged industry conventions, such as “In Living Color,” the irreverent comedy show with a predominantly black cast; and “Beverly Hills, 90120,” a high school soap opera that became one of the defining shows of the 1990s.
“The only reason we did 'The Simpsons' was because no one had done prime-time animation since ABC in the '60s with 'The Flintstones' and 'The Jetsons.'”
“The most important lessons we learned were to be different, to speak with a different voice than what was already available to viewers, and to be as young as possible,” Kellner told The Times in 1997.
He left Fox in 1993, just as the network was expanding to a seventh night of programming and had numerous hits like the “90210” spinoff “Melrose Place.” In just seven years, Kellner had turned a “ramshackle UHF affiliate chain into a major competitor,” as The Times put it at the time.
He soon began searching for an idea for a fifth transmission chain. In 1995, he launched WB, which initially made its mark with dark comedies like “The Wayans Bros.”, “The Jamie Foxx Show” and “Sister, Sister,” but faced stiff competition from another potential contender, UPN. “We wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think it would be as successful or more successful than the Fox network,” he said at the beginning of the WB's reign.
One of the network's first hits was the impeccable family drama “7th Heaven.” In the late '90s, the network leaned toward teen-centric dramas and ushered in a Golden Age for young adult programming that could be both sentimental and self-aware, with shows like “Dawson's Creek.” , “Felicity” and “Gilmore Girls.” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” In 2002, the network, in which he had a stake, was valued at $1 billion.
“I think the magic of that place came a lot from his leadership, which was placing bets on people,” said Greg Berlanti, who was tapped at age 28 to become showrunner of “Dawson's Creek” and created two other shows on the WB, “Everwood” and “Jack & Bobby.” He remembered Kellner as an executive who supported creative talent and gave shows time to grow, but he could also tell you “in which five cities your show was most popular.”
“I am very glad to have met that type of leader at that age, someone who led with curiosity and compassion and was clear-headed and honest. He instilled in the people around him a sense of faith in themselves.” Berlanti believes that Kellner-era WB was “the most successful youth network in the history of television,” in part because Kellner “didn't see it as a minor audience.”
While still at the WB, he was chosen to succeed Ted Turner as president and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, where he oversaw TBS, TNT and CNN. He angered wrestling fans in 2001 by canceling World Championship Wrestling's programming on TNT and TBS. He presided over CNN during a period of seismic changes in the news business, with increased competition from Fox News and MSNBC and the catastrophic attacks of 9/11.
Kellner was known for fostering loyalty among his top executives, several of whom moved with him from network to network. “He gave you tremendous freedom as a boss and mentor, always empowering you to make bold, decisive decisions and never settling for what has always been done,” said Brad Turell, who was head of corporate communications at Fox, WB and Turner Broadcasting during the Turner administration. Kellner.
Kellner retired from the business in 2004, when he was only 57 years old.
“I found it hard to believe because he was very competitive, in the best sense of the word, and very vigorous. But when it was over, it was really over,” Ancier said.
He remained busy pursuing passions such as sailing and gold. He also opened a winery, Cent'Anni, in the Santa Ynez Valley, and was known for offering Italian meals at his home.
He is survived by his wife, Julie Smith, daughter Melissa, son Christopher and three grandchildren, Jake, Scarlett and Oliver.
