You can tell Dave is extremely nervous interviewing his boss but he does a great job with his questions and shows the right amount of respect for such a powerful man. Tinker has several interviews on here that are fascinating to watch, talking about all the shows we remember and all the people he worked with. Tinker mentioned his biggest mistake was passing on Bewitched, which is a great story by itself. The viewing public is so fickle it must be so difficult to make those decisions. Some shows--like Hill Street Blues and others--did not take off until the 2nd season. These days it would have been cancelled before getting another chance.
The discussion at 8:00 is fascinating... He talks about Cheers, but says he has great faith in it... many people wanted it canceled... and look what happened.. 11 years of Cheers and then 11 years of Frasier as a spinoff... Kelsey Grammer sure owed him a special debt of gratitude.
Interestingly, all the shows he mentioned had a long shelf-life. You'd think there'd be one odd clunker in the mix. "Cheers, Taxi, Remington Steele, St. Elsewhere, and, of course, Gavilan!"
Considering that Cheers was in last place of all regular prime-time shows in its first season, nobody would have thought anything of it if the show was canceled. But it survived only because Tinker thought it was a quality show. Tinker was a pretty humble guy but no one else would have given Cheers a second chance.
The sad news reminded me of course of the Late Night character Grant "Hi, Tom..." Tinker. Any chance of that compilation in the works?? (and of Robert C Wright after that...) Can't say this enough. Thank you for these uploads!!!
You're not the first to make that request. Elmer Gorry was his name. He was an NBC executive who briefly worked at Late Night as its Production Manager. Yeah, it's in the In box. Though I need a break after the Monty Python marathon all day and night yesterday. :)
Definitely a bygone era. You can see the propriety and fairness in his whole means of communicating before computers and ultra greed took over. Dave shows he can be a good journalist some of the questions he asked his boss were serious and probing.
Taxi was cancelled at the end of that season, which was a shame. Had Cheers been the huge hit it became right out of the gate, Taxi probably would've been a staple of NBC's Thursday night lineup and gone on to have a long life.
The great thing about Tinker was that he knew that Stern would be successful elsewhere. Tinker just didn't want sleazy programming on his own network so he chose ethics over money.
You can tell Dave is extremely nervous interviewing his boss but he does a great job with his questions and shows the right amount of respect for such a powerful man. Tinker has several interviews on here that are fascinating to watch, talking about all the shows we remember and all the people he worked with. Tinker mentioned his biggest mistake was passing on Bewitched, which is a great story by itself. The viewing public is so fickle it must be so difficult to make those decisions. Some shows--like Hill Street Blues and others--did not take off until the 2nd season. These days it would have been cancelled before getting another chance.
The discussion at 8:00 is fascinating... He talks about Cheers, but says he has great faith in it... many people wanted it canceled... and look what happened.. 11 years of Cheers and then 11 years of Frasier as a spinoff... Kelsey Grammer sure owed him a special debt of gratitude.
Interestingly, all the shows he mentioned had a long shelf-life. You'd think there'd be one odd clunker in the mix. "Cheers, Taxi, Remington Steele, St. Elsewhere, and, of course, Gavilan!"
Considering that Cheers was in last place of all regular prime-time shows in its first season, nobody would have thought anything of it if the show was canceled. But it survived only because Tinker thought it was a quality show. Tinker was a pretty humble guy but no one else would have given Cheers a second chance.
Family Ties also debuted that season, which would go on to huge success.
If only Dave knew that, a few years later, the 1-2 punch of Grant leaving and GE taking over RCA (and NBC) - my oh my.
I like the fact that Letterman is critical of the 1%...
Dave, you forget to mention who his boss is, Mary Tyler Moore.
They separated in 1979, divorced in ‘81.
R.I.P. Grant Tinker
The sad news reminded me of course of the Late Night character Grant "Hi, Tom..." Tinker. Any chance of that compilation in the works?? (and of Robert C Wright after that...)
Can't say this enough. Thank you for these uploads!!!
You're not the first to make that request. Elmer Gorry was his name. He was an NBC executive who briefly worked at Late Night as its Production Manager.
Yeah, it's in the In box. Though I need a break after the Monty Python marathon all day and night yesterday. :)
And thanks!
I had no idea that wasn't actually Grant Tinker... he sure looks like he could be Grant Tinker :-)
IMO, Grant should have picked up WKRP for NBC.
Grant a Tinker was no stranger to Dave. He was Mary Tyler Moore’s husband.
They had been divorced by the time Tinker appeared on the show.
Grant and Mary were still married and Grant was running MTM when Dave got his start on Mary's variety show.
It's funny that Dave had to interview his boss.
Definitely a bygone era. You can see the propriety and fairness in his whole means of communicating before computers and ultra greed took over. Dave shows he can be a good journalist some of the questions he asked his boss were serious and probing.
Taxi was cancelled at the end of that season, which was a shame. Had Cheers been the huge hit it became right out of the gate, Taxi probably would've been a staple of NBC's Thursday night lineup and gone on to have a long life.
He is the man who fired Howard Stern from NBC radio????
Grant Tinker fired Howard Stern back in the '80s for going on the air with "Beastiality Dial-a-Date". "What kind of 'great guy' is that?" LMAO :)
A man who has class. Howard Stern is an asshole.
The great thing about Tinker was that he knew that Stern would be successful elsewhere. Tinker just didn't want sleazy programming on his own network so he chose ethics over money.
@@jeffw1267 exactly. He did not want to compromise his standards.