Brandon Tartikoff

 Brandon Tartikoff (January 13, 1949 – August 27, 1997)

He was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Law & Order, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, The Golden Girls, Wings, Miami Vice, Knight Rider, The A-Team, Saved by the Bell, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , St. Elsewhere, and Night Court. Tartikoff also helped develop the 1984 sitcom Punky Brewster; he named the title character after a girl he had a crush on in school. Punky Brewster's pet dog Brandon was named after Tartikoff. He was also involved in the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Beggars and Choosers. Jerry Seinfeld credited Tartikoff with saving Seinfeld from cancellation during its first four years of struggling ratings. He left NBC in 1991, moving to Paramount Pictures to become its chairman. A year later, Tartikoff left that post to spend more time with his daughter, Calla, who was injured in a car crash near the family's Lake Tahoe home. In 1994, he made his comeback to national TV with Last Call, a short-lived late-night discussion show he produced. Later that year, he began a brief run as chairman of New World Entertainment.

Just prior to his death, Tartikoff served as the chairman of the AOL project "Entertainment Asylum," for which he teamed with Scott Zakarin to build the world's first interactive broadcast studio. Tartikoff died on August 27, 1997, at age 48 from Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer, with which he had had three separate bouts over 25 years. He is buried at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles.