Brandon Stoddard (March 31, 1937 – December 22, 2014) was an American television executive. He was president of ABC Entertainment between 1985–89 and head of ABC Productions between 1989–1995. He was born in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

Early life

Brandon Stoddard was born in

in on March 31, 1937. His parents were Johnson Stoddard, a lawyer, and Constance Stoddard. He grew up in Southport. He played guitar in a calypso band. He attended Deerfield Academy and graduated from Yale College in 1958. In the summer of 1958, he was a member of a Yale thespian group that toured Europe for two months, which included a month of performances at army bases. He studied at Columbia Law School.

Career

Brandon Stoddard started his career in ABC Studios in 1970 as the director of daytime programming, he led the network's motion picture division and president of ABC Entertainment from 1985 to 1989. During his tenure as the head of ABC entertainment shows such as ''

Roseanne ''Roseanne'' is an American sitcom television series created by Matt Williams and Roseanne Barr which aired on ABC from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, and briefly revived from March 27, 2018, to May 22, 2018. The show stars Barr as Roseann ...

'', '' The Wonder Years'' and '' Thirtysomething'' were created. He was responsible for the creation of TV movies like ''Friendly Fire'' and '' The Day After''. He worked to develop the

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

in American television. Miniseries included ''The Thorn Birds'' (1983), ''The Winds of War'' (1983), and ''Amerika''. His most successful show was the miniseries ''Roots'' based on Alex Haley's novel. From 1989 to 1995 he was the president of the first in-house production company in ABC producing shows like '' My So-Called Life.'' After leaving ABC he worked as an adjunct professor at University of Southern California’s School for Cinema and Television, teaching graduate students for ten years.

Personal life

He was married twice. His first wife was

Alexandra Stoddard Alexandra Stoddard, born Alexandra Green Johns, is an author, interior designer, and lifestyle writer. Stoddard has published 28 books as of April 2013. She is the mother of two daughters, Alexandra and Brooke, by her first husband Brandon Stoddard ...

, with whom he had two daughters: journalist

A. B. Stoddard Alexandra Brandon Stoddard is a writer at large at The Bulwark (website), The Bulwark and an associate editor and columnist at RealClearPolitics. Previously, she worked as an associate editor and columnist for ''The Hill (newspaper), The Hill'' n ...

and Brooke Stoddard. His second wife was Mary Anne Dolan.

Death and legacy

In March 2014, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. He died of bladder cancer at Bel-Air, California in 2014.

References

External links

* * 1937 births 2014 deaths American Broadcasting Company executives Presidents of American Broadcasting Company Entertainment Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from bladder cancer Businesspeople from Bridgeport, Connecticut People from Southport, Connecticut Deerfield Academy alumni Yale College alumni Columbia Law School alumni {{US-tv-bio-stub