Rose Catherine Pinkney
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Rose Catherine Pinkney (born 1964) is an American television development executive. She was hired as the VP Development and Original Programming for
TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cl ...
in 2012. Pinkney has previously served as Director of Programming at
Twentieth Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Com ...
, senior vice president of comedy development at Paramount Pictures Television and executive vice president of programming and production at TV One. She most recently served as the head of the television arm of
Laurence Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is a three time Emmy Award and Tony Award winning actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He has been hailed for his forceful, militant, and authoritative charact ...
's production company, Cinema Gypsy. Among Pinkney's accolades are Network Journal's 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business, Cable World's Top 50 Women in Cable and
Black Enterprise ''Black Enterprise'' is a black-owned multimedia company. Since the 1970s, its flagship product ''Black Enterprise'' magazine has covered African-American businesses with a readership of 3.7 million. The company was founded in 1970 by Earl ...
's Top 50 Entertainment Executives.


Early life and academic career

Pinkney was born and raised in Prince George's County, Maryland, the youngest child and only daughter of Joseph and Maud Pinkney. She points to her parents' marriage, which had lasted 56 years, as her model of personal values that she has carried through life. Hailing from
Brandywine Brandywine may refer to: Food and drink *Brandy, a spirit produced by distilling wine *Brandywine tomato, a variety of heirloom tomato Geographic locations Canada * Brandywine Falls Provincial Park, British Columbia * Brandywine Mountain, British ...
, Maryland, Pinkney is a graduate of
Gwynn Park High School Gwynn Park High School (GPHS) is in Brandywine census-designated place, Prince George's County, Maryland,A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in sociology and an
M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...
from
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
's Anderson School of Management with a concentration in
marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
and entertainment management. Pinkney is a graduate of Princeton and a lifetime member of its Association of Black Princeton Alumni. She graduated from the Anderson School in 1988 and served on its Alumni Advisory Board.


Professional career

While director of programming at Twentieth Century Fox, she developed series such as ''
The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...
'' and supervised ''
In Living Color ''In Living Color'' is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in ...
'' for four years. While serving as director of programming she developed comedy, drama and alternative series and as current programming executive, she oversaw the production of several
comedies Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...
,
dramas Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been c ...
and alternative shows each year. Among the other shows she developed were ''
New York Undercover ''New York Undercover'' is an American police drama that aired on the Fox television network from September 8, 1994, to February 11, 1999. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torre ...
'', '' South Central'', and ''
Alien Nation ''Alien Nation'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Rockne S. O'Bannon (later known for '' Farscape''), comprising film, television, and other media productions about alien refugees living on Earth. The series began with ...
''. Subsequently, she served as Upton Entertainment's vice president and head of television. Here she supervised the creation of ''
New York Undercover ''New York Undercover'' is an American police drama that aired on the Fox television network from September 8, 1994, to February 11, 1999. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torre ...
''. Next, she was senior vice president of comedy development at Paramount Network Television, where over the course of nearly ten years she developed more than 30
television programs A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed bet ...
for six
television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid- ...
s, including
United Paramount Network The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...
's (UPN) '' Girlfriends''. She joined Paramount in 1995 as vice president of comedy development and was promoted to senior vice president and department head in 2002. During her time at Paramount other shows she developed included ''
Becker Becker () is one of the German-language surnames, along with Bäcker and Baecker, that derive from the root, which refers to baking. The surname began as a name for a baker (and thus his family). In northern Germany it can also derive from the ...
'', '' One on One'' and ''
Andy Richter Controls the Universe ''Andy Richter Controls the Universe'' is a sitcom which aired from 2002–2003 on the Fox network. The series was Andy Richter's first starring role after leaving NBC's ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' in 2000. Running for two seasons, totaling ...
''. As department head, her responsibilities included identifying writers, directors, talent and ideas for comedy series for television. She was hired at TV One, which is the second-oldest and second-largest black television network behind
BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...
, in December 2005, and she started in January 2006. At TV One, where she served as executive vice president of programming and development, she was responsible for programming strategy and oversaw all program production, acquisition, scheduling and business development for the network. Her time at TV One was spent in unscripted
reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
and lifestyle programming television. When UPN and WB merged to form CW in September 2006 prior to the 2006–07 United States network television season, several of the
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
-themed
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
s that Pinkney had developed while at Paramount were short-lived. Pinkney has been one of the more outspoken executives on the issue of portrayal of race relations on air. In December 2008, Cinema Gypsy, which is
Laurence Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is a three time Emmy Award and Tony Award winning actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He has been hailed for his forceful, militant, and authoritative charact ...
's production company, signed a first-look deal with
CBS Paramount Network Television CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...
to produce television shows. At that time, Pinkney was named to head the television arm of Cinema Gypsy as it expanded its operations to television programming. In her capacity, she oversaw the development of programming for broadcast and
cable network Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, op ...
s. In 2012, Pinkney became VP Development and Original Programming at TV Land, assuming responsibility for TV Land’s existing original series and the development of new ones. Pinkney reports to the EVP Development and Original Programming Keith Cox.


References


External links


Filmography
at
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinkney, Rose Catherine 1964 births Living people African-American businesspeople American marketing people American television executives Women television executives American women in business Marketing women People from Brandywine, Maryland Princeton University alumni UCLA Anderson School of Management alumni 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women