Anthony Denis "Tony" Thomopoulos ( el, Αντώνης Θωμόπουλος) is an American motion picture and television executive. Thomopoulos spent 12 years of his career at ABC, moving progressively from Vice President of Prime Time Programs, to President of

ABC Entertainment The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Calif ...

, to President of ABC Broadcast Group.

Biography

The son of Greek immigrants, he grew up in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. His dad owned a restaurant, young Tony was raised in the

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

Church. After a high school aptitude test marked Thomopoulos as a potential diplomat, he applied to

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...

's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. But while at the Washington university, he got interested in business instead. His first job out of college was as a mail clerk at NBC's New York headquarters.

Business career

In 1973, Barry Diller hired Thomopoulos at ABC to oversee prime-time programming. He was noted, among other things, for the tough position he took in dealing with the contract holdout of Suzanne Somers on the hit ABC show '' Three's Company'', and for his quick cancellation of the 1982 cult favorite '' Police Squad!'', explaining that the show had been cancelled because, among other reasons, "it required constant attention". In June 1983, he was named president of the broadcast group. He resigned as president in 1985 and became chairman of

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

Pictures, where he supervised such productions as '' Betrayed'', ''Baby Boom'', and ''

The Living Daylights ''The Living Daylights'' is a 1987 spy film, the fifteenth entry in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first of two to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the film's ...

''. In 1989, Thomopoulos formed Thomopoulos Productions, an independent production company of both motion pictures and television programs. From 1991 to 1995, he was President of Amblin Television, a division of

Amblin Entertainment Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marsha ...

. He was responsible for the original placement of NBC's highly acclaimed program ER, in addition to several other successful series on network television. In 1995, Thomopoulos joined International Family Entertainment, Inc. (IFE). His responsibilities included all aspects of programming for The Family Channel. He was named CEO of MTM Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of IFE, and was also responsible for all aspects of MTM Television and MTM Distribution. Thomopoulos was Chairman and CEO of artist

Thomas Kinkade William Thomas Kinkade III (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012) was an American painter of popular realistic, pastoral, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for achieving success during his lifetime with the mass marketing of his work as ...

's Media Arts Group from June 2001 to January 2004. He subsequently founded Morning Light Productions.Lauren Beale
"Cristina Ferrare, Tony Thomopoulos sell Wilshire Corridor condo"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', August 23, 2011.

Personal life

Thomopoulos's first marriage ended in 1983 after 22 years, and produced three children. In 1985 he married television host Cristina Ferrare."Leaving Her Trials (and De Lorean) Behind, Cristina Ferrare Weds in a Marriage Made in Private"
''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

'', May 6, 1985. They have two children, Arianna (born 1989) and Alexandra (born 1986). As of 2011 they lived in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

References

External links

*
Witness to History: Anthony “Tony” Thomopoulos (F’59)

interview, November 12, 2008 (video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomopoulos, Anthony Living people Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni American people of Greek descent People from the Bronx Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) American media executives American Broadcasting Company executives Presidents of American Broadcasting Company Entertainment