Brandon Tartikoff Dead at 48

  • Share
  • Read Later
DIED: Former NBC Entertainment wunderkind Brandon Tartikoff, of Hodgkins disease. He had recently been undergoing chemotherapy for his third recurrence of Hodgkins disease. Tartikoff in 1980 became the youngest entertainment president in network history when he took over NBC at age 30. In just a few years he took a network that was a laughing stock, and moved it to the top of the prime-time heap, by programming such shows as "L.A. Law" and "The Cosby Show." In March of this year, Tartikoff moved to the Internet and America Online to help develop the service's entertainment content. "I met with him a couple of months ago and, although thin, he seemed on the way to recovery," says TIME Media Writer Richard Zoglin. "He had a lot of projects in the works, from cable, movies and AOL, and he seemed really focused on moving ahead."