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Last week, at least, she finally had the stage to herself, appearing before a crowd of advertisers in New York's Radio City Music Hall to announce her first fall schedule. It was an aggressive lineup, with 10 new shows and several old ones in new time periods. Among the newcomers: Total Security, a Steven Bochco drama about a security firm; Hiller and Diller, starring Richard Lewis and Kevin Nealon as comedy writers with families; and two fantasy-comedies for the Friday-night kid audience, Genie and Teen Angel, both produced by corporate parent Disney.
Despite the spate of rumors, Tarses says she has been reassured that her job is not in jeopardy. "Basically I've been assured I'll be given time to fail," she says. That is echoed by her boss, ABC president Robert Iger. "The speculation as to whether we're happy or unhappy with her is ridiculously premature," says Iger. "She has my support. We have a very talented person in Jamie Tarses, and as far as we're concerned she's the right person for that job." Still, Tarses is realistic--or fatalistic--enough to know that such support could disappear quickly if she doesn't produce results soon. "My feeling is, if [the schedule] is an unmitigated disaster by December, they'll need to do something," she says. "And perhaps they should do something."
She is nettled by the sniping that has dogged her first year in the job. "I have no problem with being judged for the work that I do. I have a lot of trouble with being judged based upon nothing. When I walked in the door--I wasn't ready for this job, was what everybody said. My age and my sex, I think, have a lot to do with it. And I'd never felt that before."
Hollywood's version of the old-boy network does appear to be engaged in an insidious form of hazing. "I think there is a fair amount of sexism and reverse ageism at work here," says Ted Harbert, Tarses' predecessor as ABC Entertainment chief. "That gets the skeptics going full speed." Still, her detractors say her behavior in the job has not helped her cause. They describe Tarses as both insecure and out of her depth, driving underlings hard and treating former friends and colleagues shabbily. She raised eyebrows by ordering two pilots co-produced by her boyfriend, former Letterman executive producer Robert Morton, and giving one of them, Over the Top (a sitcom starring Tim Curry), a choice Tuesday-night time period. Worse, from the standpoint of Hollywood's dealmakers, she is perceived as having been stripped of real power by her bosses, Iger and Disney chairman Michael Eisner.