Karey Burke, NBC's executive vice president of development, is joining former
ABC President of Entertainment Jamie Tarses to head up their own production
company housed at NBC Studios.
NBC signed the two, who have a long history of working together at NBC, to a
two-year overall deal, said NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker.
"Jamie and I plan to deliver Jeff, Kevin and the team here intelligent,
daring and commercial shows in the tradition that viewers have come to expect
from NBC," Burke said.
Burke has been at NBC since 1988, when she began in NBC's comedy development
department as an assistant to Tarses until 1991.
She left and went to ABC Productions for two years and then returned to NBC
as Tarses' director of comedy development and has remained at NBC ever since.
She was named to her current title in April 2000, and in the past three years
has overseen development of such NBC shows as Scrubs, Crossing
Jordan, Ed, Just Shoot Me, Providence, Third Rock
from the Sun and last year American Dreams and Boomtown.
Tarses arrived at NBC in 1989 to be director of comedy development, and she
rose to vice president of comedy development in 1992.
While at NBC, Tarses developed such hit shows at Friends, Mad About
You, Wings and News Radio.
Tarses headed development at NBC until 1996, and then went to ABC as
president of entertainment until 1999.
After leaving ABC, she was president of Three Sisters Productions, the
production company of Emmy Award-winning producer/director James Burrows.
