Charlotte Brown (producer)

Charlotte Sue Brown (born October 20, 1943) is an American television producer, writer, director, and showrunner who in 1977 was acclaimed to have become the first woman showrunner of a primetime network television series for her work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show spin-off Rhoda.[1][2] However, Gertrude Berg, who created The Goldbergs, earned that title almost two decades earlier.

This article is about the television producer. For the educator and academic, see Charlotte Hawkins Brown.
Charlotte Brown
Born
Charlotte Sue Brown

(1943-10-20) October 20, 1943
Cleveland, Ohio U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Television producer, writer and director
Years active1972–1998
Known forRhoda

Early life and education

Brown was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jewish parents.[2] Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was young.[3]: 149  She grew up in the Fairfax and Pico-Robertson neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California, where her father was a musician and her mother worked in a clerical position at The May Company.[2]

Brown graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in English.[3]: 149 

Career

Brown's early career began first as a high school teacher,.[3]: 149  and then as a junior copywriter at an advertising agency.[2] She wanted to get into the TV industry and managed to meet James L. Brooks via her dentist, eventually visiting the set of early episode tapings of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She gave Brooks a spec script, and was mentored by Brooks, who hired her as a freelance writer.[2][4]

Brown worked on many of Grant Tinker['s MTM Enterprises shows run by writers James L. Brooks and Allan Burns during the early 1970s – shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Partridge Family, Love, American Style and The Bob Newhart Show[2] She was part of a universe of women writers that included Pat Nardo, Gail Parent, Susan Silver, and Treva Silverman.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was unusual to find a woman inside the writers' room of a primetime network television show other than secretaries and personal assistants. A notable exception was Madelyn Pugh, who wrote for the I Love Lucy series. After the success of Treva Silverman, some showrunners began to actively recruit women writers. One of them was James L. Brooks who hired Brown to write an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.[1] Assignments soon followed on The Sandy Duncan Show, The Partridge Family, and The Bob Newhart Show. For many of the series in which she worked, Brown was often the first woman writer that had ever been hired by that particular producer.[1][2]

When Brooks created Rhoda, a spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Brown was hired as a staff writer. She quickly rose up the ranks, becoming the program's executive producer in 1977.[5] As a result, Brown became one of the first female showrunners in primetime television history.[1][6]

Brown said that she based the character of Ida Morgenstern, Rhoda's mother, portrayed by actor Nancy Walker, on her own mother.[3]: 212  Rhoda ran for 5 seasons before it was canceled.[2]

Brown went on to direct and write. She created the 1992 tv series, The Powers That Be with Marta Kauffman and David Crane.[2]

Personal life

In the early 1980s, Brown adopted a daughter.[2]

Awards and recognition

Filmography

References
  1. Brown, Charlotte (23 September 2013). "TV Pioneer Charlotte Brown". WHOA! Network (Interview).
  2. Keegan, Rebecca (18 May 2021). "What It Was Like to Be the First Woman Running a Network TV Show". The Hollywood Reporter.
  3. Armstrong, Jennifer Keishin (2013). Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made the Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-451-65923-8. OCLC 892934319.
  4. "LA's Women Behind 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'". KCAL-TV. 9 July 2013.
  5. Tinker, Grant (23 October 2017). "Charlotte Brown". Television Academy Interviews.
  6. Lawrence, Jill (31 August 2019). "Valerie Harper's death reminded me of my rant about 'Rhoda' and the great response I got". USA Today.
  7. Sandler, Adam (23 August 1995). "Kirk". Variety.
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