Marcy Peterson Carsey
Marcy Carsey began her show business career as an NBC tour guide, and soon became
a production assistant on The Tonight Show. Following that, she became
a program supervisor at William Esty Advertising. After moving to Los Angeles
in 1969, she acted in commercials and worked as a script reader and story
analyst.
In
1974 Carsey joined ABC-TV as a general program executive for comedy programming.
Two years later she became vice president, prime-time comedy and variety
programs, and three years after that, senior vice president of prime-time
series. Along the way, Carsey oversaw the shows that put ABC on top of
the ratings by the late '70s: Mork
and Mindy, Soap, Barney Miller, and
Taxi, among others.
Carsey went out on her own in 1980 to pursue independent production, and a year
later teamed with Tom Werner to form Carsey-Werner. The company now employs
more than 100 people.
Carsey has consistently championed the rights of minorities. For six years, Carsey
funded a program that brought talented minority high school students to UNH for instruction in music and
English. The program was designed to offer the advantages of the University's
strong English and music departments, as well as to enrich the University
with the diversity of students enrolling in the program.
Carsey-Werner has won The Emmy, the People's Choice Award, The Golden Globe,
The NAACP Image Award, The Humanitas Prize, The Peabody, and humanitarian
awards for Carsey and Werner's efforts to produce responsible television.
In 1993, Carsey was named one of the top 50 women business owners in the
nation. She has helped create opportunities for women in broadcasting and,
along with partners Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach, has joined forces with
former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne and Oprah Winfrey to create
a new venture called Oxygen. This multimedia company fuses a new cable
channel with an Internet component, directed to serve women. She received
an honorary doctorate from UNH in 1988 and was honored with the Alumni Association's highest honor, the Pettee Medal, in 1999.
In 1996 Carsey, with partner Tom Werner, was inducted into the Hall of Fame of
the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Broadcasting
and Cable Magazine Hall of Fame. In 1999 they were given the Golden Plate
Award from the American Academy of Achievement, placing them in the Museum
of the American Dream as two of the 20th century's most extraordinary achievers.
In 2000, they shared the Golden Laurel Award from the Producers Guild of
America and were inducted into that Hall of Fame. Also in that year, Carsey
received the Lucy Award from Women In Film.
Marcy Carsey is a native of Weymouth, Mass. and a 1966 cum laude graduate in
English literature from the University of New Hampshire.