Martin Starger, who as a senior executive at ABC in the 1970s helped bring “Happy Days,” “Roots,” “Rich Man, Poor Man” and other shows to the small screen — and the network nearly to the brink of No. 1 in prime time — before turning to producing movies, most notably Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” died on May 31 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 92.
His death was confirmed by his niece, Ilene Starger, a casting director.
Mr. Starger joined ABC in the mid-1960s and rose to positions of increasing importance, culminating in his promotion to president of ABC Entertainment in 1972.
The entertainment mogul Barry Diller, who was one of his protégés at ABC, described Mr. Starger in an email as “the quintessential television executive of the 1970s.” He was, Mr. Diller said, the “essence of N.Y. smarts: suave, sophisticated and funny. He was culturally ahead of his audience but was pragmatic in his programming choices, but ever striving for better.”
Mr. Starger’s time at ABC was characterized by the network’s long struggle to break out of last place in prime time, behind CBS and NBC, in what was then a three-network universe.
Mr. Starger and other executives balanced middlebrow programs, including “Marcus Welby, M.D.” and “The Six Million Dollar Man,” with TV movies like “The Missiles of October” (1974), which dramatized the Cuban missile crisis, and prestigious mini-series like “Roots,” based on Alex Haley’s book about his family history.
“Roots” — which ran for eight consecutive nights in 1977, although it did not air until after Mr. Starger had left ABC — was a colossal ratings smash and won nine Emmys. It was part of Mr. Starger’s strategy to adapt best-selling books like Leon Uris’s novel “QB VII” (1974), which was developed into a two-night, six-hour event, and Irwin Shaw’s novel “Rich Man, Poor Man” (1976), the basis of a nine-part mini-series.
Mr. Starger’s penchant for putting brainier-than-usual programs on ABC’s schedule prompted John Carmody, a television reporter for The Washington Post, to describe Mr. Starger in 1973 as “the intellectual of the three network programming chiefs.”
Ultimately, Mr. Starger had to find a way to beat NBC and CBS. In 1974, he added 12 new series to ABC’s schedule to replace unsuccessful ones.
He said that in the battle to gain ground against ABC’s rivals, he had three rules of engagement: Each night had to have at least one returning show; returning shows had to be strong enough to help new ones; and the network had to counterprogram CBS and NBC with appealing alternatives.
The plan did not work. ABC finished far behind its rivals.
After three years as the president of ABC Entertainment, Mr. Starger left in 1975 to start his own production company, with a deal to create programs exclusively for the network.
Nonetheless, some of the programming he left behind for his successor, Fred Silverman, was responsible for ABC’s rise to the top spot in prime time for the 1976-77 season. Seven of the 10 top-rated shows that season were on ABC, including “Happy Days,” “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Baretta,” holdovers from Mr. Starger’s time there.
John J. O’Connor, a TV critic for The New York Times, took note. “Ironically,” he wrote in 1977, “the foundation for ABC’s current programming pattern had been laid by Martin Starger, who was dismissed shortly before the ratings began to climb.” (Some reports said he was pushed out, others that he resigned to take on a new challenge.)
Martin Starger was born on May 8, 1932, in the Bronx. His father, Isidore, was a factory leather worker who made handbags (which were purchased by, among others, Eleanor Roosevelt). His mother, Rose (Stamler) Starger, managed the household.
After graduating from the City College of New York in 1953 with a bachelor’s degree in motion picture techniques, Mr. Starger was drafted into the Army. He served for two years in the motion picture division of the Signal Corps; for some of that time he was based in Honolulu, where he wrote, directed and edited films.
After his discharge, he joined the advertising agency Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (now known as BBDO) as an assistant projectionist, at a time when agencies produced television shows. He was later an account executive and vice president.
He was recruited to ABC and held vice-presidential positions at the network before becoming the president of ABC Entertainment.
When he left ABC, he had a major project in hand. While at the network, he had agreed to have ABC finance “Nashville” (1975), Robert Altman’s multilayered drama set against the background of the country music industry. Mr. Starger and Jerry Weintraub were the film’s executive producers. It was nominated for five Oscars and won for the best original song, “I’m Easy.”
A series Mr. Starger created for ABC, “Westside Medical,” about a clinic in Southern California, had a brief run in 1977.
For the next two decades, Mr. Starger produced theatrical and television films, some in partnership with the British entertainment mogul Lew Grade and some for his own company, Marstar Productions. The numerous films on which he was a producer or executive producer included two Muppet movies, “Sophie’s Choice” (1982), “Mask” (1985), “Escape From Sobibor” (1987) and “Love Letters” (1999).
Mr. Starger was the executive producer of “Friendly Fire,” a 1979 TV movie based on the true story of a couple (played by Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty) who fought the government to learn the truth about the killing of their son, a soldier during the Vietnam War. It won the Emmy Award for outstanding drama or comedy special, which Mr. Starger shared with his co-producers Fay Kanin, who also wrote the script, and Philip Barry Jr.
He also produced several Broadway shows, including three in the 1980s: “Merrily We Roll Along,” Stephen Sondheim’s cult flop, which closed after 16 performances in 1981 but became a hit when it was revived on Broadway last year; “Starlight Express,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical about steam engines, with actors performing on roller skates; and the comedy “Lend Me a Tenor.”
Mr. Starger’s marriage to Judith Newburg ended in divorce in 1975 after eight years. No immediate family members survive.
One of Mr. Starger’s passion projects was resuscitating “Omnibus,” the ambitious culture, entertainment and information series hosted by Alistair Cooke, which premiered on CBS in 1952 and lasted nine years. Mr. Starger said that “Omnibus” inspired him to work in the television business, and that the memory of it led him to acquire the rights to revive it on ABC.
“My feeling is that we ought not to do an occasional ‘Omnibus’ special,’” he told The Times in 1980, shortly before the first episode aired, “but rather to have something of its caliber and quality in a regular recurring spot. That’s if there’s receptivity. And I think there will be.”
But there was not. ABC showed only a few episodes through 1981. And Mr. Starger moved on. Two of the films he produced, “Red Flag: The Ultimate Game,” a military drama, and “The Last Unicorn,” an animated fable, would soon be released.