Tales Of The Tube

Like Denis Thatcher or Maurice Tempelsmann, Grant A. Tinker will always be best known for his association with a famous woman: in his case, second wife Mary Tyler Moore. Among broadcasters, though, Tinker's name has become almost totemic. He stands for quality television--the embodiment of a nostalgic era in which TV networks were more than asset plays and a fresh programming concept wasn't simply anything without O.J. Simpson.

Happily, Tinker wears this reputation as lightly as the casual California wardrobe he favors. His memoir, Tinker in Television: From General Sarnoff to General Electric, is no ponderous sermon on the decline of network television. Instead, he and co-author Bud Rukeyser offer a lively stream of anecdotes that chart Tinker's rise from NBC intern to TV producer to chairman of the network where he got his start. Tinker is a natural raconteur; he even gets in his digs without seeming mean-spirited--no mean feat for someone in an industry that usually produces either hagiography or hatchet jobs.