Criticism Noted

A commmenter writes: "I think you overrate Jay Tarses and his maverickness(?)"

Point definitely taken. Some of the Jay Tarses stories -- including those recounted in Lynne Farr's article (which appears to have disappeared from the WGA site, but the cache is still there) aren't that atypical in TV-writer terms. I once wrote up a character vaguely based on Tarses and I may be guilty of conflating him with that character.

Still, I've always been kind of fascinated by the tale of Tarses and his status as the king of the ambitious failure that eventually gives someone else the idea for a hit. "Buffalo Bill," "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" and "The Slap Maxwell Story" influenced future hit shows ("Molly Dodd" especially) without ever becoming hits themselves. There are other showrunners with that kind of track record, and still other showrunners who have, um, quirky personalities, but it's the combination that makes Tarses an interesting character, at least in theory. (Plus the additional irony that his daughter became a network executive.)