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s
a Hollywood Diva, Marcy Carsey is a bust. She has
the credits and the balance sheet to qualify for
the Diva Club, but the attitude that defines a Maria
Callas or a Madonna (not names one usually reads
in the same sentence) is conspicuously missing from
the Carsey bag of tricks.
For
readers that haven't watched popular television
in the past 20 years, Marcy Carsey is a partner
and co-founder of Carsey-Werner-Mandabach (CWM),
one of the most successful independent studios in
the history of the television industry.
CWM
shows are seen in more than 175 countries and include
hits such as "The Cosby Show," "A Different World,"
"Roseanne," "Grace Under Fire," "Cybill," "3rd Rock
from the Sun," "That 70's Show," and "Grounded for
Life." Not a bad list of credits for an English
Literature major from the University of New Hampshire.
Heck, it wouldn't be a bad list of credits if your
name were Michael Eisner.
Cut
from a Different Cloth
Proving that you can take the girl out of New
England but you can't take New England out of the
girl, Carsey is defined more by her family from
Weymouth, MA, than by the industry that landed her
a spot in the National Academy of Television Arts
and Sciences' Hall of Fame.
While
her Studio City office may sport everything from
the Women in Film "Lucy Award" to the "David Susskind
Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Producer's
Guild of America, she probably knows fewer Hollywood
stars than the average starlet on the Beverly Hills
cocktail party circuit.
Rather
than power vacations at chic resorts supported by
the rich and at least temporarily famous, Carsey's
vacations are strictly East Coast family affairs.
Together with her 91-year old mother, her brother,
her nephew and his family, and her own children
and their friends, she spends two months each summer
exploring the joys of sitting on her porch and staring
at the Atlantic.
Given
the choice, Carsey prefers to dine in rather than
dine out. Dinners in her household take the form
of large and loud multi-generational meals. From
time to time, the former ABC senior executive can
even be spotted playing the spoons in a backyard
concert with a pick up band of family members and
local musicians.
Carsey's
volunteer activities also take place far from the
movers and shakers of the entertainment industry.
A
founding member of Women's Enterprise Development
Corporation, Women Incorporated, and most recently,
the Center for Cultural Innovation - all
nonprofit organizations dedicated to economic development
for people who never have had the keys to any executive
washroom - Carsey is generally the only
recognizable name on the letterhead of the nonprofit
causes she supports.
These
days, she no longer rushes to board meetings wearing
shirts swiped from the set of one of her television
shows, but she also is seldom sighted in outfits
featured at Versace's spring launch.
In
short, few of the trappings of an entertainment
industry legend are in evidence when Carsey aligns
herself with grassroots or community projects. With
some justification, one recipient of her generosity
described Marcy Carsey as a "stealth donor."
Even
an occasional vacation in Europe skirts the star-studded
trails leading to glamour spots like Puerta Banus
and Monaco.
Biking
with her brother and his friends through the French
countryside is more Carsey's speed, particularly
if the countryside is dotted with roadside wineries.
Instead of a personal trainer to get her in shape
for a daily hour (or six) of flatland biking, she
opts instead for 10 long minutes of frenetic air
biking to get her sufficiently toned the night before
she hops a plane for France.
Having
It All
Which is not to say that Marcy Carsey takes
either her private life or her business casually.
She and her longtime partners, Tom Werner and Caryn
Mandabach, have structured their company so that
they have no outside interests or shareholders to
protect.
Which
is not to say that Marcy Carsey takes either her
private life or her business casually. She and her
longtime partners, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach,
have structured their company so that they have
no outside interests or shareholders to protect.
The
partners have positioned themselves so that they
have the freedom to take risks and to pick and choose
the projects and partners they want, both in television
and in the movie industry. Sometimes it works out,
sometimes it doesn't. But, in the last 10 years,
the various operating divisions of CWM have generated
more than $3 billion.
CWM's
financial strength also enables the partners to
have personal lives. At an age where their children
are exploring their own independent careers, the
principals of CWM are both young enough and old
enough to enjoy the financial rewards, the recognition,
the honors, and the independence their success has
earned them.
Carsey
may always have been old enough and young enough
to define success in the process of the journey
and the pleasures of the moment. Not one to view
20-hour work days as a good thing, she always made
an effort to carve out time for Little League, sailing
with her family, and dinner with her kids.
Sometimes
it worked, sometimes it didn't. Speaking at a women's
conference in 1996, she said, "It's not true that
you can't have it all. You just can't have it all
at once."
She
may still believe those words but today, the former
NBC tour guide, who is moving away from the sunny
side of 50, must feel she finally has most of whatever
it is. 2003 could be, for her, one of those lucky
moments in time where life really is about as good
as it gets.
Her
adored mother lives with her, her children (both
of whom apparently inherited their late father's
"funny bone") work nearby in Los Angeles. Her brother
and nephew are close enough to come to dinner when
she vacations back East each summer, and 100 million
people, speaking 50 different languages, still watch
the programs she and her pals created after she
and Tom Werner turned in their keys at ABC-TV. Not
bad.
It's
true that women who play spoons probably never truly
inspire the awe that Divas generate. But, on the
other hand, who wants awe when you can have laughter,
good friends, funny kids, and a business that generates
$3 billion every decade or so?
JUDITH
LUTHER WILDER is president of the Center for Cultural
Innovation (CCI) in Culver City, CA, the only small
business development center in the country designed
specifically to serve the business needs of artists.
She can be contacted at 562-597-2235 (e-mail: JudithALW@aol.com).
(This
article is reprinted from the Fall 2003 edition
of Enterprising Women magazine. Copyright
2003, Enterprising Women Inc. Reproduction in whole
or part is prohibited, except by permission of the
publisher.)
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