Marcy Carsey, along with her partner Tom Werner, developed some of television's most successful comedy series. Their independent studio, Carsey-Werner Productions, founded in 1981, created such popular and long-running shows as The Cosby Show, Roseanne, Grace Under Fire and That '70s Show. Their productions are distributed to 175 countries in 50 languages, with revenues of about $3 billion in ten years. Carsey's net worth was estimated to be $600 million in 2002 (Forbes).
Carsey and her partner have been honored for their work by inclusion in the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts And Sciences as well as by Broadcasting and Cable Magazine. She has received the Emmy, Peabody Award, Humanitas Prize, NAACP Image Award, the David Susskind Lifetime Achievement Award (from the Producer's Guild of America), the Publicist's Guild's Showman of The Year Award and the Lucy Award (from Women In Film). In 1999 she was named one of the 20th century's most extraordinary achievers by the Museum of the American Dream.
Marcy Carsey began her career in the 1960s as a tour guide at NBC but quickly became a production assistant on The Tonight Show, then left for a job in advertising. She came to Hollywood with her husband, John Carsey (a writer for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) and began as a story analyst for Roger Gimbel at Tomorrow Entertainment, eventually becoming Executive Story Editor there. In 1974 she joined ABC as a comedy programming executive, rising to SVP of prime-time series in 1978. While at ABC, she developed some of the most successful shows of that era including Mork and Mindy, Soap, and Happy Days. In 1980 she left ABC and started Carsey Productions, an independent production company. A year later she was joined by Tom Werner, who had collaborated with her at ABC, forming the Carsey-Warner company in 1981.
In 2000, Carsey, Werner, Oprah Winfrey and other industry executives formed the Oxygen Cable Network, targeting the modern woman audience. In 2001, Caryn Mandabach was made a full partner in Carsey-Werner, now known as CWM.
In Malibu, on July 29, 2000, Brad Pitt wed Jennifer Aniston in front of 200 guests under a big white tent on Marcy Carsey's five acre estate along the bluffs, a sunset ceremony and party that cost an estimated $1 million.
In May 2002, Marcy Carsey's $7.5 million gift established the Carsey Institute for Families and Communities at the University of New Hampshire, with the mission to support interdisciplinary research in family, psychological and health care issues. Carsey graduated cum laude from UNH in 1966 with a degree in English.
