Television Executive. Born Grant Almerin Tinker in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Margaret and Arthur Almerin Tinker, a lumber supplier. He attended Dartmouth College, but after turning eighteen at the end of his first year, he left to enlist in the Army Air Corps Reserve. After the Second World War, he returned to Dartmouth, graduating in 1949. He then took advantage of NBC Radio's new trainee program which evolved into a permanent position as operations manager. A year later, he left for Radio Free Europe. Eventually he returned to join Allen Ludden to create 'College Quiz Bowl.' In 1954, he joined McCann Erickson advertising as director of programming development, when advertisers had much more say in television through their sponsorship of programs. He then moved to Benton & Bowles and was involved with 'The Danny Thomas Show,' 'The Real McCoys' and 'The Ann Sothern Show.'' In 1961, he returned to NBC where he headed West Coast programming and developed such programs as 'I Spy,' 'Dr. Kildare' and 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' He married television actress Mary Tyler Moore in 1962. In 1967 he again left NBC and moved to Universal where he developed television series such as 'It Takes a Thief' and 'Marcus Welby, M.D.' He left Universal TV in 1969 to take a position as vice president at Twentieth Century Fox TV. When CBS approached Moore with an offer to do her own show that same year, she and Tinker formed MTM Enterprises to produce it. The independent television production company developed a reputation for quality programming, producing such shows as 'The Bob Newhart Show' (1972- 1978); 'WKRP in Cincinnati' (1978-1982); 'Hill Street Blues' (1981- 1987); 'Remington Steele' (1982-1987); and 'St. Elsewhere' (1982-1988). MTM won more Emmy awards for its shows than had any other independent production company. After he and Moore divorced in 1981, he moved from MTM Enterprises back to NBC, the at the bottom of ratings. He took over as chairman and introduced a crop of hit shows that included 'Family Ties', 'The Cosby Show,' 'Cheers,' 'The Golden Girls,' 'Night Court,' and 'Miami Vice .' Under his watch, the network rose to number one in the ratings. He left in 1987 to form GTG another independent production company, but after producing 'Baywatch' closed in 1990 and he went into semi-retirement in 1992. He wrote 'Tinker in Television: From General Sarnoff to General Electric' with Bud Rukeyser in 1994. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1997. In his later years he was an outspoken critic of reality television. In 2005, he received a Peabody Award "for recognizing, protecting and fostering creativity of the highest order."