Marcy Carsey, one of the most successful situation comedy producers of the 1980s and 1990s, is co-owner of the Carsey-Werner Company, an independent television production company responsible for two of the most highly rated and longest running sitcoms on TV, The Cosby Show and Roseanne. Carsey has a number of notable accomplishments in the television industry: she developed the concept of building a sitcom around a single stand-up comedian; she established one of the first successful production companies to operate independently of the networks; and she is frequently named one of the most powerful women in show business.

Carsey began her career in television in the 1960s as a tour guide at NBC, later becoming a story editor for the Tomorrow Entertainment company. In 1974 she joined ABC as a program executive concentrating on comedy programming, rising to senior vice president 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 in 1982 started Carsey Productions, an independent production company. She was joined in this venture a year later by Tom Werner, who had worked with her at ABC. They remain equal partners in the Carsey-Werner Company.

The programs produced by Carsey-Werner have been notable for their innovation in pushing the boundaries of traditional sitcom fare. The Cosby Show, the first sitcom about an African-American family to sustain wide, diverse, and enduring popularity, consistently led in the ratings for several years. It was Carsey-Werner’s first hit show, employing the formula that helped to establish them as a television production powerhouse: building a family-based situation comedy around a popular, established stand-up comedian. Cosby aired in prime time for eight seasons and is currently in worldwide syndication. With virtually no track record when they sold Cosby to NBC, the company’s success was firmly established, as well as its reputation as a source of programming.

In Roseanne, Carsey-Werner continued the concept of a show starring a well-known comedian, in this case Roseanne (then Roseanne Barr). Roseanne was a centerpiece of the ABC programming schedule from its debut in 1988 until it ceased production in 1997. In contrast to Cosby, which was about an upper-middle-class family, Roseanne featured a working-class woman with husband and children, a perspective not usually found in prime-time sitcoms. The character Roseanne was closely based on the persona evident in Barr’s stand-up performances, which she derived from her personal experiences. Not only was the main character relatively authentic, the program received critical acclaim for the topics it addressed and the quality of the writing. It gained a reputation for scathing dialogue and controversial plotlines, while sustaining high ratings.

In addition to Cosby and Roseanne, Carsey and Werner have a number of other popular situation comedies to their credit, including Grace Under Fire, A Different World, and Cybill. Beginning with The Cosby Show, Carsey-Werner programs have emphasized nonmainstream, nontraditional, and ethnic family groupings. This can be seen in the flops as much as the hits—shows like Chicken Soup, starring Jewish comedian Jackie Mason, and Frannie’s Turn, based on the life of a single working-class mother.

Carsey and Werner led the wave of independent production companies in the 1980s that resisted affiliation with a major network or distributor. Carsey-Werner shows have appeared on all three major broadcast networks. They retain (or have repurchased) control of syndication rights for reruns of their hit shows and have produced original programming for syndication—for example, a revival of the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life hosted by Bill Cosby, which aired briefly in the early 1990s. In 1995 Carsey-Werner ventured into the feature film industry by founding Carsey-Werner Moving Pictures. Carsey has been quoted as saying that the secret of the success of Carsey-Werner’s shows has to do with their preference for thinking up “people and ideas together” and for “atypical casting.”

Carsey has been touted as one of the few women in a high-level executive position in television and one of the most successful American women in show business. She has been on the board of directors of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is currently a member of the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television’s Executive Advisory Council.