A theater hand, Winant switched to TV after watching the rehearsal for a show in the 1950s. “I just want to stay here forever,” she remembers thinking. “I sort of did.” She started as a gofer, but quickly became a director and producer.
In the 1960s, she was named senior vice president of talent, casting and special projects at the CBS television network. Winant helped in the creation of many memorable shows, including Lost in Space, Green Acres, Hogan’s Heroes, Medical Center, The Senator, and Hawaii Five-O. She probably made the biggest difference with a show that was probably influenced by her very presence: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977).
MTM writer and producer Allan Burns remembers it this way: “When we were starting The Mary Tyler Moore Show and we were writing scripts — this is before the show was ever shot and everyone at CBS to a man disliked what we were doing — Ethel became our staunchest defender, almost to her own peril. She stuck up for us.” She also cast the show personally.
The show went on to earn 29 Emmy awards, a record until it was finally beaten by Frasier; Winant earned her own Emmy and Peabody awards, and became the first female executive at a television network when CBS made her a vice president in 1973. She died November 29 from a heart attack and stroke. She was 81.