Gary Lieberthal

Gary Lieberthal, the high-profile chairman of Columbia Pictures' television division, said Monday that he is resigning only 15 months after signing a new three-year contract. Lieberthal, 46, will leave at the end of Columbia's fiscal year next month. Columbia Pictures TV produces the hit network shows "Who's The Boss," "Married with Children" and "Designing Women." The Sony unit is one of the biggest players in television.

The sense of nausea and panic that used to grip NBC executives every morning when they got the ratings flashes on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" is easing. For the first time in 14 months, some in Burbank must be thinking that they didn't make the worst blunder in television history after all.

Taking credit for Columbia's strategy is Gary Lieberthal, 44, a hyperactive, jauntily self-confident executive who has survived several management regimes at Columbia, which was once owned by Coca-Cola Co. and now by Sony Corp. In love with the glamour of show business, he has all 116 episodes of "Silver Spoons" and 120 episodes of "Who's the Boss" bound in leather in the living room of his Holmby Hills home. Perhaps no other television executive stirs up as much rancor as Lieberthal.

Gary Lieberthal, the high-profile chairman of Columbia Pictures' television division, said Monday that he is resigning only 15 months after signing a new three-year contract. Lieberthal, 46, will leave at the end of Columbia's fiscal year next month. Columbia Pictures TV produces the hit network shows "Who's The Boss," "Married with Children" and "Designing Women." The Sony unit is one of the biggest players in television.

The sense of nausea and panic that used to grip NBC executives every morning when they got the ratings flashes on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" is easing. For the first time in 14 months, some in Burbank must be thinking that they didn't make the worst blunder in television history after all.

At a posh Burbank restaurant Gary Lieberthal, chairman of Columbia Pictures Television, was lunching with Jerry Katzman, head of the TV division at the William Morris Agency and Ricky Schroeder's agent, the squeaky-clean adolescent star from "Silver Spoons." Just as the waiter served the appetizers, Lieberthal reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a million-dollar check made out to Schroeder.

Coca-Cola named Gary Lieberthal chairman and chief executive of Embassy Communications, the entertainment unit involved in production and distribution of television programming. At the same time, Glenn Padnick was named president of Embassy Communications and will continue to be president of Embassy Television. He will report to Lieberthal.

Barbara Corday, president of Columbia Pictures Television since 1984, will take on the additional duties of overseeing another Coca-Cola television subsidiary, Embassy Communications, beginning in mid-May. Corday, 42, will serve as president and chief operating officer of Columbia/Embassy Television, overseeing production and development at both units. The appointment was announced as part of a restructuring by Gary Lieberthal, chairman and chief executive of Columbia/Embassy.

The entertainment business sector of Coca-Cola Co. and Tri-Star Pictures said they plan to consolidate the television businesses of both companies into one operating unit as part of a previously announced plan to combine the overall entertainment units of the Coca-Cola division and Tri-Star.

Taking credit for Columbia's strategy is Gary Lieberthal, 44, a hyperactive, jauntily self-confident executive who has survived several management regimes at Columbia, which was once owned by Coca-Cola Co. and now by Sony Corp. In love with the glamour of show business, he has all 116 episodes of "Silver Spoons" and 120 episodes of "Who's the Boss" bound in leather in the living room of his Holmby Hills home. Perhaps no other television executive stirs up as much rancor as Lieberthal.

At a posh Burbank restaurant Gary Lieberthal, chairman of Columbia Pictures Television, was lunching with Jerry Katzman, head of the TV division at the William Morris Agency and Ricky Schroeder's agent, the squeaky-clean adolescent star from "Silver Spoons." Just as the waiter served the appetizers, Lieberthal reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a million-dollar check made out to Schroeder.

"I've never seen our waiters so excited," said Merv Griffin, who hosted a dinner for Sophia Loren at the Beverly Hilton's newly redecorated L'Escoffier restaurant Wednesday night. It wasn't her birthday or her anniversary, nor was she picking up another award. The host-cum-hotelier said he learned a few weeks ago that Loren never had a party given in her honor. "It was shocking," he recalls. "I said, 'You're going to have a party.'