She fought to get ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ on the air and headed the primetime scripted creative group at ABC Entertainment before shifting to Sony.
Suzanne Patmore Gibbs, who helped launch Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost and several other hits as a respected executive for Touchstone TV, ABC Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television Studios, died suddenly Thursday. She was 50.
Sony TV staff were informed of the news via an internal memo (read that, below). No other details were immediately available. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Patmore Gibbs had surgery Thursday for a hernia and suffered post-op complications.
Patmore Gibbs had been serving as the head of Sony imprint TriStar Television since the division was relaunched in May 2015. The company’s first pilot was the 1960s-set newsroom drama Good Girls Revolt at Amazon. Patmore Gibbs was a vocal supporter of the feminist drama and fought hard to shop the series after Amazon’s controversial decision to cancel the series shortly after its debut.
Before that, Patmore Gibbs was executive vp drama development for SPT, where she and her team developed series including The Blacklist at NBC, Masters of Sex at Showtime, Outlander at Starz and Bloodline at Netflix.
As a high-ranking executive at Touchstone TV and ABC, Patmore Gibbs helped develop such shows as Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff Private Practice, Lost, Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money.
In March 2011, shortly after the arrival of Paul Lee as president, Patmore Gibbs departed ABC Entertainment following four years as executive vp drama development. She had been named senior vp drama development in June 2004 under then-president Stephen McPherson.
Despite the objections of McPherson, she managed to get Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy on the air in 2005.
“He hated it,” Grey’s showrunner Krista Vernoff told THR in November. “And he said to Suzanne Patmore Gibbs at the time, ‘This show is going to be the chapter in my book titled, ‘Why I Should Trust Myself or Why I Should Trust the People I Hire.’ Because she forced that program on the air. And then it was a great big hit, and he got all the credit.”
Patmore Gibbs came to Touchstone TV in 2000 from Mutual Film Co., the Paramount-based outfit founded by Mark Gordon, and she helped develop And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003) at HBO and co-produced Miramax’s The Hoax (2006), starring Richard Gere.
She did earlier stints at Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz’s Bedford Falls, Chuck Gordon’s Daybreak Prods. and Sean Daniel’s Alphaville Prods and was an adjunct professor of screenwriting at USC’s film school from 1999-2002.
Patmore Gibbs graduated from Pomona College in California in 1989 with a BA in English literature and then did a fellowship with the Seattle Repertory Theatre.
Survivors include her husband and two children.
Donations in her name can be made to Girls Inc. and the Children’s Institute.
Here is the memo Sony TV toppers Jeff Frost, Chris Parnell and Jason Clodfelter sent to staff Thursday:
Dear Colleagues,
We have some very sad news to share with all of you. Today we lost an amazing and wonderful member of the SPT family. Suzanne Patmore Gibbs, our head of Tristar Television, passed away suddenly. This is a shock to all of us and we are heartbroken.
All of us at Sony Pictures Television were touched by Suzanne’s passion and friendship. She was a wonderful colleague and friend to all who worked with her. She will be greatly missed and our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this difficult time.
Details regarding arrangements and services will be forthcoming.
In lieu of flowers, her family has asked to make a donation to the Children’s Institute.
https://www.childrensinstitute.org/contact
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us or the Employee Assistance Program if you need anything. We will also have grief counselors here on Monday at Harry Cohn.
We are here for you all during this difficult time.
Jeff, Chris and Jason
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