Joanne Brough, 77; TV Producer, Network Development Executive

Joanne Brough, an executive producer of such landmark television prime-time soap operas as “Dallas” and “Falcon Crest” who went on to create similar programs in Singapore and Indonesia, has died. She was 77.

Brough died Feb. 24 in her native Joplin, Mo., of esophageal cancer, said her daughter Cheryl Preston.

One of the first women to become a network development executive, Brough began her career in 1960 at Los Angeles television station KTLA-TV Channel 5. Three years later, she moved to CBS.

Rising through the ranks, she helped develop such series as “Kojak,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “All in the Family,” “MASH” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” She moved to Lorimar in 1978 as vice president of creative affairs and was executive producer of “Dallas” and “Falcon Crest.”

In 1990 Brough joined Lee Rich Productions, where she produced television movies and the documentary “America’s Missing Children” in collaboration with actor Michael Landon.

She retired from Hollywood in 1993 -- but not from television.

“I wanted a little adventure,” she told the Associated Press in 2000. “I got more than I expected.”

Brough was describing her quick exit from Jakarta, Indonesia, two years earlier, when political unrest had translated to armed guards in her studio, barbed wire around everything and the building next door in flames.

Brough was invited to Indonesia in 1995 to create an in-house drama department for the nation’s leading network, RCTI, and to produce a local soap opera akin to “Dallas.”

She managed to film 26 episodes of “Dua Sisi Mata Uang” (Two Sides of the Coin) before the civil unrest caused her to leave.

From 1993 until she went to Indonesia, Brough was in Singapore creating a similar series, “Masters of the Sea,” for Singapore Corp. Television.

The 39-episode series was believed to be the first English-language television drama produced in Asia.

Brough, who attended UCLA, spent her remaining years teaching courses in serialized television drama and production at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

She is survived by her husband, Charles Henderson Brough, whom she married in 1968; three children from her previous marriage, Cheryl Preston of Valley Village, Alice Capello of Simi Valley and Arthur Chaves of San Francisco; a stepdaughter, Yani Brough of San Francisco; and three grandchildren.

Donations in Brough’s honor may be sent to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Dept. 929, Alexandria, VA 22334.