Tom Moore, 88; ABC chief gave TV sports a high profile, zeroed in on baby boomers

Tom Moore, who helped define the business of TV and give prominence to professional sports broadcasts, has died. He was 88.

Moore died Saturday of congestive heart failure in Palm Springs, his daughter Jean Edwards said.

His career in television spanned four decades, from 1952 to 1983. He won at least six Emmy Awards for shows produced by his company, Tomorrow Entertainment, including “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” “The Body Human” and “Lifeline,” which profiled the work of surgeons.

Perhaps Moore’s most lasting contributions to the industry came while he was president of ABC Television from 1963 to 1968. When he took the helm, ABC lagged far behind titans NBC and CBS in the Nielsen ratings. CBS had such popular shows as “Gunsmoke” and “Father Knows Best,” and NBC aired “Wagon Train” and “Bonanza.”

Moore and other top ABC executives determined that although the shows on rival networks pulled in enormous audiences, the viewers tended to be older. In the mid-1960s, ABC lobbied Nielsen to provide more information, including ages, for viewers in its sample audience.

The network then pressed advertisers to pay more money for commercials in programs that appealed to younger viewers. At that time, baby boomers were on the cusp of adulthood -- and ABC and Moore saw those younger consumers as their ticket to the top.

“Probably his greatest legacy is that he changed the whole basis on which television time is sold, and thus, how television is programmed,” said TV historian Tim Brooks. “ABC basically introduced us to the concept of demographics. And ever since, we in the TV industry have been appealing to 18- to 49-year-old viewers.”

To capture those young adults, ABC came up with edgier shows such as “77 Sunset Strip,” “The Untouchables,” “Peyton Place” and later, “The Mod Squad.” While Moore was in charge of ABC programming, the network aired other fan favorites such as “McHale’s Navy,” “My Three Sons” and “The Flintstones.”

Moore also played a pivotal role in developing ABC Sports into a network jewel. Moore hired sports producer Roone Arledge, who would become a legend, and helped create “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” and “Monday Night Football.”

“That was all done under his tutelage,” his daughter said, adding that before her father, ABC’s sports programming consisted largely of bowling telecasts. “He brought mainstream sports to network television.”

He was born Sept. 17, 1918, in Meridian, Miss., the son of a cotton buyer and a schoolteacher. After attending the University of Missouri, he served six years as a Navy pilot during World War II.

Moore started his TV career in 1952 at CBS, where he rose to general sales manager. In 1957, he joined ABC in sales and, the following year, became vice president of programming. In April 1963, he was named president of the ABC television network, a job he held for five years. After helping ABC become a viable network, he left and in the 1970s, he ran Tomorrow Entertainment.

After retiring, Moore and his wife, Claire Stirrat Moore, split their time between Palm Springs and the Napa Valley town of St. Helena, where they owned a 100-acre vineyard. He helped found the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla., and the Palm Springs Air Museum.

In addition to his daughter, also of St. Helena, he is survived by his wife of 63 years; his son, Tom Moore Jr., a comedy writer in Los Angeles; a sister, Geraldine Baier of Birmingham, Ala., four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services will be private.

meg.james@latimes.com.