Remembering Jim Paratore

You Don’t Mess Around With Jim
Without Jim Paratore many of us would not be working in this business, myself included. He was passionate, persistent, and never stopped fighting. I use to always say, “Paratore never gives up.” Jim thought outside the lines and one of the giants who helped to change pop culture as it relates to television. He surrounded himself by some of the strongest and most talented women in the business in Hilary, Lisa, Sheila, and Lisa G, among others. Jim also launched the careers of some of the strongest females on television in Ellen, Jenny, Bonnie, Tyra, and even my own Trista, the former Bachelorette. I have so many fond memories of Jim but there are a few of my favorite flashbacks of Jim:
1. “No Jim, I don’t think I can ask the president of a production company to release my client from her talk show pilot to launch your new show “Extra” in time for NATPE.” Jim always gets what he wants and this time was no different.
2. “No Jim, you are not my client. If you were my client you would be paying me 10%”. To which he replied, “There is no 10% without me.”
3. One time after a fun party at NAPTE with the Neville brothers I find myself pleading, “No officer, don’t arrest that man. He has a very important meeting in the morning and I need him to sell my show.”
4. “Jim, you can stop yelling at me and accusing me of asking for too much money, I closed the deal yesterday.”
5. “Jim, you want to hire a therapist to help my clients get along?”
Jim believed in my clients and always believed in me by hiring my clients. My last conversation with him a few months ago was exhilarating and exciting as always. Jim was just as excited and passionate about the business as he was the day I met him. I could not help but be energized by his passion. Jim graciously volunteered to help me in any way that he could. This is a business where people are always telling you what is wrong, but with Jim it was how to make it right.
Jim, each day since we lost you, like a pop up video, I see your face. I know that your memory will last forever. It is true when I say that had it not been for you I would not have had the business I had. I would have been honored and privileged to have had you as my last client and I may not even had charged you 10%.
Every time I hear the Jim Croce song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” I will think of you...
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull on the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with Jim
May God bless you and your family.

I loved when Jim stepped into our sales meetings to discuss first-run. He always gave great insight into what was happening on the production side that could be used out with the stations. "Paratore is behind this" was a phrase I've used a lot.

Incredibly smart. Heard your POV in a debate and was flexible enough to adapt a different opinion if you could sell him. Relentless competitor. When convinced he was right, wouldn't take no for an answer. I sat with him just last Wednesday. Shockingly sad.

Jim Paratore was the pioneer of many of Telepictures' long-running and most successful nonscripted programs, among them Extra and TZM (Thirty Mile Zone). I will miss you.

We worked together in Miami and he was the connection that got me to come here. He called me every single day at 4 p.m. It was one year of phone calls every day. I didn’t really want to make the move, but his tenacity won me over. Every day he had a new reason, a new thing about the job that sounded exciting, that made me want to come. He convinced me it would be fun to work together again and he was right. I have all of this wonderful stuff in my life now because he called me every day at 4 pm.
He was one of the good ones. He was such a visionary, always ten steps ahead of everyone.

The entertainment industry has lost a legend whose influence on the television landscape will be felt for years. We were profoundly enthusiastic about having the benefit of Jim's talent and vision as we begin the rollout of his latest game show, and we are committed to making Let's Ask America a lasting tribute to his enduring genius. Our thoughts and prayers of comfort are extended to his family and his legion of friends and colleagues.

Mary Connelly, Executive Producer of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show":
"Years ago Jim Paratore took me to lunch and asked me what kept me up at night as we prepared to launch Ellen's talk show. That discussion led to Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner and I working together. He was a born leader and salesman. Jim and I didn't always agree with each other and that was a big part of the fun. Jim loved to spark a debate. He loved to argue for whatever side the rest of the room was against. He was always respectful to those he worked with and he spoke only the most loving words about his wife and daughter. We will miss our friend and partner, Jim."
Andy Lassner, Executive Producer of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show":
"I loved Jim because he was both the smartest and most inappropriate guy I knew. He was a great leader who you wanted to follow even when we didn't know where we were going".
Ed Glavin, Executive Producer of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show":
"In 1992, Jim took a chance on two young "Donahue" segment producers, when he hired us as an engaged couple to be the executive producers of a talk show called the Jenny Jones Show. Twenty seasons later I am still in the Telepictures family and I still frequently find myself asking, 'what would Jim do in this situation?'"

So shocked by the unexpected passing of Jim Paratore. . So damn sad.

He was running Extra when I began back in summer of 2000, but we had another life together working in local tv early in our careers. We worked at competitive stations in Miami when we were “children” (he at WPLG -- I at WTVJ). A show that I was hosting, PM Magazine, was dominating in the ratings at 7:30 every night, beating everything else in the time period. Jim, who was creative director doing promos for the station at the time, would put together a mock episode of our show once a year, and he would play me… he had hair then. He called himself Jimmy Pentecostal… He was such a fierce competitor, and when I started at Extra years later, he said to me with a wry smile: “I wish I could go back to those days for only one reason. I had hair.”

He was a shark in business, but a teddy bear in his personal life. Jim Paratore was one of a kind. Having been with Extra now for 12 of the 18 years since Jim started the show, I looking around and still see so many of the original people he put into place all those years ago. That was Jim’s magic. He knew how to put a staff together that would eventually become a family. His family here at Extra will miss him.