Herb Lazarus Dies: Longtime Carsey-Werner Television Distribution Exec & International TV Distribution Hall of Famer Was 88

Herb Lazarus, who spent the past 27 years as international TV president for Carsey-Werner Television Distribution during his nearly 70-year career and is in the International TV Distribution Hall of Fame, died Tuesday. He was 88.

Carsey-Werner Television announced the news but did not give other details.

At Carsey-Werner, Lazarus put into place massive global deals for its comedies including The Cosby Show, Roseanne, That ‘70s Show, 3rd Rock from the Sun, A Different World, Cybill, Grace Under Fire and Grounded for Life — – many of which remain in place today.

“He saw the lighter side of our business and always said that we were lucky it didn’t involve decisions of life and death,” said Alexandra Taylor, Carsey-Werner’s London-based EVP international. She recalled one incident at MIPCOM in which a Belgian buyer apologetically notified them at the last minute that he couldn’t make a planned lunch. 

“Herb’s reaction was to ask the buyer to put out his hand. Both the buyer and I wondered what on Earth was about to happen. Herb produced his wallet and started putting euro notes in the buyer’s hand, saying, ‘This is the money we’re saving by not taking you out — please take it.’”

His lengthy career also spanned three incarnations of Silverbach-Lazarus, a partnership with close friend and one-time boss Alan Silverbach.

Born on January 5, 1935, in Brooklyn, Lazarus began his career in the then-nascent TV business in 1955, working as a 19-year-old gofer in the mailroom for production and distribution company Television Programs of America in New York City. He later moved to the shipping department, where he would send 16mm prints around the country.

Following the 1958 purchase of TPA by Independent Television Corp. in 1958, Lazarus became its sales coordinator and left to join TeleSynd, which owned Lassie and other properties. When that operation folded, Silverbach — his future business partner who was running the domestic and international TV operations at 20th Century Fox Television — hired Lazarus as his assistant.

He went to serve as VP International TV Distribution at 20th Century Fox from 1963-71 before serving in the same role at Columbia Pictures from 1971-78, relocating from New York to Los Angeles in 1973.

He would leave Columbia in 1978 to become a partner in Silverbach-Lazarus Corp., an international distribution company. Metromedia later acquired the partnership, with Silverbach serving as president and Lazarus as EVP Program Distribution.

The following year, Metromedia created Amicus, a distribution company formed with Polygram and Lorimar that lasted just 30 months before the pair left for the revamped Silverbach-Lazarus company. In 1985, London Weekend Television acquired their business but later decided to change course and exit the distribution business altogether, with ownership reverting to the principals for the third and final incarnation, which lasted until 1993.

Lazarus went on to join Stephen J. Cannell Productions as a VP in the distribution unit, later leaving following the prolific producer’s acquisition by New World.

In a 2015 profile for Video Age, Lazarus described his early days in the biz as being fun and said he considered competitors and buyers as friends. But when the business became more corporatized, he said it stopped being fun and decided to join Carsey-Werner in 1996 to sell comedies around the world. Referring to the international TV sector as more of a “relationship business,” Lazarus told Video Age that over the years it had  “changed for the good, for those people who had the programs.”

Lazarus is survived by his wife of 66 years, Shelley; his two sons, Sid and Michael; and grandchildren Sam, Karly and Faith.

Services will be held 11 a.m. Friday at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to the Robert David Lazarus Pulmonary Unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which is named for Herb Lazarus’ son. Robert Lazarus, the former COO of Mutual Film Company and EVP/General Manager of Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution, died in 2005.