PC alum is president of HGTV
“PC is the place where I grew up. It was good preparation for anything I could have done afterwards.”
Jim Samples ’85 has been named president of Home and Garden Television. At HGTV, Samples is responsible for the overall creation of the network that has over 95 million household subscribers.
Samples got into television almost 15 years ago while working as an international banker with the bank now known as Bank of America. At the time the bank, which funded the ’96 Olympics, asked Samples to work with the Olympic Committee in Atlanta. Samples looked over broadcast contracts and learned about TV in the process. Turner Broadcasting hired him later because of his TV and international finance experience.
Samples began working at the Atlanta-based network in 1993, eventually becoming executive vice president and general manager of Cartoon Network Worldwide. He held the top TV exec position from 2001 until early 2007. Some of his greatest accomplishments at Cartoon Network included helping with the creation of kid favorites Ben 10, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, and Teen Titans and the revitalization of the adult favorite Family Guy, which had been cancelled by Fox.
“It’s fascinating to see an idea develop from the idea stage into something kids and adults love watching,” Samples said about his work in TV.
At PC, Samples majored in biology and minored in foreign language. After PC, Samples went on to get a master’s degree in international business studies from USC. While he knows that biology majors usually don’t include television and banking on their list of career options, Samples believes that PC prepared him well for both careers.
“It’s typical of a liberal arts background,” Samples said. “As you go into the working world, having a broad perspective prepares you for careers like TV.”
The Atlanta native’s perspective was so broad partly because he had many interests, which he explored in college. He was originally a pre-med student, but later changed his career interests when he realized that his becoming a doctor “would not be good for the sick people of America,” he said.
Samples taught labs in his major and minor areas of study, biology and foreign language, and was an assistant in both departments. He found the time to take classes in other subjects that fascinated him, including international business, economics, and history.
He enjoyed photography, contributing while on the PaC SaC staff. Plus, he was in Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and was listed as Who’s Who in American Colleges.
“I’ve thought, ever since he was a student, that his name ‘Samples’ was very appropriate,” former biochemistry professor Dr. John Inman said. “It seemed like he was so hungry as a student. He wanted to try everything.”
Inman said he never really thought that Samples would pursue a biology-related career. He thought that Samples did find the coursework interesting and was drawn toward the major mainly because of the faculty’s more outgoing personalities. That a biology major became a top TV exec comes as no surprise to Inman, especially since the biology major was Samples.
“Hopefully, (the biology program at PC) teaches them the critical skills that allow them to get into situations that are completely new and foreign to them and think their way through,” Inman said. “I like to think that we instilled some of that in Jim, but I think he came loaded and all we did was get out of his way and let him run.”
Samples regards his alma mater fondly. “PC is the place where I grew up,” he said. “It was good preparation for anything I could have done afterwards.”
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