Thomopoulos was hired by Barry Diller to oversee prime-time programming at ABC. He was noted, among other things, for the tough position he took in dealing with the contract holdout of
Suzanne Somers on the ABC show ''
Three's Company, and for his timely cancellation of the 1982 Police Squad!'', explaining that the show had been cancelled because, among other reasons, "it required constant viewing, and he didn't think that people can watch a TV series without some distractions". In June 1983, he was named president of the broadcast group. He resigned as president in 1985 where he supervised such productions as
Betrayed,
Baby Boom, and
The Living Daylights. In 1989, Thomopoulos formed Thomopoulos Productions, an independent production company of both motion pictures and television programs. From 1991 to 1995, he was President of Amblin Television, a division of
Amblin Entertainment. He was responsible for the original placement of NBC's TV series
ER, in addition to several other series on network television. In 1995, Thomopoulos joined International Family Entertainment, Inc. (IFE). His responsibilities included programming operations for
The Family Channel. He was named CEO of MTM Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of IFE, and was also responsible for operations of MTM Television and MTM Distribution. Thomopoulos was chairman and CEO of artist
Thomas Kinkade's Media Arts Group from June 2001 to January 2004. He subsequently founded
Morning Light Productions. == Personal life ==