Linda M. Kahn (September 15, 1948 – August 30, 2021) was an American television executive. She held senior posts at

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

and

Scholastic Media Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, children, and other educational institutions. P ...

, and was president of the board of the

New York Women in Film & Television New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) is a non-profit membership organization for women in film, television, and digital media. The organization is an educational forum for media professionals and a network for the exchange of information a ...

(NYWIFT).

Early life

Kahn was born in Chicago, the daughter of Albert Kahn and Estelle Bain Kahn. Her family was Jewish. She graduated from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

in 1970, and earned a master's degree in education at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

Career

Kahn taught school in Massachusetts after college. In the 1980s she was vice-president of acquisitions at Nickelodeon, and helped to launch

Nick at Nite Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite since 2009) is an American nighttime programming block on Nickelodeon. List of programs broadcast by Nick at Nite, The block's programming broadcasts from prime time to Late-night television, late night, with ...

, a popular evening package of original shows and old

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

s, targeted at

Baby Boomers Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that ...

and their families. "It's upbeat programming, slightly nostalgic and a little bit whimsical", she explained in a 1985 interview. She introduced programming including

Ren & Stimpy ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', commonly referred to as simply ''Ren & Stimpy'', is an American animated comedy television series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstable ...

Rugrats ''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on a group of toddlers, most prominently Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, and their day-to-d ...

, and

Doug Doug is a male personal name (or, depending on which definition of "personal name" one uses, part of a personal name). It is sometimes a given name (or "first name"), but more often it is a hypocorism (affectionate variation of a personal name) whi ...

to international markets. At Scholastic Media from 1995 to 2008, she was responsible for international promotion and brand development for

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror novels written by American author R. L. Stine. The protagonists in these stories are teens or pre-teens who find themselves in frightening circumstances, often involving the supernatural, the p ...

Clifford the Big Red Dog ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' is an American children's book series which focuses on the adventures of an 8-year old blonde haired girl named Emily Elizabeth and her titular pet: a gigantic, red-furred dog named Clifford. It was first published ...

Maya & Miguel ''Maya & Miguel'' is an American children's animated television series produced by Scholastic Productions. It aired on PBS Kids Go! from October 11, 2004, to October 10, 2007, and had a total of five seasons and 65 episodes over three years. The ...

, Stellaluna, the Magic School Bus,

Animorphs ''Animorphs'' is a science fantasy series of youth books written by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, writing together under the name K. A. Applegate, and published by Scholastic. It is told in first person, with all si ...

, and

WordGirl ''WordGirl'' is an American animated superhero children's television series produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids. The series began as a series of shorts entitled ''The Amazing Colossal Adventures of ...

. Kahn was president of the board of the New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) from 2003 to 2005. In 2008 she gave an oral history interview for NYWIFT's Archive Project, and began her own consulting firm, Linda Kahn Media. Beginning in 2010, Kahn worked with Bridge Media to create educational children's programming for blind and disabled students. She was active in leadership with the New York chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer charity, and served on the New York board of

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

Personal life

Kahn was married to Christopher Gordon for 29 years, until she died in New York City, from breast cancer, in 2021, aged 72 years. In tribute, the New York Institute for Special Education established a Linda Kahn Afterschool Fund. Her college papers, including records of her anti-war activism and her semester abroad in London, are in the collection of the Washington University Archives.

References

External links

An oral history interview Kahn gave in 2008
for NYWIFT's Archive Project, on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Linda 1948 births 2021 deaths American Jews American television executives Washington University in St. Louis alumni Boston University School of Education alumni Mass media people from Chicago