Joan Barnett

Joan Barnett was an American television producer.

Barnett began her career as an associate producer and general manager for theatrical producer Alexander H. Cohen in New York, working on television specials, films and Broadway shows.

In 1974, she moved to California and opened a casting company with partner Linda Otto. Otto/Barnett Associates cast more than 100 network pilots, movies of the week, and series.

Barnett followed her casting career by becoming the head of movies for NBC. She then departed for full-time producing with the Landsburg Company, where she made Adam (with Daniel J. Travanti and JoBeth Williams), a 1983 TV movie about the 1981 kidnapping and murder of 7-year old Adam Walsh. The film was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards.

In 1989 Barnett partnered with producer Jack Grossbart and began a 15-year period of production that included, among many others, Any Mother's Son (with Bonnie Bedelia), a 1997 made-for-TV film about homophobia in the Navy, which won the 1998 GLADD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Award for Best Television Movie. Barnett retired in 2005.

Barnett died October 15, 2020, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was 74.