American television directory (1946)

TOP-FLIGHT SHOWS ARE NOT ACCIDENTS Inspiration and perspiration, as you might suspect, are the most important ingredients of top-flight television programs By EDWARD SOBOL NBC Television Producer A television course — “Radio V.35, Television Production Problems” — was conducted by Columbia University in co¬ operation with the National Broadcast¬ ing Company during its 1944-45 session. It was decided to wind up this course of fifteen lectures with a talk by Dr. James R. Angell, Public Service Coun¬ selor at NBC, to be followed by a 20minute dramatic studio production. It was further decided that the studio production should be based on an im¬ portant play. “Men in White” was a natural selection. It had brought to the theatre one of its most important young writers, Sidney Kingsley. It was one of the Group Theatre’s most outstanding productions. And last but not least it received the Pulitzer Prize. Getting the television rights to an important Broadway play is not as easy as it may seem. A great many rights are tied in with motion pictures, and the picture companies are not too willing to release these to television. I want to express here my sincerest thanks to Sidney Kingsley for his im¬ mediate consent and his willingness to help develop the new medium. For it is only with the full cooperation of good authors and playwrights, and the de¬ velopment of new authors, that tele¬ vision can ever hope to make the strides necessary for its success. “Men in White” also lent itself to “cutting” to the required running time. Cutting scripts to television time re¬ quirements is generally a producer’s headache. Most plays, as presented on Broadway, have been pruned of all ex¬ traneous and draggy material and run about two hours. The problem generally is to cut and yet not lose the story. Fortunately, “Men in White” is a multi¬ scene play touching on many phases of medicine. I chose the story of the dedi¬ cation of a young man to the science of healing at the sacrifice of his social and personal interests, and the incident showing a young resident physician ready to oppose a so-called “Park Ave¬ nue” fashionable medic even to the point of being brought up on charges, rather than endanger the life of a patient. Both these incidents dovetailed nicely and a good half-hour play resulted. Having the play, the next step of course was the casting. I find that act¬ ors from the legitimate theatre are preferable for television. They have learned how to memorize quickly; they know how to sustain and develop moods and characterizations; they know how to move about a set naturally and, above all, they know how to stand still. They also know how to play with and to a fellow actor and how to react to the other’s speeches. This is important in television where the close-up and medium close-up must be used so often. Having selected the cast, the next problems were sets and costumes. The scene is laid in a hospital and there is one color (if it is a color) that is typ¬ ically “hospital” — white. White walls, white beds, white uniforms, white sheets and pillow cases, white bed pans and white faces. And the doctors and vis¬ itors in hospitals generally wear dark " . . . and now, ladies, a five-minute pause so you can get in another lick at your housework." (Esquire, December, 1945) © 1945, by Esquire, Ine., 919 N Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. subdued clothes. So there is your ever present white and black problem in television. This was solved, however. Studio facilities managed somehow to get a gray hospital bed and gray fur¬ niture to match. All internes’ and nurses’ uniforms, together with sheets and pil¬ low cases were dyed blue. Luckily we did not need the bed pan. We rehearsed off camera for five days, an average of four hours a day; then had about nine hours of camera rehearsal. This might seem like a lot of time to put into a half-hour production, but the result proved it worth while. The three prime requisites for a good television production are: 1 — A good script, 2 — A good cast, and 3 — Sufficient rehearsal time. I have heard a great many arguments in favor of short camera rehearsals but have never seen a really good television show resulting from such short rehears¬ als. In fact, the alibi has generally been: “But considering I only had a blank number of hours on camera, it was pretty good, don’t you think so?” No, I don’t think so. Heaven knows that even with sufficient camera rehearsals, television shows are far from perfect. A television production at NBC in¬ volves the following personnel. Five men in the control room, including a man on turntables, three camera oper¬ ators, three stage hands, two light op¬ erators, one “mike” boom operator, one sound man, one stage manager, one sce¬ nic designer, and one studio supervisor. That makes a total of 18 in direct touch with the television production. Add to this the actors involved and you have a good-sized “team” to be coor¬ dinated so that each one knows just what he must do and when he must do it. Any one of the 18 (let alone one of the actors) can do something to “throw” the show. To eliminate this danger, one solution is self-evident. Sufficient stu¬ dio rehearsal time! It was the intensive camera rehearsal period, with every¬ body working as a team, which made a good television production possible. That “Men in White” was accorded the Award as the “Best show of the year” by the American Television So¬ ciety made everyone who was part of it feel that all the work which went into the production was worth while. 59