Sponsor (1964)

Magoo... nighttime network tv programing (in which LML has been relatively inactive since it was a sponsor in the 1950's of the Sid Caesar-Imogene Coca series), will be the major sponsor, having signed for an alternate week position. • He'll also continue as the star merchandising symbol for the household lamp activities on tv of giant General Electric, which plans a network-and-spot tv campaign built around Magoo which will cost in excess of $1 million (see page 46). The fact that there is a Magoo series at all on NBC-TV during the 1964-65 season proves the point that a successful entertainment property, particularly one involving a highly characterized personality, can bypass the usual drawn-out process whereby a pilot film or tape must be produced and shown to a network before the show will be bought. The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo was sold on a sight-unseen basis. It happened soon after the start of 1964, when NBC-TV program executive Ed Friendly and UPA executive producer Henry G. Sapcrstein were having a meeting (actually, they were driving in a car and just talking) about future program plans. A UPA-produced special, Mr. Magoo' s Christmas Carol, had recently had its second annual exposure on NBC, and had drawn both ratings and critical acclaim. Friendly wanted to know if Saperstein had another special up his sleeve. Saperstein didn't — at least, not exactly. He had been thinking about a possible Magoo series, in which the near-sighted, animated old gentleman would play pivotal roles in adaptations of literary classics. Friendly liked the idea, and asked Saperstein if he could deliver a series on short notice. Saperstein replied that if NBC management would green-light the project before January 15th. he could do it. Robert L. Gibson, Jr., LML's president, is firm believer in tv's ability to create new "image" for his firm, bought half of new Magoo show. Friendly carried the idea to a reality stage before the deadline, and the deal was on, even though no pilot was ever filmed. Libby, McNeill and Libby, through J. Walter Thompson, bought the show on the basis of a "presentation film" which was a Henry Saperstein, executive producer of net night-time Magoo series, says "We'll have th audience that really counts for our sponsors. semi-pilot. In rea down version of edited to a half-h onstrate how Ma as a character in piece. Magoo's own he's probably as ity, it was a cut Christmas Carot' our show to dem ;oo would operat a literary master strong image — . clearly defined ii The man who makes like Magoo "There's no problem in playing it straight whei it comes to adapting literary classics for ou> new Magoo series," executive producer Henry G Saperstein told Sponsor last week. "We just giv< Backus a straight line, and when he reads it, i usually comes out funny. Around the studio we say that he 'Magoo's' it." The man who "Magoo's" the most straightforward English prose at the drop of a director'; signal is an accomplished actor in his own right He is Jim Backus, a Clevelander who has beei in the theater since the age of 14 when he had si bit part in a "White Cargo" production tha starred the late Clark Gable. He has been in countless radio shows, including a two-year stint as star of his own corned} program. He has made nearly 100 pictures. Ht, has been the voice of "Magoo" from the start. This fall, he'll again voice Magoo. He'll also be seen on CBS-TV in another ne«| show, Gilligan's Island, thus becoming the first tv actor to be launched in two new series at tht I same time in the same season. Jim Backus, "voice of Magoo. 44 SPONS