Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

14 JANUARY 11, 1960 HOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP SAG-AFTRA Merger Gets Cole’s OK: Recommendation of a merger of the 2 largest actor unions, the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA, was made last week by David Cole in the report prepared at the request of the unions (Vol. 15:24 pl9). The proposal will probably be submitted to the memberships of both unions for their approval. AFTRA has long sought the merger, but SAG brass have been cool to the idea. SAG has received a proposal from AFTRA that the merger study committees of the unions meet in Hollywood during the week of Jan. 18 to discuss the Cole report. SAG’s board will consider it at Jan. 11 meeting. Production of a pilot, Here’s Hollywood, is planned by Jess Oppenheimer for NBC-TV. Mobile Video Tape will be used for the pilot of the daily daytime series which will feature interviews . . . Producer Hal Hudson and Four Star are planning 2 new Western pilots, which will be showcased on Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre. Dean Jones will star in one, the other is uncast. Producer Bill Burrud plans a new travel-adventure series. Flight to Adventure, with the pilot to be filmed in La Paz, Baja California, late in Jan. Jon Lindbergh, son of the famous Charles, will supervise flight sequences . . . Bischoff-Diamond Corp. plans a pilot of K-9 Corps, a series to deal with the use of trained dogs in the prevention & solution of crime. Producer Hal Ranter has been signed to create, produce and direct pilots for 2 new comedy series for 20thCentury Fox Television. One series, Down Home, will star Pat Buttram. The other is an untitled comedy to star Luciana Paluzzi, of the studio’s 5 Fingers series which has been cancelled. William Self is exec, producer of “Home.” Both pilots go into production in Feb. Rodney-Young Productions, owned by producer Eugene B. Rodney and Robert Young, plans an expansion of its activities by producing pilots and financing independents “with a good track record.” The company previously has confined its schedule to production of the successful Father Knows Best series, a co-production deal with Screen Gems. Producer Ben Brady has signed the Wiere Bros, to star in Oh! Those Bells, a situation comedy which his Davana Productions will produce with CBS-TV financing. The pilot’s production date hasn’t been set. Brady is currently producer of CBS-TV’s Have Gun — Will Travel. Paramount has closed a deal for Jerry Stagg, John L. Greene and Phil Shuken to make 2 pilots for its TV operation. The first will be a situation comedy. Happily Ever After, with Stagg as exec, producer and his partners writing it. Stagg, producer of John Gunther’s High Road, has moved from the Hal Roach lot to Paramount Sunset. Warner Bros, plans to reshoot the pilot of its comedy Room for One More. It will also do a pilot for a 60-min. series. The Roaring Twenties. Donald Tait, ex-Ziv TV, has joined Cinema Research as production consultant . . . Four Star Television has signed Joe Hoffman to produce its 60-min. pilot, Michael Shane, for NBC . . . Hans Conreid, who starred in 20thFox Television’s pilot, Mr. Belvidere, has obtained his release from the studio . . . Zsa Zsa Gabor has resigned from the board of Herts-International Corp. . . . James Pratt, TV producer for Walt Disney, leaves Feb. 1. NEW YORK ROUNDUP Ben Adler Adv. Service has been appointed by TransLux TV to design & distribute station-level promotional aids for T-L’s syndicated Felix the Cat cartoon series. The Adler firm has hitherto specialized in theatrical movie promotion campaigns, and has promoted such not-for-kiddies fare as “The Lovers,” “And God Created Woman,” “Love Is My Profession,” and “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” New exploitation kits include the usual trailers, slides & stills but also have special National Safety Council tie-ins, decals, Day-Glo banner strips, life-size standees for displays, shopping bags, autographed Felix postcards, etc. WNTA-TV received over 15,000 letters or telegrams last week urging that Play of the Week be kept on the air. The public response followed N.Y. Times TV critic Jack Gould’s Dec. 30 column depicting the show’s economic plight. WNTA-TV newscaster Mike Wallace also made an on-the-air plea for public support of the show. The station informed us Jan. 7 that the 2-hour show will be continued, although the weekday starting time will be moved from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. effective Jan. 18. Fremantle Italiana S.R.L. has been granted a charter under Italian law and will operate in Rome as a full affiliate of Fremantle International. Lionello Torossi, Fremantle’s agent in Italy since 1953, will head the new organization. Fremantle now has 4 foreign affiliates, including Fremantle of Canada Ltd., Fremantle de Mexico S.A., & Talbot TV Ltd. The latter handles distribution in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe with the exception of Italy. Fremantle of Australia Ltd. is expected to begin operation early this year. Ziv’s Tombstone Territory was sold in 18 markets during the second half of Dec. 1959, putting the off-network first run syndicated series in 151 markets to date . . . ITC’s Four Just Men has been bought by Studebaker (Lark) Dealer’s Advertising Assn, for N.Y., Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton, Watertown & Plattsburg. The series is now in 151 markets, with auto-industry sponsorship accounting for “nearly 40% of total sales.” NBC-TV will strip reruns of The Loretta Young Show in the Mon.-Fri. 2-2:30 p.m. time period starting Feb. 8. The network purchased the rerun distribution rights to the 226 film backlog, as well as future episodes, from Miss Young. Reruns of Yancy Derringer will be the first series stripped in NBC’s anthology Adventure Theatre which goes in at 4:30-5 p.m. on the same date. The 34-episode “Derringer” backlog was bought from Don Sharpe Productions. The network will replace House on High Street (4 p.m.) with The Comedy Hour, comprised of The Thin Man repeats and other comedy shows. Dynamic Films Pres. Nathan Zucker predicted last week an increase in “every type of film production for N.Y. in 1960.” The use of film in TV commercials “will regain much of the ground lost through experimentation in the new tape product,” Zucker said, adding “tape is a valuable tool but not the panacea it has been claimed to be.” Ken Marthey, ex-McCann-Erickson & Benton & Bowles TV commercial producer, has been appointed a film-commercial staff dir. at Robert Lawrence Productions, N.Y. . . . Louise N. Stone has been appointed dir. of sales of Robert Lawrence Animation, N.Y. . . • Peter F. De Caro has been elected treas. of Bob Klaeger Productions.