Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOL. 16: No. 3 11 NEW YORK ROUNDUP United Artists purchase of Ziv TV was still in its closing stages late last week. What was keeping the 2 firms apart was not, Pres. Herbert Golden of UA-TV told us, a “question of money.” On this, UA and the 2 banking houses owning 80% of Ziv (Lazard Freres and F. Eberstadt Co.) seem largely agreed. UA, apparently, must clarify what the acquisition of Ziv will mean in terms of the government anti-trust suit already pending against UA, what realignment of TV executive personnel will be necessary, and whether Hudson’s Bay, the next UA-TV syndication property due to be fed into sales channels, will be handled through UA’s sales force, or through Ziv’s. A wild coincidence of telefilm selling found actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. portraying private eye Stuart Bailey in 2 Fri.-night TV shows scheduled for the 9-10 p.m. period Jan. 15 on arch-rivals WNEW-TV & WABC-TV N.Y. Zimbalist was making his regular every-other-week appearance as star of the Warner Bros.-produced 77 Sunset Strip on ABC-TV in an episode titled “Switchburg.” At the same time, he was to be seen on independent WNEW-TV in the rerun of a 60-min. WB 1957 telefilm titled “Anything for Money,” based on a Roy Huggins story that is part of an NTA-syndicated package of some 90 telefilm episodes aired by WNEW-TV as Hour of Stars. TV film musicians employed by members of the Alliance of TV Film Producers Inc. will vote by Feb. 8 in an NLRB election to determine whether they want the AFM or the rival Musicians Guild of America to represent them in collective bargaining. In ordering the secret balloting, NLRB excluded Ziv, Revue and Mark VII from the Alliance-wide bargaining unit — the first 2 disclaim the producers’ organization as agent; Mark VII has AFM contract. TV Program Export Assn, interim committee met in N.Y. Jan. 14 and set 3 p.m. Jan. 20 as the time for the assn.’s first board meeting. Place is Rockefeller Center Bankers’ Trust Co. Details of other business discussed at the Jan. 14 session were not announced. “This Week in Sports,” weekly 15-min. sports review, will be sponsored starting in mid-Feb. in 15 Western markets by the Denver Studebaker-Packard Dealers Assn. Produced by Hearst Metrotone News, the show has been on the air continually since 1948. Cal. National Productions reported sales of Pony Express in 56 markets within 3 wks. after the series was introduced. American Petrofina Co. bought the 39 halfhour adventure series for 20 markets. MCA-TV’s pre-1948 Paramount features were picked up by 5 more stations last week: WCIA Champaign, 111., KTHV Little Rock, KSHO-TV Las Vegas, WANE-TV Ft. Wayne, KERO-TV Bakersfield, Cal. CBS-TV Workshop’s first presentation will be “The Brick & the Rose,” written by Lewis John Carlino, a participant in the workshop’s TV-writing seminars. The play will be telecast noon-12 :55 p.m. Jan. .24. Richard Rodgers has been signed to compose the background music for ABC-TV’s 1960-61 series based on Churchill’s memoirs . . . John E. Pearson has been named gen. mgr. of ITC of Canada Ltd. . . . Lee Francis has resigned as ad & promotion mgr. of ABC films. HOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP Screen Actors Guild has notified AFTRA it’s studying the merger plan submitted by David L. Cole but has deferred AFTRA’s request for a meeting because of its crucial negotiations with the major studios (Vol. 16:2 pl4). SAG said, however, that naming special committees in Hollywood, Chicago and N.Y. to study the Cole plan, which is lengthy & complex, will require thorough analysis. SAG promised to meet with AFTRA as soon as negotiations with the majors are concluded. There are now only 2 Sunset Strip films left in which Edd (Kookie) Byrnes appears. Warner Bros, had made one last try to patch things up when Byrnes continued to hold out for a contract readjustment, put him on suspension (Vol. 15:44-46). Byrnes has now been on layoff for 9 weeks, since he refused to report for work after WB refused his demands. Filmaster Productions will produce 2 pilots in Feb.: The Beachcomber, starring Cameron Mitchell (producer Joseph Shaftel), an adventure series created by Walter Brown Newman, and F.S.O., a 60-min. venture (Nat Perrin producer) . . . Screen Gems producer Robert L. Jacks may pilot a South Seas series. The project is untitled. Mark VII Productions is producing the pilot of a comedy, Calvin & Clyde, for ABC-TV, Herman Saunders producing . . . ABC-TV and Warner Bros, are in negotiation for a half-hour Bugs Bunny series for next season. The show would be reruns of the post-1948 WB cartoons plus new animation. CBS-TV production sales unit will have a series of demonstrations of its commercial video-taping services on the West Coast Jan. 19-27, the first to be held Jan. 19 at KIRO-TV Seattle. Others will be Jan. 21, KPIX San Francisco; Jan. 16-17, Television City, Hollywood. Screen Gems’ Dennis the Menace has been renewed for 13 weeks, thus is set for this season . . . Gene Roddenberry has been signed as a producer-writer at Screen Gems. Producer Sam Gallu will film four 90-min. specials for CBS-TV next season: 2 original dramas & 2 adaptations. The specials, budgeted at $150-250,000 each, will be theaterdistributed abroad. Warner Bros, plans a new series. Black Gold, about the oil fields of Texas & Oklahoma . . . Desilu Productions is negotiating for Elena Verdugo to be one of the stars of its new 60-min. comedy series, still untitled. Screen Gems is preparing the pilot of Togetherness, a comedy written by Nate Monaster & Norman Tokar, which will be showcased on its Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre series. . . . SG has also changed its Never Plead Guilty series to 333 Montgomery. It will probably go into syndication. Filmaster Productions has acquired the Shamrock studio in Winter Park, Fla. to produce commercials, industrial films, movies and TV films . . . Filmaster has resumed production in Hollywood of its Hannibal Cobb series starring James Craig. Fritz Goodwin produces the 5-min. segments for Video International Productions. Spartan Productions is finishing the pilot of a 30-min. show. The Great Leslie, done with animation, artwork and still photos. Blake Edwards and Don Peters produce.