Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

10 JANUARY 25, 1960 HOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP Kati Sees Early Sell Season: Oscar Katz, CBS-TV net work programs vp, sees indication of an earlier selling season than usual for the fall of 1960. He told us he believes most shows will be bought in Feb. & March. CBSTV has already bought one series for the fall, The Tom Ewell Show, from Four Star Television. The network is also involved in over 30 pilot projects, though it hasn’t yet been decided how many will be filmed. Filmed thus far are a 60-min. untitled underwater series, to be produced by Ivan Tors at Ziv TV, with Keith Larsen & Jeremy Slate starring; The Defenders, a 60-min. action-adventure show, with Herbert Brodkin producing for the network (no cast set) ; and Pete & Gladys, starring Harry Morgan, with Parke Levy producing. Among the network projects being considered for piloting are Mountain Man, a Western which would be on film, and Star Witness, a live & tape series. Warner Bros, has merged its TV commercial & industrial films div. with its cartoon div. David H. De Patie, gen. mgr. of the former has been named gen. mgr. of the combined div. . . . Screen Gems plans a series titled Sea Rover, to be produced by Art & Jo Napoleon . . . Pinebrook Productions Inc. has been formed by Eichard Conte for the production of movies & TV films. Producer Aaron Spelling is planning a pilot. Tales of the Unknown, an anthology series about the supernatural — also 2 Westerns Border Town and The Reno Brothers . . . NBC will finance the pilot of an untitled comedy series to be produced by Stanley Eoberts’ SE Productions. MGM-TV has signed Eichard Chamberlain as the lead for its pilot, The Paradise Kid, produced by Paul Monash. Incidentally, all of MGM-TV’s pilots will be produced as originally scheduled, being in no way affected by the WGA strike; scripts had been prepared before the Jan. 16 walkout . . . CBS Films Inc. has signed producer-director Ealph Levy to produce a half-hour comedy series. Eoncom Productions has signed Shelley Hull to produce a Western pilot, Tate . . . Karen Sharpe is leaving her regular role in the Johnny Ringo series, complaining she hasn’t been given enough to do. Television Film Assn, has named John P. Ballinger of Screen Gems as president; Jack M. Goetz of Consolidated Film Industries, vp-dir.; Nicholas Muskey, Bekins Film Service, secy.-treas.-dir. . . . Joe Seinfeld has been named asst, to Screen Gems vp-exec. prod. Harry Ackerman. Desilu Productions has shelved its pilot plans for The Marie Wilson Show and Guestward Ho! . . . Eevue has signed Eichard Greene & Eobert Strauss to star in the pilot of Love & Wahr, which Eichard Irving is producing. The pilot will be filmed in Mexico. Sidney P. Solow, vp-gen. mgr. of Consolidated Film Industries, has been named chairman of the film archives committee of the Hollywood Motion Picture-TV Museum . . . Crosby-Brown Productions will finance Bill Burrud’s new Flight to Adventure series. Allied Artists Pictures has begun production on Simon Lash, Detective, its first 30-min. TV series for ABC Films’ distribution. Sidney Salkow has been named producer-dir. NEW YORK ROUNDUP New Ampex “Inter-Sync” accessory for its Videotape recorders is aimed at making electronic editing easier and eliminating rollover when switching between VTE & another picture source. Eeplacing the standard drum-servo unit in the recorder, InterSync combines 2 picture sources, field by field & line by line, eliminating rollover in electronic editing, switching from live to tape, switching from one VTE to another, etc. The first engineering models were used in production of ABC-TV’s Pat Boone Show last Oct. 1. ABC-TV has ordered pre-production units for delivery this month. Pre-production models also will go to Electronic Videotape Editing Service Inc., N.Y., in March and to CBS-TV next May. Full production units will be available in Aug. and will be offered as accessories for present VTE installations & future orders. TV Program Export Assn, elected as pres.. Merle Jones, CBS stations div. pres., at a board meeting in N.Y. Named vps were Sidney Kramer, vp, NTA; Martin N. Leeds, exec, vp, Desilu Productions; Thomas J. McDermott, exec, vp. Four Star TV. Herbert L. Golden, vp. United Artists & pres., UA-TV, was elected secy-treas. The officers will serve until a special meeting of directors, scheduled for April 19, at which time permanent officers will be elected. “All necessary legal steps for immediate association action were taken at the meeting,” a spokesman reported. (The assn, was fully incorporated in Delaware on Dec. 23, 1959). An exec, committee comprising the full board will serve until April 19. Other committees appointed last week include: Business agenda committee, Morris M. Schrier, MCA-TV, chmn; personnel committee, Harold J. Klein, ABC Films, ehmn. All newly-elected officers & committee chairmen are charter members. Other charter members include Danny Thomas, Marterto Enterprises; Alfred E. Stern, NBC; Lloyd Burns, Screen Gems. Screen Gems is feeding post-1948 feature films into syndication channels. They’re nearly all European productions or co-productions with American producers not governed by SAG rulings. A total of 13 such titles (“State Secret,” “The Detective,” “Storm Over the Nile,” etc.) are included in the latest Columbia Pictures-Universal batch of 78 features released recently by Screen Gems, on which sales have been scored so far in nearly a dozen markets. Screen Gems is also releasing the British-made Ivanhoe 30-min. adventure series as its mid-winter offering in the U.S. syndication market, as well as the reruns of Wild Bill Hickok. Ivanhoe stars Eoger Moore, hitherto an unknown British actor but currently becoming known in TV as a star of Warner Bros.’ The Alaskans. Stanley Dudelson has been named syndication sales mgr. of Screen Gems . . . Perry Cross, ex-NBC-TV producer, has signed an exclusive producer’s contract with CBS-TV . . . Sidney Kramer elected NTA foreign sales vp. Ziv-TV announced 9 exec, promotions recently. M. J. Eifkin was named exec, vp for sales; Maurice Unger, exec, vp for productions and Eobert W. Friedheim, administrative vp. Also named vps: Joseph W. Bailey, for eastern production; Edward J. Broman, regional sales; Len Firestone, syndication sales; Frank Eeel, for legal affairs; James Shaw, national & regional sales; & Pierre Weis, gen. mgr. of Economee, Ziv’s rerun sales div. . . . Bob McCahon has been named a staff dir. of TV commercials, Eobert Lav.rence Productions.