Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

4 DECEMBER 19, 1960 I NEW YORK ROUNDUP Goodson-Todman Productions will become the industry’s leading Eastern-based producer in terms of weekly network program hours, effective with the January premieres of Say When and One Happy Family on NBC-TV, and Numbers Please on ABC-TV. G-T’s weekly, total will then be 12.5 hours (comparing favorably with such Hollywood giants as Revue Productions, Four Star and Warner Bros.), comprising 25 half-hour segments on the 3 networks. Add Syndication Sales: CBS Films’ The Brothers Brannagan has been sold in 120 markets to date, with new sales including WNAC-TV Boston, KDKA-TV Pittsburgh, WXYZ-TV Detroit. The series has also been sold in 6 Australian cities . . . Ziv-UA’s Miami Undercover has been bought by WNEW-TV N.Y., bringing total markets so far to 61 . . . Ziv-UA’s year-end Canadian sales report shows 142 sales of 27 separate series, including a CBC network deal on Aquanauts. International Television Programs, Ziv-UA’s foreign distributor, handled . . . UPA Pictures began syndication of its Adventures of Dick Tracey, animated cartoon series, Dec. 15 . . . MCA-TV has picked up 6 additional markets for its mystery-adventure series. Shotgun Slade. Screen Gems has become the first feature-film distributor to score a sales breakthrough in Canada with a major post-1948 package. A 209-picture group was bought last week by 3 CBS stations (CBMT Montreal, CBOT Ottawa, and CBUT Vancouver), by 3 newly-licensed TV outlets (CFTO-TV Toronto, CJ AY-TV Winnipeg, CJCH-TV Halifax) and by CBC’s Calgary affiliate, CHCT-TV. It’s the same post-1948 package (“Born Yesterday,” “Death of a Salesman,” etc.) recently signed by the 5 CBS-TV o&o’s and now being released in small sub-packages in this country by Screen Gems (Vol. 16:49 p6). MGM-TV’s pre-1948 feature library has been sold in a 5-year deal for the Australian market for an estimated $2.6 million. So states MGM’s annual report for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 1960. The only other foreign deal for the MGM backlog is the sale of a few selected features to Canada’s CBC. No plans for the sale of MGM’s post-1948 library in or out of the U.S. have been announced. British-made cartoons, produced by Halas & Bachelor Productions, are now being syndicated by Interstate TV Corp., an Allied Artists subsidiary. There are 2 series: Snip & Snap, which utilizes paper cutouts in settings created from common household objects — and Foo Foo, angled at adult viewers. Both are 26-episode, 7-min. shows. Ziv-UA sold its first network show of the 1961-62 season in N.Y. last week — to ABC-TV. The package is Small Town D.A., a 30-min. series (so far without a star) based on a similarly titled book by Robert (“Anatomy of a Murder”) Traver. People: Daniel M. Curtis has been appointed CNP (subsidiary of NBC) sales dir. Also named to top CNP posts: Jacques Liebenguth, national & regional sales dir.; Bill Breen, Eastern sales mgr. . . . John J. Howley has been named ITC central div. acet. exec. . . . David E. Ferrin, Iversen-Ford exec, producer, goes to Hollywood to tape a new TV series. Concepts, which features moral & spiritual values in today’s culture. Star is Lew Ayres . . . Leonard E. Hammer, UAA national sales dir., has been given the additional duties of Eastern div. sales mgr. HOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP Prospects dimmed for a $4-million Hollywood motion picture & television museum last week when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors delayed a vote for putting up $500,000 to begin the project. The supervisors proposed that the film industry raise $2 million for the museum — a suggestion not well received by industry figures at the hearing. Warner Bros, vp E. L. De Patie said his studio had already contributed thousands to the project by assigning individuals to collect items for the museum, “If the success of this plan depends of further contributions from the industry, this delay will doom the entire project to failure,” he said. Among those speaking for the project: Mary Pickford, Harold Lloyd, Sol Lesser, chmn. of the museum commission. Desilu Productions is piloting 2 Cy Howard-produced comedies. My Wife’s Brother, starring Rowan & Martin and Carole Cook, and Mickey & the Comtessa, starring Eva Gabor & Mickey Shaughnessy; also a duo — Homicide, a 60min. action series, and an untitled Western — to be produced by Mort Briskin. John Bromfield may star in the Western. Tentative on the pilot schedule is a comedy. You Can’t Win ’em All, which would probably be produced by Bob Schiller & Bob Weiskopf. Burlingame Productions will pilot an action-adventure series for CBS Films in January, with Jess Oppenheimer producer . . . Latest 20th Century-Fox TV pilot: The Jayhawkers, 60-min. WesteiTi . . . John Guedel Productions will tape Take My Advice, panel show pilot, in January. George Fenneman, Eddie Lamarr, Carl Reiner, Bob Sweeney and Dr. Loriene Johnston are on the panel, and Guedel is producer. Arrowhead Productions producer Richard Bare will make 2 pilots, a 60-min. action-adventure show, Jamaica Reef, and The Joan Davis Show, a comedy . . . Cameron Productions, owned by Rod Cameron, plans to pilot an adventure series starring Cameron in most of the films and featuring him as host. Guest stars would appear in the other segments. Hubbell Robinson Productions will pilot 87th Precinct, a 60-min. action series, for NBC-TV . . . Four Star Television is filming 17 episodes for 11 different series during the 2-week period prior to the holidays. Girard-Lewis Productions plans a 60-min. pilot. Room 63, slated to go into production Jan. 25. The adventure series will be filmed in Los Angeles & Sacramento. Bernard Girard is producer. Allied Artists and producer Lindsley Parsons plan a 60-min. pilot. Patrol Boat 999, to go into production in late January. Parsons is exec, producer, Aubrey Wisberg producer. NBC-TV is developing a 60-min. circus series. The Big Tent, to be filmed in color. People: Robert Justman named production liaison executive for MGM-TV . . . J. Albert Trescony, MGM talent director, named head of casting for MGM-TV . . . Esme Chandlee is associate producer of Here’s Hollywood, on NBC-TV . . . Arthur Manella elected to board of Desilu Productions . . . Producer Joseph Naar has left Revue Studios to form his own independent TV film company — Nardo Productions.