Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

FILM CONTINUED and times of a pilot film Spring is the season for pilots. In darkened rooms' up and down Madison Ave., film company salesmen are showing pilots of new tv series they hope the agencies will buy for broadcasting during the 1958-59 itason. Agency executives watch intently, .toping that here will he the show they've Deen searching for to carry the messages of that special client into the homes of the public week after week. These pilots did not arrive in New York at the rub of a genie's lamp. Someone had an idea; someone thought it a good idea; someone put a lot of time and effort and thought and money into getting that idea down on film so that its value would be evident to the agency man who's watching it now and to the advertiser who will make the final decision about becoming its sponsor. In that sense, the story of all pilots is the same. Yet the story of each is uniquely its own. Here is one of them: In March 1957 tv producer Herbert B. Leonard was in Canada to discuss with government officials a proposal that he make a series of propaganda films for them and to look for a good location to shoot some outdoor snow sequences for his RinTin-Tin series. In Toronto he met a studio owner, Arthur Gottlieb, who was interested in renting his facilities for use in either or both of these projects. Discussing this, Mr. Leonard discovered that Mr. Gottlieb controlled the tv rights to "The Naked City," the motion picture about New York made and narrated by the late Mark Hellinger. It had been 10 years since Mr. Leonard had seen the movie, but once its name was mentioned he was struck with the idea that it would form an excellent basis for a tv series. When he expressed the thought to Mr. Gottlieb, it was airily rejected with a comment that Mr. Gottlieb was planning to do just that himself, the only difference being that the series would be made in Toronto, not New York. This was heresy to Mr. Leonard, but it was also unanswerable at the time. Herbert B. Leonard Productions produces programs for Screen Gems, tv subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, so on his return to New York he went to Leo Jaffe, legal vice president of Columbia. Very soon after that Columbia acquired the right to release "The Naked City" to tv. "But what about me?" Mr. Leonard asked. "What about my plan to use the theme for a series? What about those rights?" "Go ahead and don't worry," he was told. Negotiations for the serial rights were under way; Columbia would not put the motion picture on tv until the series had run its course; he had nothing to worry about except making his series. Mr. Leonard began watching "The Naked City" over and over. "I don't know how many times I saw it, but looking back it seems as if I spent weeks in the projection room. I soaked up the feel of the picture, the feel of the city that is its real star; I began to get ideas for capturing this feel for the tv series. Then I called in a young wnier. Sterling Silliphant. He watched with me. He got the feel too and presently we had an idea of how we were going to proceed." They still didn"t have the tv serial rights, but Mr. Leonard scarcely noticed this lack. He was too busy arguing with Columbia executives over treatment. He wanted to follow the approach of the movie. They said it couldn't be done in a half-hour series. Mr. Silliphant had convinced him that he as producer should do the narration of the tv series, just as Mr. Hellinger had narrated the picture. Officials balked at this unorthodox idea for tv, capitulating only when he drove home his clincher that if they were going to get just another cops-and-robbers series they were wasting their money buying rights to "The Naked City." And what about those rights, anyway? Once more he was told not to worry about the rights; they'd come through eventually. But when he announced that he planned to shoot the series in New York, he started another argument. "Hollywood's the place to make movies," they told him. "New York and we spent less than we would -have in Hollywood. There was just one worry. We had about $80,000 invested in the series, but I still lacked the right to make it.'" Breaking down the $80,000, he said that about $5,000 had gone for story development; $15,00 for screen tests and travel expenses; something over $50,000 for the actual filming of the pilot, including three extra days to get footage that may be useful for future episodes ("showing how confident, or perhaps foolhardy, I was"), and another $5,000 or so for miscellaneous items, such as props, options on studios and the services of the cameraman, director and other key personnel, including the two leads and three continuing supporting members of the cast. Back in Hollywood, the pilot in the can, Mr. Leonard drew a deep breath of relief on learning that the contract for the tv rights was signed and in the studio vault. But he blew it right out again when the Columbia executives watching the studio screening told him that he'd have to delete the scenes he'd taken from the original picture, as he had no right to use them. By now the pilot had been edited and scored; to comply would mean doing that all over again, perhaps require another shooting session in New York, and certainly add to the MR. LEONARD AND HIS PILOT technicians are not as good as ours; the unions are undependable there; they do have a few good actors but you can do everything else better out here, and there's all the stock footage anyone could want for New York backgrounds." Mr. Leonard won this round by citing a clause in his contract giving him the right to make one picture a year exactly as he wants to make it. Then he, Mr. Silliphant and Lou Appleton, the assistant producer, went to New York, arranged for a studio, selected a cameraman, picked the outside locations and budgeted the picture. Home to Hollywood and further arguments and then back to New York to shoot the pilot. But still no legal assurance that he had the right to make a tv series of "The Naked City." "Everything was great in New York," Mr. Leonard reports. "The technical people were fine; the shooting went off smoothly Page 70 May 12, 1958 cost of the project. So he began arguing again and again won his point. On April 17, 13 months and $80,000 after its inception in Toronto, the pilot of The Naked City tv series was in New York, ready for screening for advertisers and agencies. The price will probably be about $40,000, give or take 10%. "My part is done for the moment," Mr. Leonard says. "It's now up to Screen Gems to make the sale. After that, I'll go to work again, getting the series ready to go on the air this fall." Everybody likes happy endings. This story has one. Screen Gems made the sale. Naked City will go on ABC-TV this fall in the Tuesday 9:30-10 p.m. slot. Co-sponsors are Quaker Oats Co. through J. Walter Thompson Co., Chicago, and Brown & Williamson Tobacco (Viceroy) through Ted Bates Inc., New York. Mr. Leonard can sit back, relax and watch the show. Broadcasting