Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

OUR RESPECTS TO . . . Oscar Katz The tables were turned on Oscar Katz last summer when CBS-TV moved him up to vice president in charge of network programs. Oscar, who's not averse on occasion to helping support a hopeful play for Broadway or riding a few dollars on a filly's nose, suddenly found the network betting on his track record to help it place, and win, with its shows. For a while it was all he could do to get to the starting gate. A few months had gone by since Hubbell Robinson had resigned to launch a production company and the programming department lacked top direction. The 1959-60 tv season was about to begin; Louis Cowan, then CBS-TV president, whisked him away to the West Coast and on his desk were piled papers with notes attached that cheerily assured: "Oscar, this is your baby now." Workfest • Oscar Katz has a knack for this; he nursed the baby through, cleared his desk and just worked, taking problems along with him for night sessions at home. (He's back to a normal schedule of 9:30 a.m. through 7:30 p.m.) An ex-researcher with an understanding of "organization," he made this the first order of things for the program department. It may have been happenstance but the slender, almost frail-looking Mr. Katz just seemed to bob up when the chips were down. In 1956, competition gave daytime programming an importance it had never quite attained in earlier years and some of the more impatient even detected a stale sameness. Into this still air strode the friendly and slight figure of Oscar Katz, CBS' top research executive, to stir things up a bit. With Mr. Katz came new thinking. CBS-TV experimented with country music when NBC-TV had its Today (he doesn't like imitation). He reasoned that daytime programs are viewed by the woman in the house and he quickly concluded that through tv she ought to be brought out into the world. Result: The Verdict Is Yours, the existing form of the daytime serial placed against a reality setting; On the Go, human interest with on-location production via mobile tape unit to heighten the show with a natural habitat. Innovator • There were innovations, including a series on women's role (and problems) in the development of the rugged West; the scheduling of the successful Captain Kangaroo for children, and the more recent Woman! series of specials for their mothers. Asked to sum up Oscar Katz in a few words, an associate glibly obliged by pruning the request to the initials. That stamp of being "O.K." is as indelible on Oscar Katz as is the old CBS "school" tie. He wore it first in 1938 in the thenneophyte CBS research department where a bright, practical scholar named Frank Stanton was making his career. A few years later (1942) and Mr. Katz was assistant director; he subsequently (in 1948) moved up to director of the department. When tv had grown in stature, a separate research unit was established at CBS-TV and Oscar Katz appointed as its director. In that year (1951) he also began to branch out into programming. As a member of the CBS-TV Network Executive Program Plans Board, he worked closer to the area of program policy, devoting nearly half of his time to such problems as program scheduling. (For an interval during World War II, Mr. Katz was away from CBS New York, when the network loaned him on special assignment to the Office of War Information.) Via Post Office • A night student at the College of the City of New York, Mr. Katz says his degree (mathematics and statistics) didn't come until 29 years after his birth (April 12, 1913 in Brooklyn, N.Y.) and while he was at CBS. He confides blandly, "Eventually I received my degree in the mail." He checks off his programming philosophy so: The show is important and CBS-TV's Katz Variety within balance he's no stickler for formula. As do others in the CBS camp, he believes in variety programming within a balanced schedule. He sees the excitement of "specials" perhaps giving way to the "special of distinction" (either extraordinary in concept or perhaps a flavor of an event, or both). He reflects that he's often been asked, "What do you think of hour shows? Will there be more of them?" His answer is that it will be program content that will determine the show length. His view is that a network must build different shows of various lengths — no rut for him in a network's program route. Mr. Katz says there will always be a "big emphasis" in tv on research (audience measurement). He explains the reasons are simple enough: There is no box office for measuring circulation of the medium so audience measurement must fill this "void." He has a word of warning, however, that research is an approximation (because it is based on sampling) and so must be used very carefully — one cannot get "wild," he says, on the basis of initial surveys. He personally withholds judgment until the "national" among rating reports is in and he then watches a program's trend: he respects the lower-rated program that moves up with each rating period. Ratings, he feels, provide a necessary guide and the industry must go along with them. Mr. Katz lives quietly in the Rego Park section of Queens with his wife, the former Rose Wolfe, whom he married in 1938, and their two children, Joan Ellen 15 and Marjorie Ann 12. He doesn't get to the track as often as he would like, though he spent a oneday vacation last year at Jamaica. His love for the theatre has contributed to his work. Over the years, he has made a token or larger investment in Broadway productions, supporting some 40 shows. He takes measure of his "editorial" judgment in the creative area by making decisions on the basis of reading play scripts and other study and then watching for reviews and public reaction. This experience has brought him the desired contact with performers and directors. Among the many successful shows he supported: "Peter Pan," "Guys and Dolls," "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," "The Moon Is Blue" and "The Boyfriend." No Recoup • His interest in a theatre venture comes from a reading of a script but occasionally he goes in "blind." With a wistful smile, he says: "It can be worse than the stock market because there's no recoup here on a flop." A homebody, Mr. Katz restricts outside activities. He is a member of the Market Research Council and of the Friars and Players Clubs. BROADCASTING, February 8, 1960 109