Ross reports -- television index. (1957)

An interesting thought: few of the adventure series on TV have catchy names similar to those that adorn the mystery-suspense programs. Aside from the Westerns, few programs have regular titles as catchy as some of their episode names, which are here and gone in a week. "Big," "Danger," (and "Dangerous") and "Wild," are among the more popular words used in movie titles since 1915 according to the records. A few others, such as "Murder," are not too suitable for regular series. Naturally, the impact of the aforementioned words depends on what mood-words they might be linked with, such as "Dangerous Curves" for stories about a female adventurer, etc. ABC is coming up with one of the most drastic mid -season shifts in programming in some time, starting Jan 1, Wednesday. On that day, Date with the Angels, currently on Fridays, 9:30-10pm NYT, moves to Wednesday, 9:30-10pm NYT. Walter Wlnchell File, currently in the Wednesday, 9:30pm spot, moves to Fridays, 8:30-9pm NYT, effective Jan 3> replacing The Patrice Munsel Show, which skips a half-hour to follow the Frank Sinatra Show at 9:30-10pm. Sinatra, staying in his 9-9 :30pm NYT spot, will have one of his two live shows on Jan 3j with Dinah Shore as his guest star, so ABC will really have program material to advertise during the New Year week. Date with the Angels, even though moving into a new time spot, will have an even more drastic change on Feb 5 when it switches to a live comedy show with a new title, The Betty White Show, last date for the Date will be Jan 29. Plymouth continues as sponsor of the new pro¬ gram, which will continue to be packaged by Don Fedderson . CBS brings back Rich¬ ard Diamond Private Detective, following its successful summer run, as the Thursday, 8-8 :30pm NYT replacement for Harbourmaster, effective Jan 2. The unusual part of the pattern here is that the new series will be sponsored by P. Lorillard Co for Kent and Newport Cigarettes thru Lennen & Newell, Inc (NY). Harbourmaster was sponsored by R. J. Reynolds Co for Winston Cigarettes thru William Esty Co., Inc (NY), continuing with the show under its new title on ABC starting Jan 5. This may be the first time a product competitor replaced another in the same time spot in the middle of the sea¬ son. New pilots for future series are coming to life all over the country: CBS Tele¬ vision has signed Charles Marquis Warren, first producer of Gunsmoke , to develop a new one-hour Western film series, for which he will be producer, director and writer. He has an initial script by Lester Crutchfield. Exec producer will be Robert Sparks. . TPA has named Frank Armer to act as Eastern Story Editor, with first atten¬ tion going to possible scripts for four future series. The Dude, would be based on the experiences of cowboy -painter Frederic Remington in his travels thru the West in — the l880's. Airplane Hostess, is a planned series on the adventures of a trans -Atlan¬ tic airplane and crew, with the story stress on the activities of the senior hostess as the central character. Cannon Ball, would concern the adventures of a commercial truck driver and a younger companion on the Toronto to Detroit freight run, with the older man featured as rough-hewn family-man type, while the younger would be the type to become involved in romantic escapades. A fourth TPA series would be Kip and the Colonel (tentative title), which would star an orphan being raised by a grandfather in the atmosphere of a carnival operated by the old man . Lee Bowman will co-star with Myrna Loy in the Carol Irwin-Screen Gems family comedy series, Minerva, with the pilot rolling in January in Hollywood . .Warner Bros, will roll a pilot in January for The b9'ers, a proposed hour-long series, which will have two co-stars in alternating leads . Felix Jackson will produce Cimarron City, another one-hour Western, for Revue Productions, with three regular characters and weekly guest stars. The property was developed by Jackson . Desilu Productions is working on a Grand Jury series, to be written and produced by Mort Briskin, based on activities of the Los Angeles Grand Jury. The pilot is slated for late next month . Four Star has seven pilots in pre-production and production, including Doc Holliday and Night Court, among the titles . CBS has several series in the works, with the hottest con¬ sidered to be Personal and Private, a private detective series starring Mickey Rooney. ROSS REPORTS MID-WEEK SPECIAL 12/18/57 Page 2