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Y OU ARE, let us suppose, an auto¬ mobile dealer or a shoe salesman or a college graduate with a Ph.D. You have a little money put away, or maybe you’ve come into a windfall. You have an idea—a sure-fire, of course—for a TV show. All you have to do is put the idea on film and your fortune is made. You think. You come to Hollywood, This is your first big mistake—you’re already in the hole for the train or plane fare. You stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel, another mistake. Better you should go to the ‘Y.’ Sooner or later, you run into “just the man you’ve been look¬ ing for.” He’s a movie man—a director or assistant director or cameraman— with vast experience in second-rate pictures. With his advice and guid¬ ance, you hire a group of incompetent hangers-on and prepare to make what is known as a pilot film. This is the film you expect to sell, quite probably the morning after it is finished, to NBC or J. Walter Thompson or the president of Proctor and Gamble. You have difficulty right off the bat finding a good writer — assuming you’re smart enough not to try writ¬ ing the show yourself. Good writers are not only expensive, they don’t like unknowns. This holds true for every other member of your new com¬ pany, including the star. You won’t have a star, actually, for no such ani¬ mal will be available to you. You will Roland D. Reed and actress Patsy Parsons: in television films, all is not golden. have a cast of unknowns and you will all be very happy. Until the bills come. If you have allowed $12,000 for your pilot film and can allow no more, kiss the $12,000 goodby and go home. Be¬ fore you are halfway through you will be staring at bills totaling $25,000. But let’s be generous and assume that you finish the film. What you have is two reels of film which com¬ pares with I Love , Lucy as a kite com¬ pares with a DC-7. Armed with this ammunition, you get on the phone and call NBC and J. Walter Thompson and the president of Proctor & Gamble. This is where it begins to hurt, for all the money in the world isn’t going to get you through those doors with that film. Even the film distribution companies, who would charge you anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of the gross to handle 18