Variety (January 19, 1955)

46 TV-FILMS Wednesday, January 19, 1955 New Telepix Shows THE MAN BEHIND THE BADGE With Charles Bickford, narrator; others Producer: Prockter Television En- terprises Producer: Jerome Robinson Directors: Paul* Landres, Anton Leader Writers; Alvin Boretz, David Har- mon 39 half-hours Distrib: MCA TV Ltd. Network run of “Man Behind the Badge” on CBS-TV. which ex- pired at the end of last season, has given the Bernard Prockter prop- erty enough of an easily recalled identity to make it a strong entry in the s>iidicated marts. Still fur- ther strengthening it is the inser- tion of Charles Bickford as narra- tor—and here some extra credit is due—throughout the films instead of merely, introing and wrapping up at the end. Chief advantage series has. how- ever. is its lack of resemblance to most others on the air, at least in structure. It's a documentary-styled scries based on files of various law enforcement agencies, and conse- quently has a pretty wide range of story values. Style is documentary, yet elastic enough to permit var- ious methods of approach. And. last but not least, the anthology facet of its structure will prob- ably pay off in residuals after the first couple of runs, when the in- dividual episodes can be amal- gamated into a library. On the less optimistic side is the question of story values, and judg- ing from the pic caught, a script about a psycho case, MCA-TV is likely to find its biggest sales re- sistance in this area. Story, script- ed by Alvin Boretz. concerned the work of an Atlanta policewoman In preventing a psychotic woman from killing her husband, whom she thought was going to have her put away. Story lacked convic- tion, although it was well enacted and sharply directed. Janet No'an as the policewoman. Joan Camden as the psycho. Robert Osterloch as her hubby and Paul Bryar as the police chief all did a realistic and workmanlike job, while Anton Leader's direction achieved an cle- ment of suspense despite the script. Lensing and other production details arc all topflight, hut a greater sense of documentary real- ism might he achieved via the use of more exterior shooting. Bick- ford, who does a voice-over narra- tion throughout, is excellent in that department and in his open- ing and closing accolades for the law'enforcers. One nroblcm that hasn’t been licked vet—show was caught in N. Y. (WCBS-TV) in early evening hours on Saturday and it’s likely that other cities air it in similar time. Ifs no show for the kiddies, at least the tvpe of story detailed above. Chan. STARS OF THE GRAND OLE OPRY With Jimmy Dickens, Roy Aouff. Webb Pierce, Ernest Tubb, Carl Smith, Rod Brasfiold, Minnie Pearl, June Carter. Cowboy Copas,. Marty Robbins. Kitty Wells, Martha Carson, Duke of Paducah, Goldie Hill, Lew Childre. Lonzo & Oscar, Smilin’ Eddie Hill, others Producer: A1 Gannaway Director: Richard C. Kahn 39 half-hours Distrib: Flamingo Filths Flamingo Films ought to hit the jackpot with “Stars of the Grand Ole Opry,” a series of extracts from the Saturday night jamborees of the Opry crew filmed down in Nashville. Aside from the 20-year- old track record the Opry has set on NBC Radio, plus the millions of rwords the stars of the Opry have sold, f lamingo has as its key asset in the series the fact that the films arc just bursting with top- flight entertainment, not only in nmsic but in comedy and dancing. It’s one thing to have a show WANTED Man with TV SALES ! EXPERIENCE to hend'e established TV film show. Now playing 24 market* with ex- cellent results. Complete mer- chandising proqrrm with printed material available. Well-known producer, who owns show, will as- sist in training period. No invest- ment required—just earnest SALES- MANSHIP. Write for details. Box VI 1355, VARIETY. 154 W. 4Sth St.. New York 36 presold in terms of acceptance and prestige, but Flamingo fortunately has what also appears as a red-hot series that in any case would catch fire on its own. With a total of 125 acts to choose from, producer A1 Gannaway has broken the series down into a setup where five of the Opry stars will rotate as emcees, with others rotating in the various films. Five emcees are Roy Acuff, Jimmy Dickens, Webb Pierce, Ernest Tubb and Carl Smith, with such regulars as Rod Brasfield, Minnie Pearl, June Carter, Cowboy Copas, Kitty Wells, Marty Robbins, Martha Carson and the Duke of Paducah appearing most regularly. Show caught featured Dickens as emcee, surrounded by Miss Carter, Brasfield, Copas. Lonzo & Oscar, Smilin' Eddie Hill, and Lew Chil- dres. It’s a plenty talented crew, with Dickens a fine country music singer, Miss Carter a highly tal-, ented comedienne, Lonzo & Oscar a topnotch slapstick singing crew, Brasfield a familiar comic and Childres a spirited dancer. If all the Opry pix are as good as this one, Flamingo’s got it made. Here’s one case where the talent easily outdoes the production. Gan- naway and his crew- may have en- countered some difficulties via their on-the-spot (Ryman Audito- rium in Nashville) lensing, but the entire production job is rather crude. Photography is n.s.g.. and neither is the editing. But these are minor factors in what amounts to the strongest entry yet in the country & western music field. And by virtue of sight-added-to-sound, the Opry may find solid favor in the urban areas to*. Chan. PITTS WDTV SIGNED AS VITAP1X OUTLET The Guild Fitms-Vitapix combine solved one major problem last week by signing WDTV in Pitts- burgh as the Vitapix outlet in that major market. At the same time, Vitapix expanded its clearance set- up with the appointment of former CBS staffer Edward J. DeGray as director of station relations. Signing of WDTV was expected since the purchase of the outlet from DuMont by Westinghouse Broadcasting Corp. Westinghouse is now repped in Vitapix via WBZ- TV. Boston, and WPTZ in Philadel- phia. as well as WDTV. Addition- ally. Westinghouse exec v.p. Joseph E. Baudino is a Vitapix v.p. Addi-! tion of WDTV brings the Vitapix ■ lineup to 48. with 41 of these NBC and CBS affiliates. DeGray was director of station relations at CBS Radio from 1953 on, moving into that post from stints in station relations and as assistant to the v.p. in charge of o&o’s. lie’ll operate at Vitapix un- der Edward E. Hall, v.p. and gen- eral manager, another ex-CBS’er who recently moved into the Vita- pix setup. NCAA Grid ——. Continued from page 29 . The resolution asks that Michi- gan and Michigan State, both state supported schools, be permitted to sidestep the NCAA’s rigid bar- riers on televising regional football games. It also asks that a six-man commission be established to con- trol tv’ing of athletic events at the two schools. The resolution, if it passes, will have no compulsion on the schools, of course. Only a bill would have that power. But. it would serve to bolster greatly the rebels led by Fritz Crisler. U of M’s athletic di- rector. who have threatened to pull the Big Ten out of NCAA unless television restrictions are relaxed. The resolution could become a political wedge of the first magni- tude in shaking NCAA’s adamant stand. Resolutions in other legis- latures would he expected to fol- low. particularly in Illinois and Minnesota. This would result in more political pressure on the NCAA. The hazard connected with the Michigan resolution is that it was introduced by two Democrats in a Republican-controlled Legislature. If it loses here, observers feel the Big Ten’s battle might collapse. 2 MARKETS PACT FOR 'JULIET’; 12 TO GO With only about a month to go on Its option on “The Heart of Juliet Jones’ soaper series, Official Films has signed two key stations to provisional pacts for the strip. Two outlets are KSD-TV in St. Louis and WFAA-TV in Dallas, both of which indicated they want the series on 39-week deals. Condition to the deals is that Official must pre-sell the series to the tune of 40 Co of production cost before it signs the films for dis- tribution and helps finance produc- tion. It’s figured that the 40% fig- ure represents about $8,000 a week, while the two station pacts repre- sent a total of about $1,000. Offi- cial, therefore, must ink approxi- mately 14 deals in markets of the same stature within the next month if its to get under way on the series. If not, the property re- turns to the William Morris agency for further peddling. NBC-TV’s ‘Pacific Specifics’ Continued from p«f« M MCA-TV 4-Ply Continued from pace 43 on new product, thus bringing them very close to decisions on handling MCA’s talent. Further- more. the four spielers will handle the large regional and national underwriters who want to buy spot instead of network. This organizational jockeying follows within several days of the MCA merger with the Jack Gross- Phil Krasne United Television Programs. Addition of four or five vidfilm skeins to the large cur- rent roster, by the way, will likely be done by Gross and Krasne who, on the Coast, have returned to strictly production. It’s more than likely that MCA will pick the first four or five series for the network mill, turning the ones that aren’t sold that way over to syndication. As a result of the MCA-UTP tie, some MCA staffers in the tv film setup are being returned to the tal- ent end of the outfit. Dick Shep- herd, for nearly three years a vid- film salesman, is returning to the parent organization to be execu- tive assistant to MCA prexy Lou Wasscrman, it’s understood. considered doubtful at the moment. Cy Howard’s comedy series will be “Just Plain Folks,” with Bob Finkle the probable director and Zsa Zsa Gabor in the femme lead. “A Man Called X”—The ex-NBC radio series which starred Herbert Marshall. Not too active since the first recordings were not favorably received. John Elliotte and Andy White are revising “Great Gildersleeve” in its new pilot form. The first one was shown on the web a couple of months ago as a stunt replacement and was pasted by the critics. Bob Finkle is casting. “Off Beat” is primed for Peter Lorre, who’s also been linked with Francis L. Sullivan on another en- try, but latter is committed on Broadway in the smasheroo “Wit- ness for the Prosecution.” “Beat” is an Albert McCleery dramatic en- try with “exotic” backgrounds for the summer. Lorre w ill be\ host- emcee and will appear in ail stanzas as a supporting player and star in some. “Crime Wave” is a juve delin- quency package via Irwin Gielgud of the Jam Handy Organization. Fibber a Possibility If “Fibber McGee A Molly” ever gets a tv version, chances are Sam Hearn will play the Fibber. A dras- tic rewrite is in view. Pat Carroll is being worked into a department store skein written direct the Phil Harris pilot under i “Room and Board”) with script by the Music Corp. of America ban- Skippy Shearer and Sherwood ner. ! Schwartz. Careful casting is in- Irene Ryan is in mind for Ben dicated and primed for the lead is Brady’s “Mathilde” and is also a Walter Slezak, who’s currently tied possibility for “The Gibson Girls.” up. however, on B’way in “Fanny.” Latter, out of the William Morris Of big star calibre is a Harry office, of quarter-hour dimensions Maizlish-fronted “Hollywood Star scripted by the team of Simmons & Closeup,” but Its fate may depend Lear. j on delivery of Joan Crawford or “Inside Dope”—A script is on an °ther “acceptable star," an ac- the way and Danny Dare is the j ceptable script and a firm list of probable produced stars for future shows. “Point Sublime”—This is with Miscellaneous: “The Dancers.” Cliff Arquette in the lead but is i w ^th Val Rosing producing and George Bradshaw and George Op- penheimer scripting; “Tomorrow.” a feature news session; “Shore Leave,” on which word is being awaited from program v.p. Tom McAvity in N. Y.; recaos from “This Is Your Life”; “Penitenti- ary,” Homer Canfield’s documen- tary-type show’ based on interviews with prisoners in a dramatization of case histories (also primed for radio); “Dateline Tokyo.” with a pilot off the line and apparently earmarked for NBC Film Division distribution; “Monsieur Paul.” in- tended for Claude Dauphin and Geraldine Brooks, approved on the basis of recent Paris tests; a rodeo show live from Burbankr an Ilona Massey series based on the “Cafe International” cloak - and - dagger pattern. Virtually the whole network has been alerted to scouting a new format for Dennis Day (who. inci- dentally, opened at the Copaca- bana. N. Y., last week and deliv- ered candid chitchat on his ex-show opposite “I Love Lucy”). Another McCleery potential: A quarter-hour soapopera strip called “The Doctor Next Door.” GE’s Click Continued from pace 43 Mvrna Loy. Claude Rains and w MV jawi IIIIV1IV ill »r « ivtvii I | . it m A. by Joe Hunt. Miss Carroll’s other 1 Hayes' ,a *J ie use “Talk of the Town ” or * ive au ^ v,a *‘ie t' v °*coast orig- inations. Indie’s Crash Continued from page 43 “Honestly Celeste”), via Four Star Productions. ABC roster has the incoming “Readers Digest” Chester Erskine production sold via Bernard Prock- ter for Packard-Studebaker; Screen Gems’ “Rin Tin Tin” for Nabisco; and the Danziger Brothers’ “The Vise” for Sterling Drug. Addi- tionally .Chesterfields has the new Stu Erwin segment which Roland Reed is producing on the Coast. From the packagers’ standpoint, the two leading contenders are TPA and Screen Gems. Former landed “Lassie.” “Halls of Ivy" and “Captain Gallant.” while the latter, the Columbia Pictures sub- sid, sold “Rin Tin Tin,” “Father Knows {lest” and “Captain Mid- night,” and is endeavoring to clear time for a fourth, “The Damon Runyon Theatre,” which it’s sold to Anheuser-Busch for a 60-market ride starting in April. Last season there were only seven new indie starters, “Mr. & Mrs. North” on NBC for Revlon and Congoleum, a John Loveton property; “Topper” on CBS for Reynolds, a Loveton - Bernard Schubert production; “Meet Mr. McNutley” (now it’s McNulty) on CBS for GE. a Revue Productions package; “Public Defender,” on CBS for Philip Morris, a Hal Roach Jr. production; “Pepsi-Cola Play- house” on ABC for Pepsi, produced by Revue; “Pride of the Family," also produced by Revue, on ABC for Armour and Bristol-Myers; and the “Loretta Young Show,” pro- duced by Lewislor (Loretta Young and hubby Tom Lewis) for Procter & Gamble on NBC. BETH. STEEL S VIDPIX BUY Bethlehem Steel makes its tele- vision sponsorship bow this week in three major markets with “This Week in Sports.” the INS-Tele- news scries featuring Harry Wis- mer. Bethlehem has bought the series in Washington, on WTTG; Baltimore, for WBAL-TV and Philadelphia, on WFIL-TV. Business was placed through Radio Reports Inc. possibility is with either Paul Gilbert or Larry Storch as her video teammate. Comedienne’s “own show” projects may be dropped, however, if plans work out which would star her with Buddy Hackett under Max Lieb- man’s production aegis in New York. (Miss Carroll and Hackett. meanwhile, take over in “Variety.” Liebman’s Sunday (30) spec, with Hackett’s stock considerably upped on his work in Sidney Kingsley’s “Lunatics and Lovers” on Broad- way.) Script and budget factors have apparently been resolved on tlie projected show for Keefe Brasselle. This is another Albert McCleery production (he’ll also stage) with audkine shot. In addition to shows previously indicated for him, the network is still high .on comic Paul Gilbert, with a number of properties 'large- ly telepix) in the hopper. Among them: “House for Sale,” a foal es- tate format written by Adam Math- ers w'ith Allen Jenkins as probable chief support and with George Burns (McFadden Productions) in- terested on the filming end; a “sail- or idea” once a part of the “Sat- urday Night Revue” summer re- placement; "Moulin Rouge.” un- der which Gilbert would serve as m.c. of a variety stanza recruiting talent from the Moulin Rouge Res- taurant. (Other comics the web is trying to promote include Wally Boag paired with Alvy Moore; and Eddie Mayehoff in a new show from an idea submitted by the Frank Cooper talent office, hut Mayehoff’s recent demise on CBS —plus a previous ffoppola—may delay the activity in his direction for a few months. Cooper, inci- dentally. took an audkine of a Leo Guild show to New York last month, and one stickler may he guestar salaries, considered too costly for network slotting.) Even Quizzers A few cfTlizzers are kicking around. Foremost examples are “Don’t Ask Me That.” with head- liner guests out of H’wood and Las Vegas; “Spike Jones Quiz Kids" as a possible summer sub: “The Other Guy’s Game,” fronted by staff pro- ducer Ernie Glueksman as an aud partcipationcr and also with a hot weather label attached. On the story side, exec producer 1 Mort Abrahams, who’s running the show for MCA (with Revue Pro- ductions doing or supervising the filming),' has stressed variety, w’ith a liberal sprinkling of originals mixed with short story, novel and play adaptations. Upcoming, for example, is « televersion of Emmet Kelly’s new’ hook, “Clown,” with Henry Fonda in the starring role. Also in the works is a televersion of Irving Stone’s bestseller, “Love Is Eternal.” and a Myrna Loy- starring adaptation of Emilv Kim- brough's “It Gives Me Great Pleas- ure.” which Carol Irwin will pro- duce. On the classic side was thp preem, “Nora.” an adaptation of Henr’k Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.” and Sherwood Anderson’s "I’m a i Fool.” and upcoming is Bret Hartes “Prosper’s Old Mother” | 'which would star Miss Barrv- morc and Ronald Reagan, who 1 doubles as host and occasional ■ star). Apart from the resolution of the competitive problem, GE has rea- son to believe it’s broken the star “harrier” via the introduction to television a number of top Holly- wood names Mke Stewart, Ladd, Miss Craw’ford, Miss Loy, etc.). Flexibility of format enables thorn to go on when it’s convenient and they’re available, and the pack- aging-production setup also en- ables them to choose live or film. In the latter case, where they have studio contracts or operate inde- pendent production companies, they’re allowed to shoot their pro- grams under their own production company banner, with Revue supervision. MCA reports they’re all happy about the arrangements, and one at least, Miss Crawford, is due back for another role this season. All this, says MCA, with- out paying them exorbitant talent fees. Bowman Rides Again Guild Films this week picked up a 12-market renewal on “Liberace. pacting Bowman Biscuit, one or the show’s oldest sponsors, to an- other ride. Bowman renewed in , Denver, Colorado Springs. A1 m- i querque, San Antonio, Luhhock, On the active board for several Ft. Worth. Amarillo, Ausdn. months is Parke Levy's property, j Wichita Falls, Abilene. Roswell “Johnny and the Gaucho," for veil-! and Temple, latter nine all triloquist Scnor Wenees. packaged Texas. in by Abby Gre.shier, moment is “Hazel Deal set via the Ball & David* Also lint at the n’ Harry” (ex- 1 son agency of Denver.