Variety (November 1957)

Wednesday, November 13, 1957 PSsumr RADIO-TELEVISION 29 TELEVISION’S ‘ WEST SIDE STORY’ Bobby & the Beavers Hollywood, Nov. 12. NBC Prexy Bob Samoff stuck his neck way out to here last week when he singlehandedly “took on” 80 of the nation's tv editors in a free-for-all q&a in one of the most provocative two hours at¬ tending the network’s weeklong junketing activities. Probably, never before,’or certainly not in a decade of television, had a network president allowed himself to’ be “exposed" $o such mass grilling, and particularly from such a group of "eager beavers who had no hesitancy about speaking their minds in their quest for the why St wherefores 'of tv today. It's a signal tribute to the youthful prexy that he handled him¬ self with finesse, knowing precisely when to duck, when to parry, when to give and when to take. It was a far cry from the discom¬ fiture and uneasiness of the “growing pains” evident last December when the newly-elected prez stood up before the.affils and the press at the Miami Beach convention. . Last week’s q&a was significant from still another standpoint. In general it testified to the alertness and hepness of the tv .editors coast-to-coast, who reyealed a savviness as to trends, patterns,- the follies and the economics of the business that even took the NBC high echelon by surprise. They didn't mince word*. Whether embarrassing or not to Sarnoff & Co., when necessary they named names in their proper order and places; they knew the correct statistics; their challenges, mLsgivings and sometimes open rebel¬ lion to existing conditions were categorized right down the line. Sarnoff took it—and gave in kind. CBS-TV Talks ’58-’59 Shows Quicker Although the new season is only 4- a little more than a month old and presents more than a few of Its own programming problems, CBS- TV already has bo less than a doz- . en programming projects on tap for the 1958-1959 season. Of these; only three are hold¬ over pilots from last spring and summer; the remainder represent brand-new program ideas, some of, which are already going into the filming stage. By the same token, only five of the shows rep¬ resent possibilities for.^ midseason replacement purposes, with the re¬ mainder aimed at next fall at the earliest. ' ■ New properties include three live quiz formats, which along with the recently acquired “Rich¬ ard Diamond, Private Detective” aeries and the reactivated “Sus¬ pense,” are the possibilities for mi,dseasQn hows. As. of the mo¬ ment, CBS program boss Hubbell Robinson Jr. doesn’t see more than two real weak spots that might call for replacement; the' already - open “Harbourmaster” slot and the possibility of “Dick & the Duchess” being ousted. Thus, at least three of the fore¬ going, along with nine other prop¬ erties, constitute a next-season’s roster for the network. The nine are “The World of. White,” Syd¬ ney Kingsley’s series, pilot of which already has been'shot and 13 scripts already completed; Nat Hiken's “The Magnificent Monta¬ gue,” pilot of which rolled thit week; Howard Ersklne’s new “Ren¬ dezvous” anthology, on which the network has given the go-ahead for 13 films, even before putting it up (Continued on page 56) Woolworth Drops CBS Radio Hour’ One of the mainstay radio spon¬ sors of recent years, the F. W. Woolworth Co., has decided to drop its “Woolworth Hour” on CBS Radio after -the first of the year. Until Longines-Wittenauer extended its “Symphoaette” to 55 minutes on CBS a few weeks back, “The Woolworth Hour” held the status of the only singly-sponsored hour show oh network radio. CBS hopes to sell the show to another sponsor by the time Wool- worth steps out in January. If not, there’s still a chance the web will continue it for a short period as a sustainer in an attempt to sell it. Program is one of radio’s more costly shows, since it maintains a large orch headed by Percy Faith and uses big-name guest stars. Bad hews came this week from the Lynn -Baker agency, which hat repped Woolworth in the three years the show ha* been on the air. Air’s ‘Sunday Inquisitors’ Getting Together in D.C. Washington, Nov. 12. The traditional rivals of *the Sunday afternoon marathon of news- panel shows will face each other in roundtable discussion for the first time on Nov. 26. This “Producers’ Showcase” is a special program arranged by local chapter of American Women in Radio & Television. Participating in a general dis¬ cussion of the whys and where¬ fores of such news shows, plus the special features Of each individu¬ al show, will be the following; Ted Ayres of “Face the Nation” (CBS); Lawrence Spivak, “Meet the Press” (NBC); Theodore Granik, “Ameri¬ can Forum” (NBC); John Seconda- ri, “Open Hearing” (ABC); Ruth Gerf Hagy, “College News Confer¬ ence” (ABC). ■ > By GEORGE ROSEN Hollywood, Nov. 12, No rhatter what circle you travel in within the tv orbit here, there seems'a dead certainty about the from-here-on-in status of Holly¬ wood’s preeminence as a* produc¬ tion centre, patterned to the same tempo and blueprints of the film industry before it—the east coast “home office” administrative berth¬ ing; the “west side story” trans¬ lated into production. For hetter or for worse, it's evident every¬ where, notably in tbe future plan¬ ning. That NBC, in the creation of its new program development division headed by Jess Oppenheimer, de¬ cided to make it primarily a Hol¬ lywood-berthed enterprise (with an auxiliary unit operating in the east) doesn't come as a particular surprise. Similarly, at CBS the Brown Derby-Romanoff-Dave Chasen’s talk concerns future re- evaluation and revamping of its Coast programming - production staff (in the wake of the recent Bill Paley-Merle Jones-Huh Robinson personal o.p.) with an eye toward a more qualitative upgrading of the operation. Return of Bill Dozier to west coast CBS is the initial thrust in this direction. But just as “dead certain” as is the conviction about the intensifi¬ cation of west coast programming, almost equally apparent is the state of confusion and bewilderment when it comes to pinpointing the direction in which tv formats are going to Move. There’s a collec¬ tive scratching of heads and baf¬ flement about '58-59 and the “for¬ mats of the future.” Everybody’s second-guessing—nobody’s got an answer. Manana—Not a Song Now in the throes of grinding ’em out to fulfill celluloid commit¬ ments for the present ’57-’58 semes¬ ter (a semester which everybody agrees hasn’t exactly contributed toward glamorizing the Industry), (Continued on page .52) ^ Meany to Rule on RTDG-NABET Fray Momentarily; Dispute to Arbitration Following One-Day‘Lockout’at NBC New Tollvition Dept. Commencing this week, Toll- vision will occupy a special department, between Pictures and Radio-Television. ; All news—unless on Page 1 pertaining to feevee, 'whether, cable-theatres or any of the over-the-air systems—will thus be departmentalized for ready intra-trade reference. Groucho Picks Up TV Editors’ Tab And Gets Bounced Hollywood, July 12. By a strange coincidence, at the very moment when GroucbP Marx and his “You Bet Your Life” pro¬ ducer, John Guedel, were hosting the junketing tv editors here last Thursday (7) and relieving NBC of a luncheon tab, NBC prexy Bob Samoff found hifiaself in the em¬ barrassing position of dishing out some bad news to the comedian— that his show was being bounced that night to permit a live pickup of President Eisenhower’s fireside talk. The luncheon probably cost Groucho and producer Guedel about $500. But for NBC it was a $100,000 time-and-program rap. Groucho.was far from happy about it and sponsor DeSoto practically did a bum, since that was the night tfie company was all set to spring the ’56 car models. Initially NBC-had planned to do a late night tape job on the Eisen¬ hower talk, but when word leaked (Continued on page 56) OUT SOON! Th* 52nd Anniversary Number Of Forms Closing Shortly Usual Advertising Rates Prevail Special Exploitation Advantages Copy and space reservations may be sent to any Variety office HIW YORK I* 154 W. 44* Sf. HOLLYWOOD 21 4404 Saiuat Ihrd. CHICAGO 11. 412 N. Michigan Ave. LONDON, W. C. 2 t St. Martin's PI act Trafalgar Square A decision in the National Assn, of Broadcast Engineers & Tech- nieians-Radio-TV Directors Guild jurisdictional dispute at NBC will be handed down by arbitrator George Meany, president of AFL- CIO, within the next few days. Meany heard arguments by both unions in a private three-hour ar¬ bitration session yesterday (Tues.) at his Commodore Hotel, N.Y., headquarters, and asked them to submit summaries of their briefs in two to three days in the argu¬ ment over which union will give direct orders to cameramen. Meany said that he will need “very jit&e time” from the hour he receives the summaries to make his final decision. Only issue is whether NBC cameramen will take their “basic instructions” directly from RTDG program directors or whether, in accord with the cus¬ tom of seven-years, the camera¬ men Will only take direction through an intermediary party, the technical director. Meany asked the lawyers for RTGD and NABET and Thomas Ervin, general counsel for NBC- TV, to withdraw from the closed arbitration session. Apart from four to five members and executives from each union, the only other man present to hear the arguments besides Meany was his AFL-CIO radio-tv advisor, Morris Novik. On Friday (8) night, there seem¬ ed to be little hope that the squab¬ ble would ever reach arbitration. But Federal Mediator R. Man- delbaum and Meany called the war¬ ring parties back into session on Saturday and in two hours with Mandelbaum the unions finally agreed to turn! the issue over to ar¬ bitration. Both unions said they would abide" by Meany’s decision.. Matter arose when the network, in what seemed to the trade at large to be a matter of expediency, bypassed its RTDG oact and de¬ cided to stand with NABET. A “lockout” of RTDG men ensued on Friday, but after the Mandel- (Continued on page 56* Non-N.Y. Critics Demand Attention Hollywood, NoV. 12. The tv editors around the coun¬ try have a beef—and they let NBC know about it. They feel that their judgments in reviewing shows are either ignored or given secondary status by the network compared to the prestige NBC attaches to the “N. Y.'boys,” particularly the New York Times. The tv editors complained that the “broader coast-to-coast view” which they represent is the more important of the two, but that they get the hrushoff treatment when, for example, NBC buys a newspaper ad to herald reviewers* reaction to shows. Citing the re* cent publishing In Variety vs. out; of-town critics* chart, which show ed a wide divergence in opinion be- tween “Manhattan thinking” and the rest of the country, the editors expressed the belief that the Du- luth-Seattle-New Orleans-Portland, etc., evaluations are far more real¬ istic in getting a cross-country pat¬ tern of likes & dislikes. NBC prez Robert Samoff said it was all “news to him”; that he wasn’t conscious of any discrimi¬ nation in favoring the judgments of the New York reviewers. He told the editors not to overlook the fact that the N. Y. Times, by virtue of its eminent status in newspaper- dora, wields enormous influence, whether It’s tv, the theatre, poli¬ tics, etc. But he alsq reminded them that NBC’s scrapbooks 3re updated. Everybody’s word is sifted and respected. That’s whera it ended.