Word: pinocchios
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...first, Susskind did well with original shows-The Rainmaker, Other People's Houses-but soon he found that there was less and less room to gamble. Sponsors wanted every effort to be a success, so the titles became more familiar-The Winslow Boy, The Prince and the Pauper, Pinocchio. Off TV, he sometimes tried the unusual: his movie, Edge of the City, was an artistic success, and his current Broadway hit, Rashomon, though based on a successful Japanese movie, is an occasionally baffling exercise in fantasy. But on TV, clients are cautious, and "you have an inevitable compromise between...
...typical sponsor wants results on a sales chart, and employs rating services which assure him that the viewers are getting his message. "Spectaculars" are one result of this. A light children's tale such as "Pinocchio" is transformed into a tasteless extravaganza punctuated with wisecracks. Another result is to force a comedian such as Sid Caesar, with reasonably esoteric appeal, off the air. Public service programs also suffer. ABC-TV was the only network to cover the recent Senate Labor Investigations; the other two networks had too many commercial commitments to do so. Because there is no ABC station...
...Pinocchio: On TV's big night of three spectaculars costing $1,325,000 (TIME, Oct. 14), NBC's Pinocchio itself was worth the price of transmission. Collodi's tale of the wooden doll who turns into a real boy is a moral fable; yet it is also a down-to-earth story of broad fun and cliffhanging climaxes, and it takes a sophisticated view of human foibles. NBC's version was a rollicking production full of style and striking images, a bouncy score, and dances depicting the fluttery rhythms of liberated marionettes and the slow-motion...
...have to flick dials from one show to another-the big parade of singers, dancers and actors has been programed without any overlapping: ¶ NBC and Rexall Drug Co. will try spreading some elfin cheer (6:30 to 7:30 p.m., E.D.T.) with a $325,000 "free treatment" of Pinocchio, with Walter Slezak, Fran Allison, Jerry Colonna, Stubby Kaye, Savoyard Martyn Green, and as the wooden hero, Mickey Rooney, 35. Says Scriptwriter Yasha Frank: "It's corny, but corn is the staff of entertainment life." ¶ CBS's The Edsel Show (8 to 9 p.m., E.D.T.) will crowd...
...color, account for about 117 hours of programing and a whopping $40 million in gross billings. John (Pajama Game) Raitt will join Mary Martin in Annie Get Your Gun; Van Johnson is set to play The Pied Piper of Hamelin; and Mickey Rooney brings his cultivated ham to Pinocchio. Maurice Evans will produce and star in Twelfth Night and Dial M for Murder for Hallmark Hall of Fame. Ex-Cinemoppet Shirley Temple acts as hostess and sometimes star of a new fairy-tale series, and NBC Opera Company will do Rigoletto, Die Meistersinger and Poulenc's Dialogues...