To Be Or Not To Be TV

For some reason or other I have been on the low end of the totem pole when pitching a new TV concept to the network moguls. In the early 50's I made a pilot for an hour of music with a small orchestra, jazz pianist Dwike Mitchell and pop singers. It was shown on WPIX-TV in New York City and received excellent reviews in BILLBOARD and VARIETY trade magazines.

But the MAD MEN who controlled content for TV turned thumbs down. They felt that high class music should stay in the concert hall, not on television. Manny Sacks, a programming executive wih NBC called me to have lunch in six months and discuss my  show, "Your Musical Workshop." His secretary kept calling a month before for a later date; this happened seven times. Manny finally died.

Then I thought about entertainment on airlines, showing a movie and listening to old radio shows by Jack Benny, Red Skelton and Milton Berle. Charlie Beard, the CEO of Braniff Airlines, was willing to do a test run between New York City and Dallas. A 16 mm projector would show the Moss Hart World War II feature celebrating our Air Force, "Winged Victory," that was directed by George Cukor. An Ampex machine played back the old comedy radio shows.

Again, great reviews by the trade papers and passengers on the test Braniff run were delighted. But the airlines were dubious. As the marketing director for American Airlines told me in his office, "Travelers want to sleep, read magazines or look out the window. They don't want to be interrupted by music, jokes or read magazines." He then took me by the arm and aggressively escorted me to the elevator.

David Flexer called me with an invitation to have lunch at the "21" Restaurant. He was a young and enterprising chap interested in setting up a company called IN FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT that would sell movies and radio shows to the airlines. Did I want to join him in business? I was not interested in having a partner in a project that I tried to sell and couldn't. So I turned him down. He forgot to put money in his wallet. I paid the check. The rest is history with IFE.

In the late 50's I made a half-hour pilot called "The Unstable Roundtable" with Buck Henry and a few other eggheads discussing "the role of the dog in society." It was an amusing show but there were no takers. Again, agency "suits" claimed it was too static, needed movement, maybe with ballet dancers or people dancing in Hoola Hoops. I abandoned the idea.

Here is one last failure. It was a half-hour program resembling a Playboy VIP Club, with a jazz band, attractive ladies and some clever banter by an M.C. This pilot would be staged on television, recorded on 35 mm film and then released to theaters, thus providing a cheap way to produce movie shorts.

It almost worked. The World Theater in Columbus, Ohio agreed to show the short subject for a week, because one of the models, Linda Lombard, was a native of Columbus and had graced the full cover of LOOK Magazine. The theater was on the edge of the campus of The Ohio State University, my alma mater where I was a BMOC. But that didn't matter much. Business was good and after all expenses were paid, including advertising, I received a check for $11.00. Say goodbye, and I did.

Finally, I'm not going to recite my crazy experience to produce an off-Broadway revue called, "Safari." You can read all about that roller coaster ride in my book, "How To Thrive On Rejection," and copies are available on the website www.abelraisescain.com

Thanks for ordering and reading.