The New Entrepreneurs: An Institutional History of Television Anthology Writers

229 Pages·2010·1.74 MB·English

by  Jon Kraszewski

THE NEW ENTREPRENEURS
A series from Wesleyan University Press
Edited by Jeanine Basinger
The wesleyan film series takes a back-to-basics approach to the art of
cinema. Books in the series deal with the formal, the historical, and the
cultural—putting a premium on visual analysis, close readings, and an
understanding of the history of Hollywood and international cinema, both
artistically and industrially. The volumes are rigorous, critical, and accessible
both to academics and to lay readers with a serious interest in fi lm.
Series editor Jeanine Basinger, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies at
Wesleyan University, as well as Curator and Founder of the Wesleyan Cinema
Archives, is the author of such landmark books as The World War II Combat
Film: Anatomy of a Genre; A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women,
1930–1960; Silent Stars; and The Star Machine.
Anthony Mann The New Entrepreneurs
New and Expanded Edition An Institutional History of
by Jeanine Basinger Television Anthology Writers
by Jon Kraszewski
It’s the Pictures That Got Small
Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Action Speaks Louder
Television Violence, Spectacle, and the
by Christine Becker American Action Movie
Revised and Expanded Edition
The South Korean Film Renaissance
by Eric Lichtenfeld
Local Hitmakers, Global Provocateurs
by Jinhee Choi Hollywood Ambitions
Celebrity in the Movie Age
The Films of Samuel Fuller
by Marsha Orgeron
If You Die, I’ll Kill You!
by Lisa Dombrowski A Splurch in the Kisser
The Movies of Blake Edwards
Physical Evidence
by Sam Wasson
Selected Film Criticism
by Kent Jones
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The image placed here in the print version
has been intentionally omitted
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wesleyan university press
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
© 2010 by Jon Kraszewski
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Portions of the introduction and chapter 2 originally
appeared in “Adapting Scripts in the 1950s: The Economic
and Political Incentives for Television Anthology Writers,”
Journal of Film and Video 58.3 (Fall 2006): 3–21. They are
reprinted here with permission from the University of Illinois
Press. Portions of chapters 1 and 3 originally appeared in
“Authorship and Adaptation: The Public Personas of
Television Anthology Writers,” Quarterly Review of Film
and Video 25.4 (2008): 271–85. They are reprinted here
with permission from Taylor & Francis. Finally, portions of
chapter 5 originally appeared in “Do Not Go Gentle into
That Twilight: Rod Serling’s Challenge to 1960s’ Television
Production,” New Review of Film and Television Studies 6.3
(2008): 343–64. They are also reprinted here with permission
from Taylor & Francis.
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press
Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum
requirement for recycled paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kraszewski, Jon.
The new entrepreneurs : an institutional history of television
anthology writers / Jon Kraszewski.
p. cm. — (Wesleyan fi lm)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8195-6946-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Television authorship—United States. 2. Television plays,
American—History and criticism. 3. Television—Production
and direction—United States. 4. Television programs—
Economic aspects—United States. 5. Television programs—
Social aspects—United States. I. Title.
pn1992.7. k73 2010'
809.2'25 0925—dc22 2009052106
5 4 3 2 1
For Barbara,
Lanny, Leo, Oliver,
and Sue Kraszewski
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
chapter 1.
Between the Television and Book Publishing
Industries: Anthology Writers and Their Struggle
for Authorial Identities 26
chapter 2.
Between the Television and Theater Industries:
Representations of Race in Rod Serling’s “Noon
on Doomsday” 50
chapter 3.
Between the Television and Motion Picture
Industries: Paddy Chayefsky’s “Marty” as
Art Cinema 70
chapter 4.
New Strategies for Entrepreneurship:
Reginald Rose, The Defenders, and the 1960s
Television Industry 103
chapter 5.
A New Zone of Production? Rod Serling’s Attempt
to Redefi ne the Role of the Writer in the 1960s
Television Industry 139
Notes 179
Bibliography 195
Index 201
ILLUSTRATIONS
Reginald Rose on the set of The Defenders 4
Still of Rod Serling 16
Still of Paddy Chayefsky 20
A behind-the-scenes shot of the production of “Twelve Angry Men” 46
Paddy Chayefsky with Delbert Mann 47
Marty and Angie in the television version of “Marty” 80
The famous phone booth ending of Marty in the motion picture
version 83
A scene that Paddy Chayefsky added to the fi lm version of Marty 90
A publicity still for the fi lm version of Marty 91
An advertisement for the fi lm version of Marty 97
Paddy Chayefsky on the set of the fi lm version of Marty 98
Paddy Chayefsky with his Oscar for Best Screenplay 100
An image from Reginald Rose’s “The Remarkable Incident at Carson
Corners” 110
An image from Reginald Rose’s “An Almanac of Liberty” 114
Kenneth Preston with Louise Clarendon in the “Grandma tnt”
episode of The Defenders 129
Kenneth Preston, liberal bachelor, in The Defenders 133
The Prestons with Jim McCleary and wife in The Defenders “Killer Instinct”
episode 136
A publicity still for The Twilight Zone 150
Cayuga Productions fi lming Rod Serling’s narrations for
The Twilight Zone 151
Publicity still for the “Time Enough at Last” episode of
The Twilight Zone 163
Publicity still for the “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” episode of
The Twilight Zone 165
Poster for the 1983 fi lm version of The Twilight Zone 174
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is my fi rst book. Like many fi rst-time authors, I owe a lot to the depart-
ment where I earned my PhD, the universities that have employed me in
my pre-tenure years, the press that agreed to publish my book, and the
friends and family who have supported me along the way. This project
began because of the advice and encouragement of Christopher Anderson,
my PhD advisor at Indiana University, Bloomington. His passion for archi-
val research inspired me to journey across the country in search of an un-
told story about anthology writers, and his discipline as a writer taught me
how to be a historian. At Indiana University, I was lucky enough to work
with three other gifted faculty members: Joan Hawkins, Barbara Klinger,
and James Naremore. They have profoundly infl uenced the ways in which I
think about media. My fellow students Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, Tonia
Edwards, Chris Dumas, Jacob Smith, Claire Sisco-King, Nathan Carroll,
Bob Rehak, and Jeffrey Bennett formed an ideal network for intellectual
and emotional support during my days in the land of the Hoosiers. I owe
special thanks to my good friend from iu, James Kendrick. Although we
now live over 1,500 miles apart, he e-mails me regularly to fi nd out how my
writing and my life are going. When I was at a critical crossroads with this
project, unsure of the direction in which I wanted to take it, Jim helped me
choose the right path.
I started my time as an assistant professor with a job in the Radio-tv-
Film Department at Texas Christian University. Between 2004 and 2006,
the faculty members there welcomed me into their department and made
me feel at home. I cannot offer enough thanks to Richard J. Allen, my de-
partment chair and good friend. He enthusiastically read everything I
wrote during my two years there, and he regularly attended a course that I
taught on anthology writers. I would also like to thank my wonderful stu-
dents in that same class. Dan Betsill, in particular, took a special interest
in my work and provided valuable feedback on this project. Dan always
seemed more like a colleague than a student. I am also grateful to David
Whillock, Assistant Dean of the College of Communication while I was at
Texas Christian University, for fi nding extra money in the college budget
so that I could present papers on anthology writers at conferences outside
the United States. Texas Christian University’s Research and Creative Ac-