Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frank StantonFrank Stanton
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 755

it is -- a situation comedy. The great plays aren't written that way and the great books aren't written that way. But there were people who tried to do books that way and they fell on their face. They didn't succeed. So I'm totally over on the side of not using research -- Now, once you get the idea into a developmental stage --

Q:

Right.

Stanton:

-- it doesn't hurt to run it by the ultimate consumer. But even that procedure, leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. But now we're getting into the pluses and minuses of how you build a program. And if I had any skills in that direction, I think I would be having this interview probably in Beverly Hills.

Q:

Well, you did pick a few stars, didn't you?

Stanton:

Did what?

Q:

Weren't you responsible for finding Arthur Godfrey, for example?

Stanton:

Yes, but that was picking a man, not a program idea. “Playhouse 90” was my idea. I wasn't the producer; I didn't produce the shows. I had the concept of doing a ninety-minute dramatic series at the same time every week in the schedule, and getting new writers, and giving them enough money and enough production back-up to do what I thought could be something as good or perhaps even better than just going to the motion picture people and getting tired films and putting them on. I was wrong about the impact of films, they've done very well. I think some of them are pretty trivial. But “Studio One” and “Playhouse 90”





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help