ABSTRACT
The powerhouse of the industry is Universal television. MCA (Universal) is the twenty-sixth largest industrial company in California, the largest television production company in Hollywood, and the major employer of freelance composers, performing musicians, copyists, contractors, sound mixers, music editors, recording engineers, and other related music staff. At the height of one television season in the early 1970s Daily Variety reported 30 composers at work on various Universal television and film projects. A total of 1,874 performing musicians, at an average of 75 per day, were hired by the studio during one five-week period. The television scoring season is going full tilt from September until early January. Series composers find themselves hemmed in with too little time and too much music to write. Though a producer may not be able to tell the difference between a composer's and his ghost's work, performing musicians usually can.
