ABSTRACT
By 1960 American television was, by and large, Hollywood television. The
three networks had solidified their control over prim e-tim e programm ing
during the previous decade, in the process delegating the bulk of production
m atters to m otion picture makers. By the mid-1950s m ost o f the m ajor
movie studios were involved in producing series for the small screen, and
when the 1960 prime-time schedule was unveiled, over 80 percent of it was
generated in Hollywood.1 With the network-Hollywood alliance cemented,
telefilm production established as an integral part o f the A m erican film
industry, and the filmed series set as the fundamental form of television, the
late 1950s has been seen as a period of stabilization, setting the stage for the
stasis-both industrial and creative-of the 1960s. As one historian put it,
“The economic and programming trends within the TV industry climaxed at
the end of the 1950s, giving American television a relatively stable set of com
mercial structures and prime-time program form s.”2
