Talk:Temple Houston (TV series)

Restructure

Have broken the article up into definite sections to encourage orderly development CzechOut 23:21, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Pilot --> series recasting

While it is true to say that some of the cast were unavailable for the pilot, as far as I can tell "some" actually means "one": James Coburn. The rest of the recast was the result of NBC's reconceptualizing. Will come back to this when more definite citation can be found. CzechOut 23:21, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Warner Brothers collection at USC

This is a great resource, but is apparently available by appointment only. This would obviously imply it's practically available only to those in the Southern California area. If you do have access to this, it would seem to me that there would be plenty more interesting things that could be added to the article than those that have been thus far cited. Might you have time to take another peek at the documents and help fill in even more of the blanks about this series? I would think it would be helpful, as well, if you could more precisely cite the references. I don't know how, exactly, the collection is organized, but it must be catalogued in a more detailed way: perhaps by date of the document? Some studio primary sources I've seen from studios in the past—like memoranda—seem to have some kind of coding going on at the bottom to help catalogue the document internally. Don't know if that's the case with this particular set, though. CzechOut 23:21, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

When I visited the Warner Bros. Archives at USC, I went through literally every document in the Temple Houston production and legal files. None had document numbers, and I no longer have a record of which document came from what folder in which box. I'd like to say I found some unusual items, but there weren't many; it was a factory-style production, gotten out as fast as they could make it by a company that was long used to making television westerns. The memo about keeping on the good side of Temple Houston's children was one of the few interesting documents. The rest is trivia: color footage was shot for the title scenes in case the series went to color; daily shooting records show that Jeffrey Hunter was habitually on time; budget restraints sometimes required that location scenes be rewritten so they could be filmed on the backlot; Hunter's contract stipulated that he would not have to do endorsements for toiletries; the contract between NBC and WB Television provided that the episode times may be increased to 90 minutes at the network's option (other TV westerns The Virginian, Cimarron Strip, and Wagon Train had 90-minute seasons); the contract also provided that WB Television would own the copyright to the series, but NBC would own all theatrical and television distribution rights in perpetuity, as well as the master film elements. I'm scraping for anything else of interest. I do have copies of some of the episode screenplays, including revision sheets; but does Wikipedia really want an analysis of the process of writing and editing a Temple Houston script? Probably not. It is interesting, at least to me, to note that some of the episode directors (Abner Biberman, William Conrad, Robert D. Webb, Gerd Oswald) had previously directed Hunter in feature movies; and that Hunter later married the wife (Emily McLaughlin) of guest star Robert Lansing. I should add that I called Lions Gate Entertainment today. They said they do not distribute Temple Houston. Now if only NBC would reply to my inquiry of who does distribute it. — Walloon 00:53, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow, I'm jealous. I'd love to have access to that collection, trivial though it might be. I wonder, did your research indicate anything about why both Orr and Webb are credited as exec producers on the project? i always thought Webb took over Orr's job. The "handover" period's confusing to me. Hell, the whole reason Orr left is seemingly shrouded in mystery. You don't know anything about it, do you? CzechOut 02:26, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

The machinations behind personnel changes were frustratingly absent in the records I saw. Either the executives were discreet enough not to discuss key personnel problems on paper, or the record exists at a higher corporate level than the project level (which was what I was looking at). Orr's WB contract (which I didn't see) might have guaranteed him screen credit, regardless. — Walloon 02:50, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

That's a genuine bummer. I can't for the life of me figure out why Orr left. And it's buggin' me. CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 01:14, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Ratings as cause for cancellation

The problem with this statement, as I see it, is that the article from which it's drawn does not suggest it was the direct cause of cancellation. It suggests that the low ratings mid-season prompted NBC to order a format change, but then goes on to say that the program's successor, Davy Crockett, struggled in its first year just as Houston did. So it doesn't seem to necessarily follow that the ratings—which were cited as 31st in December—were necessarily all that bad. Yes, the article calls that "an abyssmal 31st place", but that's hyperbole. Mission Impossible never made it to the top 30 and ran for seven years. Star Trek was never anywhere close to 31st in its first season and got renewed. Maybe we should revisit language to suggest what the ratings were mid-season, but to call those ratings the proximate cause of the show's failure flies in the face of evidence of many other shows of the 60s that survived where this one failed. CzechOut 23:21, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Heh, I really read that wrong. It's not that it was 31st of all programs, but 31st of the 32 new programs. Yeah, ratings sucked. Put back in the article. CzechOut 00:54, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

1965 Annual

I have a copy of the 1965 Temple Houston Annual, and it's an Australian publication. In fact, every copy of I have seen for sale is an Australian book, not British. So, how would the existence of this Australian publication prove that Temple Houston was shown on British television? — Walloon 04:28, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

How's it Australian if it's published in Manchester? Besides, the date's wrong. I can't find evidence of the show being broadcast in Australia in the 1960s, much less as early as 1964. CzechOut ^{talk | work} 04:05, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Production companies

"The series proper was somewhat complicated in another way. Including Warner Brothers, the project had four different production companies attached to it." Not really. In practical terms, only two production companies were involved: Warner Bros. Television and Jeffrey Hunter's company Apollo Productions. The rest was only accounting and legal paperwork. It didn't "complicate" production, and it was a typical arrangement. Look at other television series from the 1960s, like The Andy Griffith Show, and you'll typically see at least two companies listed for production — often the star's or producer's company, and the studio itself — and a third company down in the copyright notice that existed only on paper to mediate the interests of the first two. — Walloon 00:11, 27 October 2007 (UTC)