Soap in Your Eye?

The one thing television is not doing is standing still. Last week, speaking to a meeting of advertising men, NBC’s President Niles Trammell gave TV a generally good report card. He had a couple of surprises and one mildly alarming prophecy. Items:

¶I In the last 90 days, NBC has more than doubled its TV network sponsors. ¶ Sports have dropped, in the last year, from 53% to only 27% of the schedule on three of New York’s major stations. Big-league baseball, once thought to be TV’s top draw, now rates a poor second to variety shows competing at the same hour. ¶ Films are being used more & more, but lookers seem to like them less & less. Films now rank after variety, sport and audience-participation shows. But movies may eventually prove a hit if they are made especially for TV.*

Trammell had some ideas for programs of the future. These include the small musical revue (such as the Fred Allen radio show), weekly dramatic serials, and —he added ominously—”the five-time-a week continued story [which] should be effective and relatively economical . . . [because] the characters could be used with very little change in scenery.”

*Still a risky venture because of high labor costs, according to one film producer who has turned out 26 two-reel shorts costing $10,000 apiece, which he cannot peddle to TV for $8,500.