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Henson's Muppets Get Weekly Show

Henson's Muppets Get Weekly Show

By Paul Henniger, LA Times, September 4, 1976

Each year the networks, film studios and independent producers take part in a competitive game show of their own called 'Let's Make a Pilot.'

There are no flashing lights, bells, grinning host or screaming audience. But the stakes are high. Each entrant gambles that a $150,000 and upwards investment will win the series jackpot worth millions.

Among them is one participant that gets a sizable share of series winnings without having to enter a pilot film. It's ITC, the Independent Television Corp. When ITC gets a series on TV it's because a station or network of stations buys a ready-made package of 24 half- or full-hour filmed adventures.

Should you be unfamiliar with the initials ITC, then you've never watched the closing credits of such series as The Saint, Secret Agent, The Prisoner, UFO, Department S and many more of those popular syndicated adventures from England. ITC is the distributing company of ATV (Avco Embassy Pictures), the parent producing company under the direction of Sir Lew Grade.

Abe Mandell is president of ITC and its most ardent huckster. He'd just come off a profitable sales-promotion tour. If you were to cast his role in a movie about the phenomenal growth of ITC in 20 years, you couldn't pick anyone other than Mandell to portray himself. The aura of a successful big-business man surrounds him.

Bronzed from pool-sitting at the swank Beverly Hills Hotel, Mandell, a short, heavy-set, graying, fast-talking man, spread out his sales brochures, rating charts and publicity packets of his film merchandise like a sideshow barker readying his midway stand for the afternoon business.

Colorful poster displays banner the second season of Space 1999, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and introducing Catherine Schell, playing a new character, Maya. Maya is a sensuous brunette of the universe who will make all those slinky, scantily clad mission control gals in the UFO series look like beauty contest losers.

Maya has molecular transformation powers, mind you, which means don't mess around with her when it comes to computing scientific analysis of alien data.

Season two of Space 1999 is being produced at $300,000 per hour-long episode. It has exposure in every key TV market in the United States, reaching the majority of all TV homes via a network Mandell set up alone, following the lead of Lawrence Welk and Hee Haw when the three networks turned down those series. On the foreign market scene, Space 1999 is now in 73 countries, Mandell proudly announces.

But the series Mandell expects will even top Space 1999 (he calls it "Wagon Train in space,' having the same built-in long-run stability of the old NBC western) is The Muppet Show.

Creator Jim Henson's zany collection of hand-operated puppet characters have enchanted all ages for some 20 years. Outlandishly garbed, the Muppets have paraded on Sesame Street, numerous specials of their own and with stars like Julie Andrews, Perry Como, Flip Wilson, Dick Cavett and on NBC's Saturday Night live series.

Mandell breaks into a most satisfying grin when he reports that the Muppets are already booked into 87 of the top 100 markets, including the five CBS-owned stations, without showing anybody a pilot. ITC's track record and Henson's established talents were all the sales pitch Mandell needed.

Kermit D. Frog is host of the Muppets series and will have guests Paul Williams, Lena Horne, Jim Nabors, Ruth Buzzi and Connie Stevens, among others, assisting him in shows that are a blend of Laugh-In, 'Hellsapoppin ,' the old Ernie Kovacs series and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Jack Burns, of Burns and Schrieber comedy fame, is the producer and is co-writing the series with Henson, Jerry Juhl and Marc London.

Henson made a pilot for ABC a couple of seasons ago that the network, at the time, thought might be too hip for family audiences. CBS also had the Muppets waiting in the wings as a possible replacement series, but nothing developed. Henson's hopes for a network exposure were at low ebb. It was also the right time for him to meet Mandell.

'I'd been following him around for six months,' says Mandell, sorting out more Muppets sales pamphlets. 'And I made the deal with him in 24 hours.

'With the Muppets we have the perfect concept for an all-family show. It's my biggest break in 31 years.'

The Muppets will wind up in what is considered the choice prime access time period of 7:30 p.m.-8 p.m. on many network affiliate stations, plus independent stations.

Another prospect regarding the Muppets future that has Mandell fairly drooling is fringe merchandising. He foresees a similar line of toys, games and allied novel ties for the Muppets, the same byproducts that came out of Space 1999's debut and which now total more than 200 items representing a million-dollar business.

ITC is in a unique position in the television business. If a series doesn't work on U.S. TV, it simply ships the series abroad where ITC has shows airing in more than 60 percent of the world IV market.

ITC is not infallible. Despite some top talent on both sides of the camera, Julie Andrews' ABC series of variety shows sank from sight during the 1970-71 season ('They gave her a bad time slot,' argues Mandell, accusing network shortsightedness). Shirley MacLaine's adventure series on ABC - she played a news service photographer - also failed ('They ran all my old movies," says Shirley, complaining about the quality of the series).

But with series like Space 1999 and now The Muppet show, Mandell figures he can't miss. 'There's a ready-made audience out there waiting for science-fiction adventures, thanks to Star Trek,' he maintains. 'Disney is timeless. It's like a cross-plug for Jim Henson's Muppets every time a Disney cartoon comes on TV.'

Eighteen months ago, ITC changed its thrust to major motion pictures, a move than coincided with the step-up in the networks' producing their own movies for TV. So the networks took interest when ITC announced a $55 million investment in movie making for the 1976-77 season.

And they're buying: NBC purchased 'The Life of Jesus,' six one-hour episodes starring Laurence Olivier, Peter O'Toole and Rod Steiger; ABC bought "Roots of the Mafia,' one-hour dramatic specials starring Joseph Cotton and Rod Steiger, and 'The life and Times of William Shakespeare,' 12 one-hour dramas; NBC also has 'Peter Pan,' starring Mia Farrow and Danny Kaye; CBS invested in 'The Royal Victorians,' six two-hour specials with John Gielgud, and NBC bought 'The Man in the Iron Mask,' starring Richard Chamberlain.

And there are 17 other film projects on ITC's drawing board. Is ITC through with old favorites like The Saint, content to just go on collecting residuals from around-the-world TV showings?

'You've just got an exclusive,' Mandell smiled. 'We did 146 of those shows and now we're planning to do a series about the Saint's son. No, Roger Moore won't play the role, although he looks young and slim enough to get away with it. We've got a young, more virile actor for the part, Ian Ogilvy. The series will be ready for the 1977-78 season.'

And, of course, no pilot will be necessary to sell it.