That's a very old photo of Fred Silverman, the superstar network programming exec who passed away today at the age of 82. It's a pic from when he was programming Saturday morning cartoons for CBS and I picked it for the following reason. Years later, when Fred was programming every single daypart for NBC, he told me that the Saturday morn position was the only time in his career he was truly happy.
I don't know how true that was but I do know that he was heavily involved in the creative end of the kids' shows he supervised back then…so much so that a lot of people credit him with creating characters like Space Ghost and Scooby Doo. That I know is not true. He put them on the air but didn't create them.
Fred's career included executive positions not only at CBS and NBC but at ABC, as well. He was probably the most famous programmer ever but as an associate of his once told me, "Fred probably gets way too much credit for the shows that were hits and way too much blame for the ones that were flops." I worked on some of those hits and flops but didn't have too much contact with Fred himself. Most of it was done through his underlings — nervous folks, all.
One time, a script I'd worked on had been handed in to one of Fred's Vice-President who had read it but also passed it on to The Man Himself. I asked the Veep what he thought of it and I am not joking and he was only half-joking when he gave me this reply: "I'll know what I think of it when Fred tells me what I think of it."
Fred liked that particular script which was a relief. I saw what happened when he didn't like a script. You might just as well forget about working for — or even watching — that network again. Still, I liked the guy.
Not that it will do you any good now but I'll tell you what I learned about the way to please Fred with a pilot script for Saturday morning. First off, at least the germ cell had to come from him. Either that, or he'd take your idea and turn it inside out so it became his idea. Secondly, put in everything. The more characters, the more dogs, the more gimmicks, the more villains, the better.
A Saturday morning cartoon pilot script should run 35 pages, 40 max. Unless you did one for Fred, in which case it could wind up running 70 or 80. One friend of mine did a script that ran 110 because there were so many characters and super-vehicles and dogs and gizmos and every one had to get some attention in the teleplay. My friend said it was a real good script until it came time to produce it and it had to be hacked down to 38. He said, "It was so terrible after that, I wish I'd put your name on it."
That was one reason some Silverman-bought shows weren't that wonderful on the air. Another was that he liked to mix and match. Often, Hanna-Barbera would have a half-dozen projects in development with Fred and he'd finally say, "Take this character out of this show and this character out of this other show and put them both in that other show along with the dog from that show we developed last season…" He sometimes thought that way when he programmed live-action for prime-time, too.
I only have one real Fred Silverman story. A friend of mine was working on a cartoon show for Fred that was marginal in the ratings. This was when Fred was running NBC. They'd done Season 1 and were waiting to find out if he was going to order a Season 2. My friend had been offered a definite job on a show on another network and he was trying to decide if he should grab the sure thing or wait in the hope that Fred would pick up the NBC show. He preferred staying with the NBC show but was worried it would be canceled and he'd wind up unemployed.
My friend wanted to know what I thought the chances were of Fred green-lighting Season 2. I said I didn't know but I had a meeting with Fred the next day about a project. "Maybe I'll pick up a clue for you," I told him.
The next day, I was in the meeting with Fred and several other folks. One of the several other folks mentioned the show my friend was worrying would be axed. Fred said — and this is a quote — "I can't wait to cancel that piece of shit."
That's a pretty definite declaration so I felt safe calling my friend that evening and telling him what Fred had said. Based on that, my friend signed on for the show on the other network, told the NBC show that he was leaving and thanked me profusely for helping him make a wise and informed decision. And two days later, Fred picked up the NBC show for a second season. Network TV is often like that but it was more often like that around Fred Silverman.