Startime (American TV series)

Startime is an anthology show of drama, comedy, and variety, and was one of the first American television shows broadcast in color. The program was aired Tuesday nights in the United States on the NBC network in the 1959–60 season.

Summary
The show was known as either Ford Startime—TV's Finest Hour or Lincoln–Mercury Startime, depending on which division of the Ford Motor Company was presenting commercials within that show. The contents varied from week to week – dramas, musical comedies, and variety shows were all presented.

The show was always broadcast on Tuesday nights. Initially, from the premiere through the end of 1959, the show was broadcast 9:30–10:30 PM (EST) - but, starting on January 5, 1960, the show was broadcast 8:30–9:30 PM (EST). Furthermore, some of the shows first broadcast in 1959 were ninety minutes long, continuing to 11 PM.

Dean Martin hosted two variety episodes within this series and later began his own variety show. Mitch Miller had "Sing Along with Mitch" on May 24, 1960, which led to his own show of the same name beginning in 1961.

The February 23, 1960, episode, "Talent Scouts", was an adaptation of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, which had been broadcast on CBS.

Production
Hubbell Robinson was the show's producer.

The Music Corporation of America (MCA), under Lew Wasserman, was the "packager" of the series, providing stars who would not ordinarily appear on American television, such as Alec Guinness and Rex Harrison at reduced rates, in exchange for an overall packaging fee for the entire series paid to MCA. Wasserman was also the agent for Alfred Hitchcock, who directed one Startime episode, "Incident at a Corner" (aired April 5, 1960).

For example, Ingrid Bergman, who at that time commanded a salary of $750,000 per film, and who had never appeared in a dramatic role on American television, was paid $100,000 for her role in Startime's presentation of The Turn of the Screw. Though MCA only received $10,000 (10% of Bergman's salary) as commission, the company also received, as packager, 10% of the entire production schedule of the entire Startime season (which was $7.24 million). In other words, MCA received $724,000 solely for providing to Startime the services of stars such as Bergman, in addition to the commissions for each individual star.

NBC had to pay a royalty fee to CBS in order to present the "Talent Scouts" episode.

Ford ended the series on May 31, 1960, rather than continuing through the originally planned June 28, 1960, ending. The network said it was cutting four episodes "... so that Ford can go into an extensive summer schedule." The New York Times reported that essentially the reallocation of advertising money enabled Ford to purchase one-third sponsorship of Laramie and Riverboat, both of which were on NBC. The Times' article said, "Judging from the general reaction of viewers, 'Startime' failed to live up to the billing ('TV's Finest Hour') assigned to it by N. B. C. and the sponsor." The article also noted that Robinson was no longer actively involved with Startime.

The initial competition for Startime included The Red Skelton Show on CBS. Although NBC executives thought that Startime's budget and stars might draw more viewers than Skelton's show, the comedian commented that the ratings indicated otherwise, with his show in the top 10, while Startime was "down around 100". Startime was moved to an hour earlier time slot in January 1960, but it was no more successful.

Nominations and awards
Alec Guinness, playing the lead role in The Wicked Scheme of Jebal Deeks, received a nomination in the Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor category in the 12th Primetime Emmy Awards. He lost to Laurence Olivier in The Moon and Sixpence.

Critical response
A review of the episode "The Man" in The New York Times said that Audie Murphy "never seemed menacing or calculating" in the role of an "unbalanced young man" and that Thelma Ritter was "quite wasted" in her widow's role. Critic Jack Gould described the TV adaptation as "especially flat and thin."

Canadian version
From October 6, 1959 through June 28, 1960, Ford of Canada broadcast, in the Tuesday 9–11 PM timeslot, on the CBC network in Canada, a show also called Ford Startime, presenting many of the same shows as the American version, alternating with Canadian-produced shows, including adaptions of Arthur Miller's The Crucible (starring Leslie Nielsen), Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and James Thurber's The Thirteen Clocks.