Only You, Dick Daring!; or how to write one television script and make $50,000,000; a true-life adventure

New York: William Sloane Associates. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1964. First Edition. Hardcover. [nice copy with no discernible shelfwear, just a slight shadow (from a removed label?) on the front pastedown, and a very pale stripe (remainder mark?) on the bottom edge of the text block; the jacket shows only the faintest traces of soiling, notable because it's printed on uncoated paper and its light color makes it very prone to wear and soiling]. In this book, one of the earliest "insider" exposés of the network television business, the writers of a TV pilot give a blow-by-blow-by-blow account of their involvement with an ultimately doomed project. (truncated) Called "Calhoun" (or, alternatively, "Calhoun: County Agent"), it was a proposed one-hour drama series about a county agent in New Mexico, and was developed under the auspices of United Artists Television (then headed up by the notorious James Aubrey, aka "The Smiling Cobra"). The stars were to be Jackie Cooper, the ex-child star whose career was then in its successful second stage as a TV sitcom headliner, and the always-formidable Barbara Stanwyck; Cooper was also involved as the producer. Amidst numerous travails of writing, re-writing, executive and network monkeying, etc., the pilot, directed by Stuart Rosenberg, was shot and finished and presented to CBS -- which rejected it, killing the proposed series in its cradle. Apparently never broadcast (at least that's what the Internet says), the pilot film does still exist, and can be seen on YouTube, if your curiosity is piqued. . (Inventory #: 28522)