NBC Mystery Movie - Background

Background

The origin of the "wheel" format was a joint programming and creative production agreement between the NBC Television Network and Universal Studios Television and Motion Pictures dating from 1966. By that agreement, NBC ordered a multi-year series of dramatic anthology productions from Universal which would be broadcast as NBC series television programming in the United States (both as originals and re-runs), while Universal retained the rights to overseas release of these products as feature length films. Also, NBC would not offer these shows subsequently as TV re-runs for international sales.

The first series created under this agreement was The Name of the Game, an anthology of four programs. It was followed by The Bold Ones and Four in One (the similar The Men was produced for ABC and involved series from three studios, although one of them was Universal). While it was a long and profitable collaboration, it finally succumbed to the changes of the commercial broadcast market regarding both structure and content by the end of the decade.

By the late 1970s, the increase in the popularity of situation comedies, coupled with their lower production costs and much greater scheduling flexibility and resale opportunities, surpassed that of these feature-length (90 - 120 minute) drama anthologies, whose episodes had typically longer run-times (ranging from one to two hours). The anthologies could not reasonably be reduced for briefer broadcast times for the re-run market. They were not designed for casual or short-term viewers, who would have little interest in the character or the story of an individual episode. Each episode and each series were of widely varying quality, making re-sale in re-runs difficult. While they lasted, the best of them employed the finest actors, writers and production standards available.