Martin Manulis: Requiem for a TV heavyweight

Sure, there are probably rights issues, tech-quality issues, music clearance hurdles, etc. but somehow smart people have to put their heads together to find a way to get these priceless bits of mid-20th century American art back into circulation. I'm thinking it starts with the good folks at CBS. Come to think of it, CBS Corp.'s pay cabler Showtime just launched the Smithsonian Channel -- here's a worthy restoration/reclamation project for the keeper of the national scrapbook.

There are a handful of "Playhouse 90" clips on YouTube, but only a handful. Here's a meaty one from "The Velvet Alley," a Serling-penned 1959 tale of a budding TV writer trying a little too hard to make the Hollywood scene. (Rod is never better than when writing about Hollywood scribes and their frustrations.) It features Art Carney and Katharine Bard, who was married to Manulis for 44 years.

As Daily Variety noted frequently back in the day, "Playhouse 90" was never a big ratings hit, but it was always a prestige play. It added luster to the Tiffany network and made William S. Paley proud (though Serling and others would famously have issues with how far CBS was willing to go, prestige or no.)

When Serling accepted the award for best single program of the year for "Heavyweight" -- which ran as "Playhouse's" second episode in October 1956 -- he humbly and rhetorically asked "How much do you pay for the invaluable services of a producer like Marty Manulis?" (Don't take my word for it. Click here for an audio clip of Serling's acceptance speech.)

In the 1995 "American Masters" seg "Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval," Manulis recalled the rush of the night when "Heavyweight" first aired. (Thanks to RodSerling.com for the handy quote.)

"Even these many years later, I feel everything that I felt then about the night of the performance ... We sat in the control room and for ninety minutes, it just held. The excitement was unbelievable. Rod Serling's work was so electric to begin with, and it just was a triumph.

"I was about to run out to the floor when they called me back. Mr. Paley was on the phone. It was the first time we'd heard from him after a show. "And he said, 'Tell everyone, especially Rod Serling, that tonight we put television about ten years ahead.'"

Paley was right. Surely, with all the vid-distribbing options at our disposal some 50 years later, we can find a way to celebrate the legacy of a show that moved the medium past selling soap -- one night, one script, one perf at a time.