New York-born television pioneer Bert Granet graduated with a B.A. from Yale University. He began in the film industry in 1934, and, a decade later, was working as writer-producer under contract at RKO (1944-48). He set up his own short-lived production company, Kaladore Corporation, under which banner he released just one feature film (a rather obscure item, entitled The Torch (1950),set in revolutionary Mexico, with an all-Mexican cast -- the single exception being star Paulette Goddard). In the mid-50's, Granet joined Desilu Productions to produce light, unpretentious entertainment like The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957) and the weekly anthology series Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958). Reputedly 'a hard-nosed realist', Granet's success in the medium stemmed from vowing audiences through signing top movie actors and acquiring scripts from well-established and respected writers. One of these turned out to be the genial Rod Serling -- introduced to Granet via a mutual friend, the director Robert Parrish. At considerable cost and having to overcome strong objections by the sponsor's ad agency, McCann-Erickson (who had script approval and hated 'ambiguous endings'),Granet purchased a story from CBS ("The Time Element"). This was aired with great success as an episode of 'Playhouse' and ultimately persuaded CBS to take on The Twilight Zone (1959),the show which -- according to Serling himself -- "no one wanted to buy". The rest is history. Granet later served as producer of 'Twilight Zone' during seasons four and five.
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Bert Granet
Deceased · Born: Jul 10, 1910 · Died: Nov 15, 2002