Jan. 24, 1964 - Old movies may turn up next season as new weekly television series just as old plays became radio serials. ABC-TV has pilot films based on “Peyton Place,” “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” and “Twelve O’Clock High.” NBC-TV has “Grand Hotel,” a version of the Barrymore-Garbo classic moved from Berlin to San Francisco. And “Tarzan” is being considered by CBS-TV. Pilot films are samples of what a series will be like, and now it’s pilot time again. T.V. executives are in the annual midwinter scramble of picking, buying, and selling new shows. The networks have listed at least 32 pilots for the 1964-65 season. Fewer than half will receive serious sponsor attention, one-fourth may waver on the home screen for a few weeks, and six or seven may become popular. A pilot for a half-hour show costs from $80,000 to $100,000. Hour-length pilots may cost more than $200,000 — about the price of producing a low-budget movie or putting on a Broadway play. Mort Werner, vice president of programs at NBC-TV, said today: “It’s experimental money, and some of it goes down the drain. But it’s the only way you can try anything out.”
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