Inspired by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's venture with Desilu Productions, the company was launched by Dick Powell who longed to produce and direct. He saw television as more of an open market for his ambitions than motion-pictures. Originally the concept began on radio with Four Star Playhouse on NBC in the summer of 1949, then ventured to television with the weekly anthology of the same name. While today many of us are familiar with the weekly dramas of The Detectives, The Rogues, The Law and Mr. Jones, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective, he called in favors and offered partial investments from Joan Fontaine and his wife, June Allyson, who of course starred in the The June Allyson Show.
Powell and company was shrewd enough to produce tons of pilots, including Bulldog Drummond, Claudia, The Stubby Kaye Show (a.k.a. Full Speed Ahead), The Judy Canova Show, The Searchers, The Bette Davis Show (a.k.a. The Decorator), Michael Shayne, The Dean Jones Show (a.k.a. Alec Tate), Ensign O'Toole, The Lloyd Bridges Show, The King and Me and many others. Never wasting budget when pilots were unable to sell, or to exhibition the pilots to a large number of potential sponsors at the same time, Four Star aired those pilots on many of the anthology programs.
The Zane Grey Theater, for example, aired a number of "back door pilots" that ultimately sold to sponsors and became weekly programs of their own. Trackdown, The Rifleman, Black Saddle, Johnny Ringo, Law of the Plainsman, The Westerner, and Stagecoach West were a few that spun off from a one-shot episode on Zane Grey. (Many fans know Steve McQueen's Wanted: Dead or Alive spun off from an episode on Trackdown, and Honey West spun off from an episode of Burke's Law.)
On the Four Star Playhouse anthology, Dick Powell played the role of Willie Dante, owner of a nightclub who found himself caught up in trouble -- usually from shady characters from his past. Powell played the role in more than one episode, but eventually a weekly half-hour series came of those potential pilots. Dante lasted a mere 26 episodes, starring Howard Duff in the lead, and became one of my favorites. People rave about The Rogues but I always recommend Dante for those seeking crime dramas of the 1950s and 1960s that are both obscure and entertaining.
Frank Lovejoy starred in a wonderfully-written radio program, Night Beat, which aired for two years on radio. (Highly recommended, by the way.) Four Star Productions was responsible for a pilot that never sold, adapted from one of the radio scripts. A darn shame but thankfully a similar program came about with Frank Lovejoy on television... Meet McGraw.
Thankfully, Richard Irvin wrote a fantastic book documenting the history of Four Star Productions, available from Bear Manor Media Publishing. Not only did he cover the formation of the company in exquisite detail, but he documented each and every one of the television programs and details regarding many of those unsold pilots. A few years ago I was going through some trade columns in Hollywood Reporter circa 1961 when I came across a news blurb that Four Star Productions had completed a pilot for The Adventures of Sam Spade, starring Peter Falk in the lead. Sincerely, that has been my "Holy Grail" of television pilots that I really, really want to see. Alas, it has not aired on television nor has it become a bonus extra for any commercial DVD release. Yes, Richard Irvin referenced that pilot. That should demonstrate how thorough the book is. Highly recommended.
Link enclosed for direct purchase.
