Customer Reviews

Screen Gems

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I purchased this book recently for my birthday, and it is fully entitled "Screen Gems: A History of Columbia Pictures Television from Cohn to Coke, 1948-1983," by Jeb H. Perry. The book was written in 1991, and is Mr. Perry's second tome on a major film/TV studio; his first was on Universal, and was published in 1983.

I ran through it for the first time earlier, and in that first runthrough, I must say that I am very impressed w/the detail that Mr. Perry gave to the subject, from corporate history (which includes some of the logos that Screen Gems/CPT had in that timeframe) to the various series that SG/CPT made over the period covered in the book (and there were a lot of them), either on their own or with other people ("other people" meaning vanity cards and other collaborators, generally). There are also sections on TV movies (some that were pilots for the series that followed them), known in this book as "telefeatures"; other pilots that were apparently unsold; and specials. The book ends with a chronology in list form of the series that SG/CPT made, a list of Emmy nominees and winners on those series, and an index of major stars and co-stars and production personnel (producers, EPs, film editors, etc.).

In total, with all sections taken together, the book runs for an impressive (in my view) 371 pages (last I counted), and is very stylishly bound in hardcover.

One minor nitpick with regard to the corporate history section: Mr. Perry states that CPT began in 1974 (which is correct) with a logo "representing the glow from The Lady's torch." The nitpick is that the Sunburst/Abstract Torch (a name for it that I share with other TV logo fans) did not begin until 1976, and therefore Mr. Perry left out the real first logo of CPT, the "Pretzel." This is a very minor nitpick, and one that did not impede my enjoyment of the book (and should not impede yours should you purchase it, as I'm very heartily recommending and hoping that you will do).

This book provides the most accurate and interesting history of the original television studio that brought the industry to life and for nearly four and a half decades brought us our favorite classic sitcoms. They defined the television industry as being the first Hollywood studio-owned company to produce television programs. It may be outdated, but it is an excellent look at this ancient television studio!