Revolving Door

TV's revolving door was spinning dizzily. Out went:

Dick Powell, who, after running Four Star Playhouse in partnership with David Niven, Charles Boyer and Ida Lupino, was dropped by CBS in favor of a CBS-owned program, Playhouse 90. Cried Powell: "I think the network is getting to be monopolistic."

Jack Barry, who was fired as M.C. of NBC's $100,000 giveaway, The Big Surprise. He was indignant about the way he was fired, "by a formal note sent in the mail, a cold, old piece of paper."

Johnny Carson, who lost out to The Arthur Murray Show.

Appointment with Adventure, replaced by another CBS giveaway, The $64,000 Challenge, a sort of post-graduate program starring winners from The $64,000 Question.

Meet Millie, a CBS situation comedy, making way for tearful and tuneful Guy Lombardo's Diamond Jubilee.

Milton Berle, who notified NBC that he was bowing out of his regular program next season, but agreed "to make himself available" for not more than four special one-hour shows.

Playwrights '56, which lost both its sponsor (Pontiac) and its network (NBC) for next season after its unsuccessful rating battle with CBS's The $64,000 Question.

Only Playwright-Actor-Producer Noel Coward managed to give the door a backspin. After two shows (Together with Music, Blithe Spirit), Sponsor Ford Motor Co. decided Coward was "too sophisticated" and vetoed his third show, a version of his 1943 play Present Laughter, scheduled for May. Said Coward amiably: "If they don't like it, I'll do another for them. After all, I've written 26 plays and it shouldn't take long to whip out a new one." Mollified, Ford settled for a TV interpretation of Coward's superpatriotic This Happy Breed.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.