"Sunday Showcase" What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 2 (1959)

Director:

Delbert Mann

Writers:

Budd Schulberg (writer)
Stuart Schulberg (writer)

TV Series:

"Sunday Showcase" (1959)

Original Air Date:

4 October 1959 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | Music | Romance

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Anthology

Cast

Sidney Blackmer	...	H.L. Harrington
Larry Blyden	...	Sammy Glick
Norman Fell	...	Sammy's Brother
John Forsythe	...	Al Manheim
Jay Lawrence	...	Sheik Romero
Horace McMahon	...	Mike Crowley (as Horace MacMahon)
Dina Merrill	...	Laurette Harrington
Nelson Olmsted	...	Ben Osborne
David Opatoshu	...	Sidney Fineman
William Post Jr.	...	Lucky Westover
Barbara Rush	...	Kit Sargent
Milton Selzer	...	Julian Blumberg
Monique van Vooren	...	Zizi Molnari
Earl Wilson	...	Earl Wilson

Directed by
Delbert Mann

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Budd Schulberg		writer
Stuart Schulberg		writer

Produced by
Robert Alan Aurthur	....	producer

Casting by
Edith Hamlin

Directed by
Sidney Lumet		(episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The")
Delbert Mann		(episode "What Makes Sammy Run")
Dick McDonough		(episode "Jimmy Durante Show: Give My Regards to Broadway, The")

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Reginald Rose		(episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The")
Budd Schulberg		(episode "What Makes Sammy Run")
Stuart Schulberg		(episode "What Makes Sammy Run")

Produced by
Robert Alan Aurthur	....	executive producer (episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The") (episode "The Sacco-Vanzetti Story")
Robert Alan Aurthur	....	producer (episode "What Makes Sammy Run")
Alex March	....	producer (episode "Sacco-Vanzetti Story, The")

Production Design by
Ted Cooper

Production Management
Claude Traverse	....	unit manager

Sound Department
Norman Ogg	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Phil Hyms	....	lighting technician

Other crew
Richard Auerbach	....	stage manager
Arnold Dick	....	video
Robert Hopkins	....	associate director

Distributors

• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1959) (USA) (TV)
• Koch Vision (2009) (USA) (DVD)

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Trivia:

Around 1956, Eddie Fisher and his agent Lew Wasserman were discussing roles for Fisher's acting debut. A project being discussed at the time was "What Makes Sammy Run?" by Budd Schulberg and Stuart Schulberg. Fisher wanted to play aggressive producer Sammy Glick, "the ultimate Jewish hustler. I knew a lot of real Sammy Glicks and I felt confident that was a character I could play." Lew Wasserman decided that the character was too much of a classic negative Jewish stereotype and that it would be bad for Fisher to play it. So Fisher went in the complete opposite direction (in retrospect, perhaps too far) with then-wife Debbie Reynolds in the squeaky clean comedy that Fisher hated, Bundle of Joy (1956), a film made to capitalize on the birth of their daughter, future Star Wars (1977) "Princess Leia" Carrie Fisher. The Schulberg project "What Makes Sammy Run?" was eventually produced in 2 parts for this show, episodes #1.2 and #1.3.

Part 2 of the TV adaptation of "What Makes Sammy Run?" was even better than the first

After watching and reviewing the first part of the TV adaptation of Budd Schulberg's "What Makes Sammy Run?" (which he collaborated with his brother Stuart on the teleplay), I immediately viewed the second hour part on the DVD. In this part that aired the following week, Sammy Glick (Larry Blyden) has had a successful run of hit movies of which some credit goes to one of his writers-and former dating partner-Kit Sargent (Barbara Bush). One of those other writers, however, a one Al Manheim (John Forsythe), who was also one of Glick's former New York paper colleagues, decides to get back to his former grounds at the Big Apple as he reluctantly says goodbye to Kit as he's fallen for her. It's only when Glick needs someone to write a newspaper picture that he manages to get Manheim back...This second part was even better than the first as producer/directer Delbert Mann hits on all cylinders as he pushes the drama forward. Besides the three leads I mentioned, there were also very compelling performances by Sidney Blackmer as studio head H. L. Harrington, Dina Merill as his daughter Laurette, David Opatoshu as head of production Sidney Fineman, and, in a nice surprise from his later better-known role of Mr. Roper on "Three's Company", Norman Fell as Seymour Glick, Sammy's closer-to-his-roots brother. Fell, especially, is very effective in his role. So on that note, these episodes of the anthology series "Sunday Showcase" were a nice surprise discovery when I checked these out from my local library. They're well worth seeing.