Talk:General Electric Theater

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Reagan[edit]

Reagan — then not just the talent agency’s client but boss Lew Wasserman’s first million-dollar client — misused his power as head of the Screen Actors Guild. Back in 1952, the Hollywood scandal swirling around him was his granting of a SAG blanket waiver to MCA, which allowed it both to represent and employ talent for its burgeoning TV franchises. This is as clear a case of wanton conflict of interest. He went from host and program supervisor of General Electric Theater to actually producing and claiming an equity stake in the TV show itself. Before the windfall, Ronald Reagan had been working Las Vegas as song-and-dance act's master of ceremonies. Dennis McDougal, author of the unauthorized Wasserman biography The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, McA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood commented that “He and his board engineered it, thus giving MCA carte blanche control over US television for the next six years.” It appears he first utilized his failing memory trick as he failed to recall his role in the waiver when he was hauled before US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s grand jury in 1962.” It was In 1945 that Wasserman brokered Ronald Reagan's unprecedented seven-year, $1 million deal with Warner Brothers.

The Incredible Jewel Robbery[edit]

GE's The Incredible Jewel Robbery (March 8th 1959) was the last film appearance together of the Marx Brothers although only Chico and Harpo are billed. Groucho appears unbilled as he was contraced to a rival network at the time (with You Bet Your Life). MBG 119.11.19.129 (talk) 04:03, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The quote is not from Reagan's "Time for choosing" speech[edit]

The long quote concerning the TVA is definitely not from this famous speech. I couldn't find the actual source, but reading the transcript or watching the video footage (available from the source link or the Reagan Library website) will verify this fact. It's true that the "Time for choosing" speech did catapult his political career and that it certainly did contain government criticism. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.6.122.112 (talk) 04:20, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Number of Episodes[edit]

The sidebar lists the program as having had 302 episodes, but the main text of the article lists 209 and 208 as the numbers in two different places. IMDB here:

seems to support the two hundred episodes estimate. As does the two citations listed in the article write up. So how many were there? Do we know if it was more, but maybe only some 200 survive, or was it only 208 or 208? If anyone knows for sure, please update the article accordingly. David Reiss (talk) 05:06, 12 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]