Bert Granet

Biography

New York-born television pioneer Bert Granet graduated with a B.A. from Yale University. He began in the film industry in 1934, and, a decade later, was working as writer-producer under contract at RKO (1944-48). He set up his own short-lived production company, Kaladore Corporation, under which banner he released just one feature film (a rather obscure item, entitled The Torch (1950), set in revolutionary Mexico, with an all-Mexican cast -- the single exception being star Paulette Goddard). In the mid-50's, Granet joined Desilu Productions to produce light, unpretentious entertainment like The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957) and the weekly anthology series Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958). Reputedly 'a hard-nosed realist', Granet's success in the medium stemmed from vowing audiences through signing top movie actors and acquiring scripts from well-established and respected writers. One of these turned out to be the genial Rod Serling -- introduced to Granet via a mutual friend, the director Robert Parrish. At considerable cost and having to overcome strong objections by the sponsor's ad agency, McCann-Erickson (who had script approval and hated 'ambiguous endings'), Granet purchased a story from CBS ("The Time Element"). This was aired with great success as an episode of 'Playhouse' and ultimately persuaded CBS to take on The Twilight Zone (1959), the show which -- according to Serling himself -- "no one wanted to buy". The rest is history. Granet later served as producer of 'Twilight Zone' during seasons four and five.