
Birthday: July 10, 1910
Death: November 15, 2002
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.

May 01, 1948

December 20, 1946

November 10, 1938

May 17, 1946

March 21, 1941

June 02, 1950

July 26, 1944

October 26, 1934

December 10, 1937

May 06, 1938

November 14, 1945

November 07, 1937

April 22, 1938

September 09, 1938

October 07, 1938

September 13, 1939

July 12, 1940

April 01, 1942

April 21, 1939

September 07, 1934

June 02, 1934

July 23, 1937

March 14, 1941

March 14, 1940

February 01, 1952

June 04, 1937

May 10, 1944

July 07, 1939

November 01, 1936

June 05, 1941

October 08, 1959

November 10, 1970

June 19, 1945

March 03, 1938

August 14, 1936

April 15, 1960

May 04, 1937

June 27, 1934