William Self

Producer/ Network Executive

"Fox was not structured. We were much more casual about things. It didn’t matter that your job was a casting director, if you had a story idea, you'd come in and see me. The table of organization was very flexible. I think that’s kind of all gone."

About This Interview

William “Bill” Self (1921-2010) was interviewed for three hours in Los Angeles, CA. Mr. Self started off discussing his early acting career in movies and friendship with Spencer Tracy that led to his extensive television producing career. He talked about his producing the series Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, The Frank Sinatra Show and the pilot of The Twlight Zone. He then discussed his brief executive position at CBS and his executive producer position at 20th Century Fox Television. Self talked about his promotions at Fox to the eventual positions of President of 20th Century Fox Television and Vice President of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation where he oversaw such shows as The Adventures of Dobie Gillis, Batman, Daniel Boone, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Peyton Place, Lost in Space, M*A*S*H, Julia and Room 222, among others. He ended the interview discussing his relationships with various producers and directors and his partnership with actress Glenn Close on the Sarah Plain and Tall movies. The interview was conducted by Jeff Abraham on March 27, 2001.

Highlights

Chapters

Shows

Batman
- Executive William Self on the development of Batman (04m 59s)
Bracken’s World
- Executive William Self on the creation and development of Bracken's World
Daniel Boone
- William Self on how Daniel Boone, with Fess Parker, came about
Lost in Space
- Executive William Self on how Lost In Space almost didn't make it on the air (02m 57s)
M*A*S*H
- William Self on how M*A*S*H came about, getting it on the air
Peyton Place
- Executive William Self on the development of Peyton Place (03m 21s)
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars aka Celebrity Playhouse
- William Self on the live television show "Schlitz Playhouse"
Twilight Zone, The
- William Self on working on the pilot of The Twilight Zone and how that came about

People

Gene Reynolds
- William Self on the talents of director Gene Reynolds, and working with him on M*A*S*H

Submitted by MR1227 on Sat, 2011-01-29 16:59.

Bill Self thought that "Land of the Giants" was the least successful of the Iriwn Allen series, but he forgot all about "The Time Tunnel" that only ran one year! Never did he mention two Fox series that bombed while on their initial runs, but became cult classics when they went into syndication: "The Green Hornet" and "The Time Tunnel". Both were originally aired on ABC as part of their Friday night lineup in the fall 1966 schedule. It was a 'death sentence' for both series.

Submitted by MR1227 on Fri, 2010-10-01 19:12.

Interesting in that Self's name is off the credits for the second season of "Land of the Giants". This indicates to me that Irwin was on the 'outs' with Fox at that time (meaning that IA was no longer under contract with Fox after 1968/69.).

Submitted by eotto2001 on Wed, 2010-07-21 22:24.

He talks down his successes. He produced some fine movies that weren't theatrical, but as good as they get.

Submitted by eotto2001 on Wed, 2010-07-21 04:19.

You could write a script about the Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin show.

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