Michael Dann was one of the most successful programming executives in U.S. network television during the 1950s and 1960s. He was known as a “master scheduler” and spent his most successful years at the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) working in tandem with CBS President James Aubrey. He began his television career shortly after World War II as a comedy writer and in 1948 joined the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), where he stayed for the next ten years. Initially hired to work in publicity, he soon moved to the programming department and eventually served as head of NBC Entertainment under David Sarnoff. In 1958, he moved to CBS as vice president of programming and in 1966 was appointed senior vice president of programs. During most of his tenure, CBS consistently ranked as the number one network in the prime-time audience ratings.

Dann held the head programming position at CBS longer than anyone else (from 1963 to 1970), serving under five different CBS presidents. His success was attributable, in part, to an uncanny ability to gauge CBS owner William Paley’s probable reaction to most program ideas. Dann was often referred to as “the weathervane” for changing his opinions to match those of his bosses. Despite his reputation, Dann was not one to avoid controversy. Arthur Godfrey, a long-time audience favorite at CBS, had two prime-time programs ranked in the top ten; during the 1950s, he did not get along with Dann and left CBS as a result. (The fact that Godfrey disappeared from public view suggests that Dann was probably correct in his assessment that Godfrey was “over the hill.”)

Dann was also able to restore and establish good long-lasting relationships with talent producers and advertisers — an area in which CBS had suffered. He felt that viewers preferred escapist television to realist television and thought that the half-hour situation comedy was the staple of any prime-time schedule. he also believed the network should renew any program with ratings high enough to produce a profit.

Another development during Dann’s regime was a significant increase in the number of specials aired. While the staple of prime-time programming was, and remains, the weekly series, Dann believed that liberal use of special programming at strategic times would only enhance the network’s ratings. One could argue that he was the innovator of what has come to be called “event television.”

In 1966, he recognized that television (and CBS in particular) faced a major crisis — the networks were running out of first-run theatrical movies. As a result, CBS bought the old Republic Pictures lot, turned it into the CBS Studio Center, and went into feature film production. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and NBC soon followed suit.

Among the many successful programs introduced under Dann’s leadership were The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Hawaii Five-0, and 60 Minutes. These program development and programming skills were put to the test in one particular instance. For years CBS had trouble competing in the very important 9:00-10:00 slot on Sunday evenings despite a very strong lead-in program (The Ed Sullivan Show). NBC had Bonanza, the highly successful series, in that time period, and CBS had failed with its previous counterprogramming attempts (The Judy Garland Show, The Garry Moore Show, Perry Mason). Dann chose a new series for this slot, a series he believed would attract a younger audience, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The move proved quite successful. The Smothers Brothers’ show became a hit, though not without its share of controversy. The most notable conflict arose over a 1967 episode involving folk singer Pete Seeger, who was scheduled to sing his antiwar song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” Dann wanted Seeger to delete one stanza of the song. When Seeger and the Smothers refused, Dann had the song deleted from the telecast. In February 1968, Seeger was again scheduled to appear. This time the song aired in its entirety.

Dann’s conservative attitudes towards social and cultural standards appeared again when CBS decided to air The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Dann had the producers make one change —Mary could not be a divorced woman. He felt that premise too controversial and forced James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to rewrite the characters as a woman who had recently broken off a long-term engagement.

Dann’s power at CBS began to wane in the late 1960s, as did the ratings of some of the shows he had developed and scheduled. His new boss, Robert Wood, wanted innovation, not sameness. Dann was forced out when he opposed cancellation of hit “rural” series: The Red Skelton Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Hee Haw. These shows were replaced by series such as All in the Family, which were deemed more socially relevant and, perhaps more important, more appealing to a younger age-group whose greater spending power attracted advertisers. The public explanation for Dann’s departure was the ever-available and undefined “health reasons.” His successor was his portégé, Fred Silverman, who would go on to head the programming departments of all three networks.