This week join us for a truly Steve-centric episode as Steve Voorhees welcomes longtime CBS Manager of Prime Time Feature Films, Steve Besserman to the program. If you love the nuts-and-bolts of late-20th Century network television practices as Steve Voorhees does, you’ll dig this episode. Learn about how the network chose, edited, scheduled, and promoted certain feature films to achieve the highest rating possible. Hear how certain directors would actually get involved with the edits needed for either timing or censorship reasons. Also, hear about the role “made-for-TV-movies” had on the presentation of feature films on TV.



On a more serious note, also hear about Besserman’s current documentary projects, including the film Only a Number about his own parents’ experiences as Holocaust survivors.



Steve Besserman with his father Joseph. (photo attribution: NJ.com)



Examples of CBS, NBC, and ABC’s Feature Film Presentation Intro Bumpers









A Collection of CBS Feature Film Promos from the 1970s and 1980s