I Didn’t Know That Either

In a post yesterday, I mentioned my fondness for the old movies-of-the-week. Today on his Facebook page, Ed Robertson, host of the boob tube-nostalgia radio program, TV Confidential, points me toward a piece in The New York Times about efforts to reinvigorate that format, but he adds this note:

A point of clarification, though: While the article interviews Barry Diller, and credits him for coming up with the concept of the Movie of the Week, the idea actually originated with Roy Huggins--a fact corroborated by founding ABC president Leonard Goldenson in his memoir, Beating the Odds [1991].

Huggins, of course, was the novelist, screenwriter, and producer who created such memorable TV series as The Rockford Files, City of Angels, 77 Sunset Strip, and The Fugitive.