Television, Legitimate Theatre Scripts and Jokes

TV scripts, legitimate theatre scripts and published jokes by Berton. Folders #1 through #20 are TV script fragments and outlines. Most of these appear to be script ideas and outlines that Berton was trying to market but which were not for the most part produced or even developed beyond the outline stage. They are organized alphabetically by title. Some, such as Big Brother and How Big is Your Family? apparently were produced as segments of early television series. One outline, The Hip Ambassador, was intended as the basis of a musical spectacular to feature Duke Ellington.

Folders #21 through #29 are fragments, outlines and manuscripts of legitimate theatre scripts, none of which were developed or produced. It should be noted that Berton frequently revisited the same theme in virtually every conceivable format. For example he covered the same material regarding Bix Beiderbecke as a factual essay, a short story, a full length biography, a radio play, a stage play, a film script and a TV script. Likewise with Big BrotherThe Ad, below which he developed as a full length novel but also conceived as a television series. The theme of The Ad is the adventures of someone who places a personal ad in the Village Voice, based on the true accounts of one of Berton's former mates. When Berton submitted various treatments of The Ad to editors and TV producers, it was variously criticized as "dated" and "unrealistic," this despite the fact that it was based on true life accounts. Given the recent success of a series like Sex in the City, this may have been an instance where Berton was two decades ahead of his time in terms of thematic material.

Box #14, Folder #30 contains published jokes by Berton.