Missing Links

[chris319]

Don't ask why, but I was watching the slow and plodding "Missing Links" on YouTube.

Imdb lists two directors and a writer for this show.

Do we know who the producer was?

YouTube says the clip I was watching was the pilot but I'm not so sure. I don't think they would roll actual commercials into a pilot.

[Dbacksfan12]

I can't personally attest to the reputability of the site, but the "Classic TV Archive" lists Ira Skutch as producer.

[Bryce L.]

EOTVGS 3rd Edition also lists Skutch as producer.

[chris319]

After Missing Links was cancelled, somebody gave Ira an inscription which he kept on his office wall: "PYHML", which it said stood for "Protect Your Health, Make Love".

Of course we know differently.

Imdb gives Mike Gargiulo as director, so he and Ira were paired for ML while working on Play Your Hunch.

Soon thereafter, Ira was directing He Said, She Said with Howard Felsher producing.

I'm guessing that when it moved to ABC it originated from the Ritz (Walter Kerr) theater, as did Beat the Clock, Number Please and later, TPIR in glorious black and white.

[thomas_meighan]

Here are tickets to the 7-21-1964 taping (at least two sessions, one starting around noon and the other around 3:45):
https://www.etsy.com/mx/listing/597048288/six-never-used-tickets-to-the-1964-tv

Origin (on this date, at least) was the Elysee Theatre. It started life in 1926 as the John Golden Theatre, then it was Cort's 58th Street Theatre, then the Concert Theatre. ABC leased it in 1949 for radio and 1952 for television, calling it "TV-15". It was eventually the home to "Pyramid" during its ABC and initial syndication years (1974-81). Demolished in 1985 or so.

List of productions while it was a Broadway theatre:
https://www.ibdb.com/theatre/elysee-theatre-1216

Details on history as an ABC facility (starting on page 38), along with information on ABC's other NYC operations:
https://eyesofageneration.com/studios-page/abc-studios-new-york/

Back to "Missing Links": Ira Skutch is credited as the producer on a 1964 ABC episode posted on YouTube. Director on this occasion was Alvin R. Mifelow. He was also associate director on G-T's three nighttime panel shows in the early 60s (per IMDB).

UCLA has another ABC "Missing Links", originally aired 12-24-1964 and not the same as what's posted on YT. Their database credits Ira Skutch as both producer and director.