CIA on CBS
In 1967 former CIA director Allen Dulles wrote to a senior executive suggesting the idea for a television program on the CIA similar to the FBI tv show.
"For sometime," Dulles wrote, "I have felt that something should be done in the field of television with regards to intelligence which would be somewhat comparable to what the FBI is now doing so effectively in that field."
"I feel there is now in the public domain," Dulles went on, "as the result of a series of publications, books, articles, and newspaper reports relating to various phases of intelligence which could furnish the background material which might be used without a former sponsor."
Then former CIA officer David Atlee Phillips and Dallas broadcast millionaire Gordon McLendon, founders of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). attempted to initiate the production of such a show with CBS.
On the advice of AFIO, CBS executive producer Larry Thompson and President Gerald Ford's former joke writer Don Penny developed a pilot program on the CIA, Thompson was quoted as saying "Ideally, we'd like to show that the people in the CIA are Americans citizens with families and a job to do."
One possible real-life script is how Allen Dulles, Gerald Ford, David Phillips and Gordon McLendon all became entwined in the events surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy.
In 1967 former CIA director Allen Dulles wrote to a senior executive suggesting the idea for a television program on the CIA similar to the FBI tv show.
"For sometime," Dulles wrote, "I have felt that something should be done in the field of television with regards to intelligence which would be somewhat comparable to what the FBI is now doing so effectively in that field."
"I feel there is now in the public domain," Dulles went on, "as the result of a series of publications, books, articles, and newspaper reports relating to various phases of intelligence which could furnish the background material which might be used without a former sponsor."
Then former CIA officer David Atlee Phillips and Dallas broadcast millionaire Gordon McLendon, founders of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). attempted to initiate the production of such a show with CBS.
On the advice of AFIO, CBS executive producer Larry Thompson and President Gerald Ford's former joke writer Don Penny developed a pilot program on the CIA, Thompson was quoted as saying "Ideally, we'd like to show that the people in the CIA are Americans citizens with families and a job to do."
One possible real-life script is how Allen Dulles, Gerald Ford, David Phillips and Gordon McLendon all became entwined in the events surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy.
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