William T. Orr

Orr took his stepfather's last name in childhood, and adopted the middle initial 'T' in honour of the maiden name of his mother, Gladys Turney. During World War II he was an officer in the Army Air Force. He was assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit.[1]

As the first head of Warner Bros. Television department, Orr forged a fruitful alliance with ABC, which resulted in the network having a number of prime time hits, such as Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and F Troop. At the height of this relationship in the early 1960s, Orr had nine programs in prime time simultaneously.[2]

Of these, though, no program was more significant than one of his earliest, Cheyenne. It was a groundbreaking series that was both the first hour-long western and the first series of any kind made by a major Hollywood film studio consisting entirely of content wholly exclusive to television.

A curator at The Paley Center for Media (previously named The Museum of Television and Radio) once encapsulated Orr's importance to Warner Bros. by saying, "Television began as a step-child. But because of Orr, it became equal with film in creating revenue and jobs for the studio."[3] One of the key reforms he made to effect this change was to move Warner's nascent television department from cramped quarters in New York City to Los Angeles studios separate from the film division.[4]

His impact on the genre of western fiction was recognized with a Golden Boot Award upon the announcement of his death.

Despite broadly positive posthumous recognition for his work as a whole, Orr did receive negative press during the height of his career -- as well as afterwards -- for his business practices. Time Magazine characterized Orr and Jack Warner as co-architects of unfair contracts during late-1950s pay disputes waged by Warner Bros. star television actors Clint Walker, James Garner, and Edd Byrnes.[5] Orr's series were also noted for the cost-saving practice of recycling scripts from one series to another, switching only character names; during a writers' strike, such repurposed scripts were credited to "W. Hermanos".[6]

Orr's star dimmed by 1963, as almost all of his series had run their course and had been cancelled. In 1963, towards the end of the 5th season, Jack Webb replaced Orr as executive producer of ABC's 77 Sunset Strip detective series. For the 6th season, Webb completely changed the theme song and format and retained only Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., in the role of Stuart Bailey. The revision was a disaster, and the program was cancelled even prior to the end of the sixth season.

Orr was hired by Frank Sinatra's Essex Productions, and continued as a television producer through 1966, including a stint as the executive producer of the first season of F Troop. After 1966, his only production credit was on the 1973 film Wicked, Wicked.

Orr married Jack L. Warner's stepdaughter Joy Page in 1945. The couple divorced in 1970. Their son Gregory Orr is a writer and producer.

Upon his death in 2002, Orr was interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.[7]

In 1994, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[8]

An elementary school and street in Norwalk, California, are named for him.

A middle school in Las Vegas is named for him.

• William T. Orr at IMDb
• Classic TV Archive listing of Orr's western and comedy series with Warner Brothers
• Roy Huggins touches on Bill Orr in Archive of American Television interview
• James Garner touches on Bill Orr in Archive of American Television interview