and thereby gaining more widespread support. (Six specials were originally planned, but only four were produced.) The nonprofit Telsun Foundation was formed to develop the programs, and Xerox agreed to contribute $4 million to underwrite the costs of production and air time, thus allowing the programs to be broadcast without commercial interruption. The film was the only television work ever done by Mankiewicz, who, according to Phil Hall, was happy to have work following the damage done to his reputation by Cleopatra the previous year. The actors involved with the production reportedly agreed to waive their fees due to the nature and perceived importance of the program. Peter Sellers, who at the time was reported to charge $750,000 or more, appeared for only $350, the Screen Actors Guild weekly minimum. Filming took place at the Michael Myerberg Studios located on Long Island, New York, during the fall of 1964. Henry Mancini wrote the theme music, also waiving his usual fee. It later appeared on his 1966 Christmas album A Merry Mancini Christmas. Peter Fonda's scenes as Grudge's late son Marley were cut from the film prior to release, leaving only brief glimpses of Fonda reflected in a glass door and sitting mute at a table. However, Fonda's image remains in the film in the form of a large portrait of Marley hanging prominently in Grudge's study where several scenes take place. Although advance publicity articles listed Richard Harris, Godfrey Cambridge and Christopher Plummer among the cast, none of these actors appear in the finished film. The main character was originally named Benjamin Grudge so that his name could be shortened to the pun "B. Grudge", but ABC viewed this as an insult to 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, whose initials were also B.G., and the character's name was changed to Daniel Grudge, while the broadcast was postponed until eight weeks after the election. Reception Following its original 1964 broadcast, reviews were mixed. While some critics thought the program's lecturing style was appropriate to get its message across to a mass TV audience, others found it preachy, long-winded or dull. Variety described the program as "generalized to the extreme" and ultimately "a disappointment". The Los Angeles Times similarly expressed "disappointment" with the "windy, tedious play", complaining that it was "more tract than drama" and saying the opening scene between Grudge and Fred "sounded like the North Hollywood High School debating