The files for Public Affairs Programming are rather limited, consisting entirely of the production files of Larry Pickard. Additional information can be found in the files of Edwin R. Bayley as Vice President for Administration, since he was Public Affairs Editor (a position roughly equivalent to Director of Public Affairs Programming) at the same time as he held the office of Vice President. At the writing of this register, we have no files for Bayley's successor as Public Affairs Editor, Don Dixon.

Larry Pickard's files consist of those generated by himself and William Weston, his predecessor as executive producer of the main series documented by the files--Of People and Politics; and those people who worked with Weston and Pickard in the four production units devoted to creating the twenty-one programs of the series.

The small amount of non-Of People and Politics material that is present in the Pickard files is entirely in box one, concerns several other programs Pickard produced or otherwise worked on and includes a folder of program ideas submitted by a Vincent Dempsey, and a folder of documents generated by Weston.

Also in box one is Pickard's general correspondence. Arranged chronologically, it contains in addition to letters--expense statements, memos and reports of various types. Most of the problems involved in producing the series in general are touched on with very little information on the problems of specific programs. Included are inquiries from potential staff, and the chief correspondents were Weston and William H. Kobin, Vice President for Programming.

In addition to correspondence, the remainder of the files contain scripts, script outlines, NET financial forms such as expenditure request forms, series and program budgets, interview transcripts, liability relaeases signed by interviewees and other actor-type participants in the series, lists and schedules concerning such topics as film shot, stock footage available and used, taping dates, guests and consultants, technical and informational content evaluations, and research materials ranging from clippings and notes to the formal studies of Operations and Policy Research Inc., a California based firm.

Following the general correspondence and the other programs which are arranged in rough alphabetical order are the materials related to Of People and Politics, arranged according to production order insofar as practical. In general this order consists of budget, pre-program planning, personnel, research, writing, interviewing, releases, editing and stock footage, and scripts. Retained with each script in this arrangement is the research material, clearly designated as having been gathered specifically for that program.

Also included are any notes, memos or other correspondence that seemed more appropriately filed with the script rather than in the general correspondence file, but, on the whole, there is very little of the latter filed with the scripts. When duplicate copies of a script existed, we retained one copy plus any annotated pages from the duplicates.

All of the Operations and Policy Research studies have been filed together in boxes two through four, rather than trying to place them with the script for which they were prepared. On many, it is very difficult to determine which program they were most directly related to; also some were undoubtedly used for the series as a whole or for more than one program.

This file documents the complete formation of a television series. One can see the formation of the program idea, the research, the script writing, the contacts for interviews, the selection of filming locality, the contacts for equipment, the arrangements with local people, the signing of releases, the technical arrangements and the one hundred and one little things that are necessary to complete the series and see it on the air. This file, along with Rabin's file for History of the Negro People is one of the most complete we have.

However, there are gaps. True, there is more here than elsewhere. But when one considers that we are dealing with twenty-one major programs, there is pathetically little in spots. Much material was undoubtedly squirreled away by individuals. There is an uneven quality to the various programs, where one program may have several script revisions and another may have only one script. The underlying theme ever present here as in other series, as thoughout, is the lack of money; the need for frugality and thrift.

For information on the necessity for by inability to establish an NET Film Library, see a memo, Pickard to Kobin, September 21, 1964.

For additional information on Of People and Politics, see William Kobin's file, Series 8A and the Program Evaluations in Series 8C.