The Jerry McNeely Papers are organized into two parts: Part 1, the Original Collection, and Part 2, the 1980 Additions. Both parts document his careers as a professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin and as a television writer and producer. There is considerable chronological overlap between the two parts of McNeely's papers.
Part 1, Original Collection, 1953-1975
Part 1 of the Jerry McNeely Papers is arranged in thirteen subseries, generally as McNeely had maintained them.
The PERSONAL PAPERS include files on his academic awards, correspondence, publicity and biographical data, and information on his finances. The correspondence, 1954-1974, reveals much about his work as an academic involved in student and faculty affairs; and as a dramatist involved in writing and titling scripts for production, commuting to California for consultations, and reviewing other authors' scripts. There is also some fan mail. Other correspondence includes thank you notes, Christmas cards, invitations to speak before and to join clubs, requests from individuals for money, commissions for articles, and post cards from vacationing friends. This series also contains bank statements, royalty summaries, and correspondence and statements regarding residuals which show how his income increased with his fame as a television dramatist.
The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE relates mainly to his work in television in California, 1956-1974, and indicates the manner in which he attempted to maintain creative control over his scripts as they were being revised and produced, and how social and business considerations influence each other. Correspondents include Stanley Chase, Doug Benton, Dick Bassman, Jerry Bock, Daniele Amfitheatrof, John Simon, Norman Felton, and McNeely's agent Flora Roberts, as well as staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN RECORDS, 1958-1973, are arranged in an alphabetical subject file. McNeely was involved in the preparation of several for summer school sessions, for a television education program, and for the Graduate School. He also worked on curriculum development for a number of radio and television courses in the Speech Department and its successor, the Communication Arts Department. In 1965 he handled the University of Wisconsin's participation in the General Electric College Bowl on television. Included are Executive Committee materials, various Department of Communication Arts files, and University bulletins.
The PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES FILES relate to ASCAP, 1964-1969, and to the Writers Guild, 1955-1972. They are comprised of correspondence, contracts, financial records, biographical and general information on the membership, publicity, published materials, and miscellany.
The TELEVISION MATERIALS form the bulk of the collection, about 52 boxes. The papers are arranged alphabetically by series or special title. The types of documents include correspondence, series' proposals, story outlines, scripts and revisions, certificates of authorship, production information, publicity, contracts, and notes. Included are materials on his work for a wide variety of series and specials from “The Staring Match” for Studio One in 1957 to Three for the Road in 1975. The most extensively documented series is Lucas Tanner, for which there is the pilot script and a script for nearly every episode, 1973-1975, which reveal how he envisioned this series he created and how he attempted to maintain artistic control. The episodes of this series are arranged by production number. There is also a large amount of material for all phases of production for the series Owen Marshall: Counsellor at Law and Dr. Kildare; these episodes are arranged chronologically by season and thereunder alphabetically by episode title.
The MOTION PICTURE scripts, treatments, outlines, and notes concern three titles and are arranged alphabetically by title; they were not produced.
The bulk of the THEATER materials, 1958-1969 and undated, document McNeely's fourteen months of work on a Broadway play, Plato's Republic, that was not produced. Boxes 56-58 contain numerous script revisions as well as research materials and notes. There is also a small amount of material on ten other plays. One of these, A Modern Carol, was written for production by McNeely's church in Madison, the Covenant Presbyterian Church. The arrangement is alphabetical by title.
McNeely's OTHER WRITINGS AND SPEECHES, 1956-1961 and undated, include drafts of articles, one on critic Brooks Atkinson on the occasion of his retirement, and two on writing for television; as well as drafts of an unpublished novel, two short stories, and a speech.
Documenting his writing for and direction of UW THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS on campus and in the Madison area are scripts, correspondence, notes, cast lists, rehearsal schedules, and other material on twelve productions, 1955-1971. They run the gamut from Sophocles' Antigone through musicals like West Side Story and Camelot to Strindberg's The Father. Arrangement is alphabetical by title.
The MATERIAL SUBMITTED BY OTHER AUTHORS to McNeely for review includes a story outline, scripts, a series presentation, two novels, and miscellany as well as a folder, 1966, of writer/director information regarding the television series Star Trek. Arrangement is alphabetical by title.
McNeely's work as a lyricist is revealed by a number of songs in the MUSIC subseries; a director's score for Wait and See, produced at Southeast Missouri State College in 1952; and an overture for the same show produced by the University of Wisconsin Haresfoot Club in 1954. The conductor's score for “The Staring Match” in box 66 can be used with the material on the original teleplay in boxes 50 and 52.
Finally is material on the COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH in Madison, 1961-1967. Present is correspondence, lectures, financial records, and other papers.
Part 2, 1980 Additions, 1953-1979
Part 2 of the McNeely collection parallels the original papers in
documenting both his academic career at the University of Wisconsin and
his artistic work as a television writer and producer. The university materials pertain primarily to McNeely's responsibilities as a college speech professor during the years 1955-1969, while the television materials, though they span the years 1962-1978, are essentially the record of his work after 1975 when he left the university to devote full time to writing and producing television programming for MTM Enterprises in California. The Additions generally follow McNeely's arrangement and that of the series in the original collection, except that one new series has been added (Television Scripts by Other Authors).
PERSONAL PAPERS, 1953-1978, includes biographical information, personal correspondence from friends and colleagues (1956-1978), and notes (1953-1954) McNeely took while a student in speech courses and while preparing for his Ph.D. preliminary examinations.
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, 1957-1970, is arranged chronologically and pertains chiefly to McNeely's role at the University of Wisconsin as a member of the speech faculty and as an adviser to present and former students seeking letters of recommendation or other assistance. McNeely's distinction between the correspondence in this series and the previous one is not clear cut, since both contain letters to and from students, colleagues at the University of Wisconsin and other universities, and associates in the television scriptwriting field.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN RECORDS, 1956-1970, arranged alphabetically by subject, document courses McNeely taught, duties as a faculty member in the Radio-Television-Film Division of the Speech Department and as a member of the Copyright Revision Committee, and McNeely's coaching of the successful University of Wisconsin “College Bowl” team in 1965. Several restricted files contain information on individual students.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN THEATER/TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS, 1957-1966, arranged alphabetically by title, contain the scripts, staging, casting, rehearsal schedules, and correspondence for university stage and television (WHA-TV) productions directed or written by McNeely.
MATERIALS SUBMITTED BY OTHER AUTHORS, 1961-1975, arranged alphabetically by title, includes scripts, story outlines, and musical scores given to McNeely for his review and consideration.
TELEVISION SCRIPTS BY OTHER AUTHORS, 1963-1969, a series not represented in the original collection, contain scripts for such television series as Bonanza and Ironsides, shows in which McNeely was not directly involved as a producer or writer. Arrangement is alphabetical by series title. Specific authors are identified in the contents list below.
TELEVISION MATERIALS, 1962-1979, the largest series in the Additions, contains notes, story outlines, scripts, budgets, production and promotion records, and correspondence for television programming written or produced by McNeely. A variety of formats are represented from unproduced series to drama specials, mini-series, and regular network series. The most complete records are for Three for the Road, a series created and produced for MTM Enterprises by McNeely, “Something for Joey,” a drama based on the life of John Cappalletti and his brother Joey's struggle with leukemia, and “Five-Finger Discount,” a McNeely script used by Scholastic magazine in a special reading program for high school students. Arrangement is alphabetical by series title and thereunder by episode.
The AUDIO RECORDINGS which are part of the McNeely Additions are primarily episodes from such television series as Dr. Kildare, Eleventh Hour, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Marcus Welby.
