Conflict is a 1956 to 1957 American ABC television series that was a successor to the earlier Warner Bros. Presents. Although Conflict assumed the same time slot as its predecessor, the two do not share the same format. Where Warner Bros. Presents had been a wheel series,[1] Conflict was fully an anthological series. However, since Cheyenne and Conflict alternated the Tuesday 7:30 P.M. time slot, the net effect was that of a proper wheel series—even though Cheyenne and Conflict were not under the same umbrella title.

Conflict
Karen Sharpe and Dennis Hopper in the April 30, 1957 episode "No Man's Road"
Genre	Anthology
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20
Production
Executive producer	William T. Orr
Producer	Roy Huggins
Running time	60 mins.
Production company	Warner Bros. Television
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	1.33 : 1 monochrome
Audio format	monaural
Original release	18 September 1956 (1956-09-18) – 3 September 1957 (1957-09-03)
Chronology
Preceded by	Warner Bros. Presents
Followed by	77 Sunset Strip Maverick

The name change was imposed upon its production company, Warner Bros., by ABC executives who believed that "conflict" was the missing element in Casablanca and Kings Row from Warner Bros. Presents.[2]

Man from 1997

Actor James Garner caught producer Roy Huggins' attention with a comedic performance as a gambler in the series' sixth episode, a time travel scenario entitled "Man from 1997", leading Huggins to cast Garner as the lead the following year in his television series Maverick, according to Huggins' Archive of American Television interview. In the episode, Charles Ruggles portrays an elderly time-traveling librarian from the future attempting to retrieve a 1997 almanac that he mistakenly left 41 years before it is supposed to exist. Garner portrays "Red," the brother of Maureen (Gloria Talbott); the show also stars Jacques Sernas as Johnny Vlakos. Huggins noted in his Archive of American Television interview that he subsequently cast Garner as the lead in Maverick due to his comedic facial expressions while playing scenes in "Man from 1997" that were not originally written to be comical, leading staffers in the screening room watching the rushes to unexpectedly laugh. Huggins had written the scenes himself.

Schedule

The series does not fit neatly into standard American television seasons, technically superseding Warner Bros. Presents after Casablanca concluded its run in April 1956[3] and apparently providing at least one week of new material at the beginning of the 1957 season, before Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins, replaced it. Hutchins was also cast in three episodes of Conflict, including his screen debut as Ed Masters in "The Magic Brew" (October 16, 1956).

External links

• Roy Huggins' Archive of American Television Interview
• Conflict at IMDb
• Conflict at CVTA with episode list

References