Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [503]
Subsequently, Bill Self brought a more substantial proposal, the idea of building an entire series around a character Tracy would play. “I was now president of Fox Television,” he said,
and I ran into Cukor on the lot, who was doing something. He said, “Bill, have you seen Spence and Kate lately?” I said, “No, I haven’t. It’s my fault. I’ve been busy.” He said, “You know, he’s very fond of you and he knows how well you’ve done. He watches some of your shows. You really ought to give him a call.” I said, “Well, I certainly will.” So, remembering some of my past experiences, I called Kate. And I said, “You know, I’d love to come see Spencer, but I never know where I stand with Spence. I’m cautious to call him up.” “Oh,” she says, “call him up. He’d really love to see you.” I said, “What do you think he’d say if I offered him a job?” She laughed. And she said, “Go ahead.”
So, anyway, I went up to see them … and he couldn’t have been nicer. And she couldn’t have been nicer. We reminisced and told some stories, and I said, “Spence, I’m going to suggest something to you and I hope you’re not offended.” He said, “Go ahead.” I said, “Well, I have a series I’m planning called Bracken’s World. It takes place on a movie lot, we have our own police department, our own fire department, our own schools, chorus kids and all that kind of stuff. Bracken is the lead, and if you would consider it, I could structure every script so that your scenes were very confined.” I knew he wasn’t well. “Most of the time, when you see Bracken, you see him in his office. People come to him. Or if you want to vary it a little bit, you come to a projection room. But it’s not a series where you’d have to do a lot of physical things. And you play the head of the studio.” He said, “Well, that’s kind of appealing. What are you going to pay me?” I said, “Spence, I’m not going to discuss with you what I’m going to pay you. I know you’re with the William Morris Agency and Abe Lastfogel.” He said, “No, no. Come on Bill, we’ve known each other a long time. What are you going to pay me?”
So I said, “Well, I didn’t come here prepared to discuss business with you. I have no idea.” “Well,” he said, “you must have some idea.” I said, “Well. I know what television in general can afford to pay. I will ad-lib to you a formula, in that I will pay you $10,000 a day for every day you work, with a minimum of maybe two days a week that you get paid no matter what. If you work three days, you get $30,000. If you work two days you get $20,000. I just know that we can afford that; whether it’s fair or not, I don’t know.” So he says, “Well, that doesn’t sound too bad.” He looked at Kate and said, “What do you think?” and she said that didn’t sound too bad. So, anyway, we had that conversation. He said, “I’ll let you know. Let me think about it.” Kate walked me to the door, and she said, “Bill, Spence needs it, but I want to warn you—he may not be up to it. We’re praying that he can get through the new picture.” She said, “I wouldn’t count on it.”
Anyway, I took all this information back to NBC, and Herb Schlosser, who was head of West Coast at that time, said, “What’s he look like?” I said, “I beg your pardon? What do you mean? What’s he look like? He looks like Spencer Tracy.” He said, “Well, is he too old?” I said, “You got to be kidding. This is the biggest Academy Award winner that would ever be on your network. You ought to thank your stars that he’s even considering it.” And he said, “I’d like to meet him.” I said, “Well, let me see what I can do.” So I called Spence and said, “Herb Schlosser,