From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia William T Orr September 27 1917 December 25 2002 was an American television producer associated with a series of western and detective programs of the 1950s1970s On most of his Warner Bros series he was billed as Wm T Orr Orr began his career as an actor his film credits include The Mortal Storm The Gay Sisters and The Big Street As the first head of Warner Bros Television department Orr forged a fruitful alliance with ABC which resulted in the network having a number of prime time hits such as Maverick 77 Sunset Strip and F Troop At the height of this relationship in the early 1960s Orr had nine programs in prime time simultaneously Of these no program was more significant than one of his earliest Cheyenne It was a groundbreaking series that was both the first hourlong western and the first series of any kind made by a major Hollywood film studio consisting entirely of content wholly exclusive to television A curator at The Paley Center for Media previously named The Museum of Television and Radio once encapsulated Orrs importance to Warner Bros by saying Television began as a stepchild But because of Orr it became equal with film in creating revenue and jobs for the studio One of the key reforms he made to effect this change was to move Warners nascent television department from cramped quarters in New York City to Los Angeles studios separate from the film division His impact on the genre of western fiction was recognized with a Golden Boot Award upon the announcement of his death
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