Talent Associates
Talent Associates, Ltd. (also known as Talent Associates-Paramount, Ltd. and Talent Associates-Norton Simon, Inc.), was a production company headed by David Susskind, later joined by Daniel Melnick, Leonard Stern and Ron Gilbert.
Origins
In the years after World War II, Susskind was a talent agent for Century Artists, ultimately ending up in the powerhouse Music Corporation of America's fairly newly minted television program department, managing Dinah Shore, Jerry Lewis, and others. He then went to New York and formed Talent Associates, representing creators of material rather than performers. Susskind converted Talent Associates into a packaging company for new programs in 1952.
Golden Age television
Talent Associates produced some of the classic series of the Golden Age of Television, such as the Wally Cox comedy Mister Peepers, the anthology teleplay series
The Goodyear Television Playhouse/The Philco Television Playhouse and Armstrong Circle Theatre. In 1953-54, Talent Associates produced Jamie starring a young Brandon deWilde, fresh off his success in George Stevens' Shane (1953), for ABC. De Wilde together with veteran character actor Ernest Truex, told the story of aging Grandpa McHummer striking a bond with young Jamie, his recently orphaned grandson.