Merchandising Mania

There's a scene in the Disney cartoon Hercules in which the hero is seen with an action toy depicting himself. A neat bit of art imitating life imitating art, you might think. But, the fact is, there is A LOT of money to be made from merchandising TV rights.

A Small Beginning

TV merchandising began as a minute adjunct to the real business of making TV programmes. Whether it was Davy Crockett's coonskin hats or Robin Hood's bow and arrow, by and large the toys were usually (a) already available under another name and the packaging was altered to take advantage of the TV connection, and (b) cheap.

A typical sixties TV production organisation's reaction to merchandising can be seen in the case of the BBC's Dr Who, in the 1960s. Dr. Who was one of the pioneer programmes of character merchandising. The BBC had never bothered much with merchandising until this point. Although BBC Enterprises (the state-owned broadcaster's commercial arm) had been set up, it existed only to sell BBC programmes to other broadcasters around the world. The BBC was quite happy to sub-contract New Zealand-born businessman Walter Tuckwell to sell merchandising based on its programmes.

When Dr. Who's producers introduced the Daleks, Walter Tuckwell recognised a sure-fire hit. According to the Dr. Who - The Handbook (Howe-Stammers-Walker, pub Penguin), however, he was told there was no point in marketing toys based on the now-famous monsters, because (a)the series itself had a limited lifespan, and (b)the Daleks would be finished off by the Doctor in six episodes, never to be seen again.

The BBC reckoned without the enormous groundswell of support for the Daleks; the contract for the series was lengthened for an extra year, the Daleks were brought back and the rest is history. Tuckwell signed a contract with 5% going to the BBC, 5% going to the writer who created the Daleks, Terry Nation, and 10% going to Terry Nation's agent. Britain went Dalek mad. It's significant that so little of the money went back to the creators. Ironically, the man who was most responsible for the way the Daleks looked, BBC staff designer Raymond P. Cusick, was paid nothing, despite the fact his design was now being seen in millions of children's' homes across the English-speaking world. He was later paid a small amount by the Corporation, which he regarded as 'derisory'.

It took several years before the BBC realised exactly how much money it was losing by allowing others to do their business for them.

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